It Wasn't Exactly Buy Nothing Day

Generally, I agree with Tengrain's stance on Black Friday being Buy Nothing Day- why buy into a 'tradition' which subjects overstressed, underpaid retail workers to what amounts to a rugby scrum, albeit one with neither rules nor manners? I've never been a materialistic person anyway, and I'd rather not be a party to the downward spiral from citizens to consumers to consumed that has characterized our society over the past half-century.

That being said, I didn't quite do the Buy Nothing Day thing... for me, it was Buy Something Necessary Day. The 'oil life' indicator in my car was reading 5%, so I brought the car into a Valvoline branch not too far from my workplace. I had plenty of time before work, and this place is set up like a pit stop- simply drive up, and a cadre of technicians read your tire pressure and check the vital fluids of your vehicle. As I indicated, I was in desperate need of an oil change, but everything else was okay- air filter and oil filter were good, brake fluid level was good, all lights were functional. The young 'pit crew' swarmed over my car, performing their various tasks, and I was ready to drive off in under twenty minutes.

I'm still a bit surprised that the whole process took such a short amount of time, this being a day off for most people. My guess is that, when most people were in the malls, I studied the blade handled a necessary task. I should probably thank of the shoppers for clearing a way for me to do so in such an expeditious manner.

Consumer Complicity

This day after Thanksgiving, I want to take an opportunity to rant about the retail stores that were open on Thanksgiving, with some corporations threatening to fire employees who do not work on the holiday. While the corporations that forced their employees to work on Thanksgiving are truly odious, they are not the sole bad actors in this sordid, exploitative affair. The consumers who decided that it is appropriate to patronize the stores that are maltreating their employees are just as complicit in this abuse as the corporations are. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with someone who just cannot refrain from a consumer frenzy for one single day so that the poor retail workers can celebrate the one holiday that is well-nigh universal to Americans of differing cultures and creeds?

Thankfully, there is a growing backlash against the stores that decided to open their doors on Thanksgiving. It seems that people are finally fed up about the disgusting power disparity between employers and employees. It's about time. Perhaps people have come to the realization that the underpaid, overworked retail workers are really the canary in the coalmine, and that it's not inconceivable that they may eventually face the same regressive workplace policies.

As I have written before, I believe that the American people have allowed themselves to transition from citizens to consumers over the past forty years (I chalk a lot of this up to that idiotic "government is the problem" trope- and look at all those goddamn upvotes). With stagnant wages and diminishing benefits among middle class workers, class differences between the middle class and the lower class are primarily a function of consumption patterns- the guy buying that flavored-up Starbucks coffee can kid himself that he's materially better off than his counterpart who's buying a cup-of-Joe at McDonald's.

It gets worse- with decreasing workplace protections, we are now transitioning from consumers to consumed. Don't want to knuckle under and put your life on the line to help feed the mass-consumption frenzy? Tough shit, peasant, you'll find yourself on an unemployment line.

Just say no to the whole sordid ritual... the holiday you save may be your own.


POSTSCRIPT: For the record, I worked on Thanksgiving. In fact, I wrote this post during a quiet moment at work and set it up to post later in the day. I am essential personnel, and I am a supervisor... it's my feeling that, if someone has to "take it on the chin", it's my duty to my subordinates to be that someone. I most certainly do not feel that my presence on the job on Thanksgiving is exploitative, it's merely the price I have to pay for working in an unorthodox capacity.

Securitism and Stealing

Last week, WNYC's Leonard Lopate interviewed James Risen on scams and fraudsters making millions off of "homeland security". The good folks at Crooks and Liars are covering the same territory. Simply put, there were a shitton of grifters, many of them well-connected, but some of them just Walter Mitty types who could spout a line of bullshit that impressed the dunderheads in the Bush Maladministration. Besides being a creepily Orwellian bureaucracy, the "Department of Homeland Security" (can we dissolve it already) was a West-West wonderland for yahoos with power-trip fantasies and for straight-up crooks, and for a third class of creep that were a combination of the two. The DHS hires seem to be even worse than the horse-fancying horse's ass who was tapped to lead FEMA (and who CNN saw fit to bring on to comment on the current Ebola situation). WTF, CNN?

The most damaging legacy of the Reagan administration was the complete denigration of government competence. Somehow, in the past forty-odd years, the American public was sold the notion that the private sector was better able to deliver goods and services than the public sector. Throughout the course of these past few decades, the American people have been transformed from citizens to consumers... now, with the advent of the Sociopathocracy, we have made the final transition, from consumers to consumed, prey to cheats and frauds. The amount of taxpayer dollars that was funneled to lunatics, losers, and liars to keep up an ineffectual security-industrial complex is utterly appalling. In the absence of competent defense and security protocols, we are left with securitism, a self-perpetuating farrago of fear-mongering and empty gestures meant to overawe the true enemy of the DHS, which is the American taxpayer. Meanwhile, real safety falls by the wayside as dangerous industries are allowed to operate without regulation, infrastructure crumbles, and the day-to-day operations of well-meaning, competent public servants are underfunded.

Hopefully, the voting public will come to its senses in time to realize that "small government" advocacy really means "big heist" advocacy in time for the upcoming midterm elections. If we ever want to be able to afford nice things again, we need to stop shoveling millions into the coffers of thieves.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everybody!

Hey, folks, here's wishing my stateside readers a happy Thanksgiving. I am spending Thanksgiving as it should be spent- hanging out with family and friends, enjoying each others' company and showing a little gratitude for good fortune.

In the back of my mind, though, there is a tiny, angry spark... I, like many others, am angry that some big box retailers are making their employees work on Thanksgiving. I have worked on Thanksgiving, but I am essential personnel at a worksite that needs a 24/7 presence. No retail shop needs to be open on the one single holiday that virtually every American celebrates.

Hopefully, there will be a backlash, and several smaller retail chains are criticizing their competitors for their uncaring policies. Seriously, everybody should just opt out of shopping on Thanksgiving. Americans need to recapture a modicum of community spirit- we need to be a nation of citizens, not consumers.

The Annual Orgy of Consumption

Black Friday... shit, the very notion of getting up at four in the morning in order to elbow, claw, and shove your way into stores in order to buy a whole lot of cheap, poorly made crap on credit is totally foreign to me. Of course, many stores are now opening on Thanksgiving night this year. Damn, if overeating and lying on the couch watching football aren't sacred anymore, nothing is. I have scorn for the people who would descend upon the stores on Thanksgiving night, but I have nothing but pity for the poor folks working in retail. Damn, as if dealing with the people weren't bad enough, they don't even have time to digest their dinners before being thrown into the grinder.

I'm not into the whole consumerism thing, and I think an "opt out" on Black Friday would send the message to our corporate overlords that we are citizens, not consumers. There's a Say No to Black Friday (and to Rebecca Black's Friday) movement, a movement I heartily endorse. Reject the consumption, because, as the Reverend Mojo Nixon observed, America has turned into a "mondo condo shopping mall hell". While I can't endorse arson as a remedy, I do think that, barring the burning, Mojo was onto something:





I hope to be back from Virginia this afternoon and, with any luck, will catch up with the comments on previous posts and resume my typical posting routine. I shall make posting my post lecture recap a priority.