Materialism Out of Control

Materialism Out of Control

I've long been upset about the manner in which materialism has become dominant in America. It isn't any great surprise, really, when you think about it. Marxism and its dishonest progressive variants have long insisted that only material goods matter--that anything of a deeper spiritual significance is simply a delusion.

There's nothing wrong with wanting some of the nice material items of life, but the entire "Black Friday" shopping idiocy has long bothered me. Some of the stores here in Boise were opening at 4:00 AM or 5:00 AM this morning--which means that employees had to be getting up at 3:00 AM or 4:00 AM to get to work. And on the morning after one of the few holidays of the year that hasn't been completely corrupted by materialism? This is repulsive. I won't shop on Black Friday, not just because of the materialism that it represents, but because if you shop at stores that demand their employees get up at this ridiculous hour, you are telling the stores that this is acceptable behavior.

And now we have this tragedy which should cause a lot of Americans to think long and hard about how important "bargains" really are. From the November 28, 2008 Newsday:

Bargain-hungry shoppers stepped on a fallen Wal-Mart worker, who died Friday morning, after the crowd knocked down the store's front doors -- and the worker -- during the "utter chaos" of a Black Friday shopping melee, Nassau County police said.

"A throng of shoppers . . . physically broke down the doors" at around 5 a.m. Friday and knocked the 34-year-old part-time worker to the ground as the crowd pushed its way into the store at the Green Acres Mall, Nassau police said.

"This crowd was out of control," said Nassau Police Det. Lt. Michael Fleming, who is investigating the death. He characterized the melee as "utter chaos."

Fleming said an estimated 2,000 people had gathered in line around 5 a.m. as the store was preparing to open. Asked at a news conference whether the store had enough security given the crowds that Black Friday shopping typically attracts, Fleming said no. Four shoppers had minor injuries, police said.

People in the rear of the line began pushing, cascading the people in the front into the doors, which were knocked off their hinges, Fleming said.

Hundreds of shoppers who then streamed in literally stepped on the worker who later died, Fleming said.

Fleming said the worker, who has not been publicly identified, was a temporary worker sent by an employment agency. Fleming said criminal charges were possible in the case, though he said it would be nearly impossible to identify individual shoppers.

But, he said, authorities were reviewing surveillance video.

Another police officer told Newsday the prelude to the death at the Green Acres Mall was "a mob scene."

Shoppers who surged past the fallen Wal-Mart worker into the store were asked to leave by other store workers, some of them crying and visibly upset, said one shopper, Kimberly Cribbs, of Far Rockaway.

Though rumors circulated among the shoppers that someone had been badly injured, people ignored the Wal-Mart workers' requests that they stop shopping, move to the front of the store and exit, Cribbs said.

"They kept shopping. It's not right. They're savages," Cribbs said.

Doors knocked off their hinges? Someone trampled to death? Clearly, the economy isn't bad enough yet to restrain these savages.