Black Fridays and Dark Sundays

I think anti-consumerism is silly.

Maybe people spend a lot of time fussing over material things and maybe businesses "take advantage" of this to sell them things, but really... what does that have to do with you? Some people call certain things "frivolous." Luxury cars, expensive jewelry, fancy electronic gadgets and the like have been known to fall into this category. There are very few things that a person actually needs. We need food and water, shelter and warmth. For most people in this country (happy Thanksgiving, guys), these necessities come pretty easily. So technically, maybe everything else can be termed as "frivolous."

I think the main argument goes back to that being thankful thing. We have all this and the rest of the world doesn't, so maybe we should feel bad for spending our money on video games and shiny things that make noises when you wave at it. We should be saving the world, right? ...A lot of good that's doing us. But avoiding the topic of political debate, it is very natural for people to not want to worry about others and only take care of themselves. This doesn't really make them selfish or uncaring to the less fortunate; it just makes them human. In the modern world, with so many things available to us, what we perceive to be necessary changes. This isn't a bad thing. It's just how things go.

So people want stuff. They want all the toys and the wide-screen plasma TVs and the robot dogs and so on. I kind of want a DS Lite for myself. Necessary for survival? Nah. In fact, it's probably better if I don't get one so I don't distract myself from working on the various projects I should be working on, but do I still want it? Sure. Am I going to buy one? Maybe if the holiday season doesn't yield one for me. But the point is that there isn't much wrong with wanting a crimson and black DS Lite.

Maybe that $130 can go to a charity. Or maybe I just shouldn't be so invested in something so material. Yes, getting one would make me happy. So what? Any number of things can make people happy. I doubt very much that most people are only happy with material things and they have nothing else of value. Winning the lottery would make me happy because I could buy lots of stuff. But I could also travel -- traveling is not materialistic, but also requires money. I could also donate. I'm a pretty decent person, probably, so that would make me happy too. So really, does it matter that buying a DS Lite would make me happy too?

So Black Friday is tomorrow and consequently, so is Buy Nothing Day. Pointless. The holiday season will always involve lots of buying. People want things. PEOPLE WANT THINGS! I don't understand why this is such an outrage. For this, I think a lot of people just jump on the bandwagon because it's become pretty damn cool to rebel against society and The Man, whoever that is. Live life how you want, but if you're rebelling just to rebel, then you're still being controlled.

I read an article on the New York Times this summer about people who pretty much make dumpster diving their primary source of new things -- food, furniture, you name it. This is pretty awesome and I think it's really amazing that people can find all this stuff in the trash. But as a statement against consumerism? Not so much. I kind of just see it as being really frugal. They're still getting material things, they just aren't paying for it. And that probably makes them really happy too.

So tomorrow, I might be showing up at Fry's at five in the morning so I can nab a 500 gig external for $80 and maybe a couple of free (after rebate) flash drives. It's sort of ironic, really. Black Friday is sales everywhere. They claim you save money, but you're really not because you wouldn't have bought anything in the first place if they hadn't been so cheap. So in the end, you're still down the cash... but you got some cool stuff too. It's an excuse, I guess, to unleash that inner materialistic bastard in all of us. But I still don't think that's a bad thing.

I mean. We keep businesses in business and people in their jobs, right? And it isn't like you can't still enjoy a sunset or something. Anyway, these sorts of opinions always sound better in my head. I ramble too long and feel kinda dumb writing about them after a while.

Good luck shopping tomorrow, guys. Rock those long lines. (Don't forget about Cyber Monday either. Get ready to watch Amazon.com fall off from server load!)