(x-posted at IndieFaith)
Did we know it would only be a matter of time? Were we aware that possible escalation had no real check? Did the legion of reality TV shows, sporting events, and corporate ladders instill in us an instinct for conquering? There can be only one! This weekend CNN announced the ‘hero of the year’. There could be no community of heroes, no spirit and discipline of heroism. There could be only the 1 million dollar hero. But yesterday the weight of this culture crushed Jdimytai Damour. The 5am sales blitz at Wal-Mart corralled desperate shoppers for over 24hrs building to over 2000 until the first crack in the dam opened at which time they flooded through the gates and poured over and killed the temp employee Damour who was brought in for the holiday season.
Lord have mercy. Lord have justice.
Yesterday was also Buy Nothing Day.
I am standing on the sidelines looking for a response.
I have no problem with a little gift giving. But holy shit, our consumerism has just gone too, too far.
You hear about this every year. Stores open at 6 am. 5 am. 4 am. Each year earlier. Each year mobs of people grabbing at shit that won’t matter next year. Nothing satisfies our stuff-lust (I coined the term. A nickle everytime you use it.). Santa Claus, or Saint Nick, Saint of Children, is now a secular gift giving elf, a sort of god of consumerism which we celebrate every 25th of December. And it all makes sense, really. Americans exist to buy things, our entire culture has become the existence of garnering items. It makes sense our agnostic nation has replaced its previous God and It’s birthday with a new god. Just like in the old days, Farmers worshipped gods of the sun and rain. Sailors, gods of the sea. Merchants, gods of the roads.
In America, where our trades are not as important as the shit we acquire, our god is the god of merchandise. He comes annually to eat our cookies and leave electronics. Let us pray.
It’s clear that consumerism taps into something much deeper in the human psyche/soul than the requisite desire associated with any series of alluring objects. Maybe it’s the need for hope. People need to believe in something that will come in the future that will make their lives full & complete – the illusion of hope for sale, at low price.
Nothing that will come in the future can fulfill. There is no future. There’s only what we have, and what we are, right now.