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TechnoratiOur Destructive Love of Stuff
I like stuff as much as the next guy. My closet is stuffed with stuff, my shelves groan with stuff, boxes full of stuff jam my garage. I like stuff just fine.
But I would not kill for it.
Last week, a 34-year-old man was trampled to death by a mob rushing into a Wal-Mart to buy stuff. Jdimytai Damour was a seasonal worker manning the door of a store in Valley Stream, N.Y., as shoppers eager for so-called ''Black Friday'' bargains massed outside. The store was scheduled to open at 5 a.m., but that was not early enough for the 2,000 would-be shoppers. At five minutes before the hour, they were banging their fists and pressing their weight against the glass doors, which bowed and then broke in a shower of glass. The mob stormed in.
Four people, including a pregnant woman, were injured. And Damour was killed as people stomped over him, looking for good prices on DVDs, winter coats and PlayStations. Nor was the mob sobered by his death. As authorities sought to clear the store, some defiantly kept shopping; others complained that they had been on line since the night before.
And here, it seems appropriate to observe the obvious irony: Black Friday is the traditional beginning of the Christmas shopping season, Christmas being the holiday when, Christians believe, hope was born into the world in the form of a baby who became a man who preached a gospel of service to, and compassion for, our fellow human beings.
It is hard to see evidence of either in the mob's treatment of Jdimytai Damour, and if your inclination is to heap scorn upon them, I don't blame you. But I would caution against regarding them as freaks or aberrations whose callous madness would never be seen in sane and normal people like ourselves. That would be false comfort.
You may think I'm talking about mob psychology and to a degree, I am. From soccer riots to the Holocaust itself, human beings have always had a tendency to lose individual identity and accountability when gathered in groups. You will do things as part of a crowd that you never would as an individual. Theoretically, anyone who lacked a strong-enough moral center and sense of self could have been part of that mob in Valley Stream.
But it's not just our common vulnerability to mob psychology that ties the rest of us to last week's tragedy. It is also our common love of stuff. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a starker illustration of our true priorities. Oh, we pay lip service to other things. We say children are a priority, but when did people ever press against the door for Parents' Night at school? We say education is a priority, but when did people ever bang against the windows of the library? We say faith is a priority, but when did people ever surge into a temple of worship as eagerly as they do a temple of commerce?
No, sale prices on iPods, that's our true priority. Jdimytai Damour died because too many of us have bought, heart and soul, into the great lie of American consumerism: acquiring stuff will make you whole. ''You, Happier,'' is how a sign at my local Best Buy puts it. As if owning a Jonas Brothers CD, an Iron Man DVD, a Sony HDTV, will elevate you to a level of joy otherwise impossible to attain. Hey, you may be a total loser, may not have a friend, may not have an education, may not have a job, may not have a clue, but it will all be OK as soon as you get that new Canon digital camera, especially if you get it for 50 percent off.
It would be nice to think -- I will not hold my breath -- that Damour's death would lead at least some of us to finally see that for the obscene lie it is, to realize that seeking wholeness in consumer goods is an act of emptiness, not joy.
You, Happier? No.
Just you, with more stuff.
18 Comments so far
Show AllGrahamSlater December 5th, 2008 7:00 pm, the most compassionate people I've met in my life were poor, and many shared with me what little they had out of hospitality and good will; conversely, the most crass and selfish bastards I've ever encountered were those who had much more than they could ever use and wouldn't give away a crust of bread for free. This sort of compulsive acquisitiveness and arrogant lack of compassion should be recognized as a serious mental illness akin to a delusional psychosis but, unfortunately, too many of those in the business of dispensing psychological advice suffer from the same affliction. Perhaps another Great Depression with most of the nation near the poverty line will teach us a lesson in humility and compassion. That may be the only silver lining in the vast black economic cloud that's enveloping this country.
Leonard Pitts Jr. is absolutely right. The ramifications of materialism's rampage through American culture are far-reaching, and increasing exponentially. More importantly, what this essay highlights is the adiaphorization of American society. While the increase in materialistic tendencies is economically and ecologically dangerous, it is the concomitant degradation of the importance of moral relationships that is the more disconcerting issue here. The continuing devaluation of the dollar could eventually provide a cure for materialism, but where is rock bottom for the unraveling of social compassion? And when we get there, will it be possible to rebuild?
Graham Slater
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
I don't think that we should be too hard on the shoppers who trampled the Wal-Mart worker. I have been in crowds where, because of the sheer number of people pressing around you, it becomes impossible to do anything but move forward with them. Some demonstrations are like that. I would suspect that those at the front of the crowd would have wanted to hold back, but that people from the back were pushing forward and there was probably nothing the people in front could do to avoid moving forward and trampling the worker.
It is too easy to blame the shoppers. But blaming the shoppers serves to excuse Wal-Mart's actions. They knew that crowds would develop in front of the doors and they did not appear to take adequate precautions to prevent the incident.
I certainly agree that we Americans have a serious problems with stuff. But this incident is not the right example of that problem.
David Lowe
davidrlowe@sbcg... December 3rd, 2008 11:43 pm: "I don't think that we should be too hard on the shoppers who trampled the Wal-Mart worker. I have been in crowds where, because of the sheer number of people pressing around you, it becomes impossible to do anything but move forward with them. Some demonstrations are like that. I would suspect that those at the front of the crowd would have wanted to hold back, but that people from the back were pushing forward and there was probably nothing the people in front could do to avoid moving forward and trampling the worker."
That's a good point, Davidrlowe, and I have been in some demonstrations and at concerts where that same situation arose -- I wanted to head to the back, away from the crush of people near the stage or the police lines, but was trapped by the crowd surging forward. This manic shopping binge happens every year on Black Friday, although there aren't usually as many casualties, and Walmart should have done a better job of anticipating and policing the crowd outside the store to prevent this chaos. I hope they are held legally responsible -- of course, none of the management will see jailtime -- this is America, after all, where corporations are supposedly 'people' but the people who run corporations are immune from prosecution because they are part of a corporation -- but a stiff fine might teach them a lesson. Losing money seems to be the only thing that penetrates their thick, greedy, pinheaded little skulls.
Until more of us in society take the idea of conserving, reusing, and just being plain frugal and proud of it, this endless materialism madness will keep getting worse !
If you teach your kids young that they won't be getting all manner of toys and nonsense playthings that get chunked to the side and accumulated over the years, then they won't grow up to value cheap, transient goods. I myself grew up never getting a damn thing, and now i'm grateful as i can't imagine what it's like to forever be looking for that next great sale....and to always be needing new and "hip" things constantly. my half-sister, on the other hand, grew up receiving a cornucopia of stuff. gobs of it. now she can't buy enough pairs of shoes, (she has at least 20 pairs jammed into her closet), wears fake nails, has to go to the mall (and even works there) and wal-mart often to buy crap, had access to mom's new car to go where she pleased as soon as she came of age to drive, and is as snotty as hell even after getting pregnant at 16. of course i'm repelled by it all and we never talk.
i think we should urge restraint whenever possible when thinking to give gifts and toys to kids and adolescents. that's what it comes down to. they're reinforced from a young age to value such "things" and they're not taught to value reading books, the great Outdoors, not watching the TV or playing video games, playing several musical instruments, learning to sew and cook and clean for yourself.
Nietzsche has been proven right by Sam Walton's legacy of low-priced crap:
"Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule."
Many mistakenly believe the US is the most religious industrialized nation on the planet since the 'survey says' 80 percent believe in God. In a sense, we are, but we mainly worship Mammon, not the God of Abraham.
As the largely ignored Jewish teacher of two centuries ago -- the only true Son O' God who allegedly died on a cross for our sins, as these Walmart shoppers would no doubt assure you with complete confidence as they step over a corpse to get to a half-off Philips plasma TV -- put it bluntly in Matthew 6:24: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."
In our fetid and ignorant culture, most of the most fervid, foam-at-the-mouth Bible worshippers, like Governator Caribou-Killer of the North, don't understand that 'Mammon' refers to 'money and worldly goods' -- try to tell them that and they'll reply indignantly "What are you saying -- Jesus wants me to be poor? Don't be ridiculous, you pinko maggot! Mammon obviously means the Devil!"
Of course, were 'Mammon' on sale at 60 percent off retail, I'm sure most of these Good Christians could be persuaded to add some to their cart -- can't pass up a bargain like that!
"I would caution against regarding them as freaks or aberrations whose callous madness would never be seen in sane and normal people like ourselves."
I don't know, that sounds like a typical Wal-Mart shopper to me.
Not every one is rich enough to shop where you do...
Liberty December 5th, 2008 2:50 pm. you mean 'Tar-Zhay' and Walgreen's? ;)
He who dies with the most toys was a slave of his possessions.
Also, ezeflyer December 3rd, 2008 6:54 pm, he who dies with the most toys is still dead.
Those who agree with this article could do worse than to check out Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping at www.revbilly.com. He and his church are doing the work of a modern John Brown.
Do we need to wait centuries for the financial industry to self-destruct ?
Too bad we can't summon space aliens to zap the Wall Street pirates.
Imagine the effects of receiving the same message, dozens of times per hour, 4-5 hours per day, 7 days a week, from, basically, infancy to adulthood.
A mad scientist couldn't design a better brainwashing system.
No, it's not that "too many of us have bought, heart and soul, into the great lie of American consumerism," it's that the majority of us have been re-wired from birth. And the worst thing about successful brainwashing is this: the brainwashed are completely unaware that they have been brainwashed, which makes the challenge of deprogramming nearly impossible.
There's a great early episode of Star Trek Next Gen where a wealthy businessman is recovered by the Enterprise after being cryogenically preserved back in the 20th century. The first thing he wants to do is call his bank and see what his investments are worth. Picards great response is "In our century, we've eliminated the need for money. We're no longer preoccupied with the acquisition of wealth (and things). We focus on improving ourselves and helping others".
Any scientists out there, I recommend you focus your efforts on the replicator. It's the means by which, in the Star Trek story, things (including food) are created out of energy. We need it badly!
Kane Jeeves December 3rd, 2008 1:29 pm, I vaguely recall seeing that episode of TNG many moons ago but can't remember what the businessman said in return, just that it was something obnoxious and worthy of a defrosted Cheney clone. Do you recall what the businessman replied to Picard -- wasn't it something like "Put me back to sleep if I have to live under that kind of hippie crap"?
Christmas being the holiday when, Christians believe, hope was born into the world in the form of a baby who became a man who preached a gospel of service to, and compassion for, our fellow human beings.
And his name is George Wanker Bush.