Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving in the United States. Regarded as the beginning of the festive shopping season it is a celebration of all that is wrong with the human race. It is the biggest shopping day of the year in the United States, with an estimated 97million Americans hitting the shops. It is a happy consumers wet dream, an occasion to look forward to for materialistic bargain hunters. The event has a manic effect on people, turning them into soulless beasts who have lost all morality. Prices are slashed and decadent shoppers lose all self-control and inhibition, fighting manically to ensure they purchase the goods they think that they need.
This year saw reports of mindless violence from all over America. A man was reportedly stabbed over a parking space. A woman tasered another in a Philadelphia shopping centre, and one man was maced by police following an argument over a television. Further festivities included a shopper being shot and robbed in Las Vegas, and a California policeman being assaulted.
The worst thing about it is, Black Friday has reached our shores.
Asda,(owned by Wal-Mart) Amazon and Apple have spread the event to the UK, purposefully infecting the British consciousness like a whore spreading herpes around a naval base. This year British stores joined in to help them spread the word. John Lewis and Debenhams slashed their prices for one day only, enticing customers in search of Christmas Bargains. Our country, though not as manic as our American counterparts was taking over by the moral corruption of Black Friday. A man just yards away from the Queen was arrested in Windsor for shoplifting. Another man was arrested following an argument that occurred over two 60-inch televisions. Witnesses described shoppers as "locusts" and "savages" as goods were discounted by as much as 70%.
It is entrenched within our society that a decent person buys Christmas presents for those they care about. It is tradition, your responsibility and your duty to purchase products in an attempt to delight the intended recipient on the morning of the 25th. This leaves people stressed, both mentally and financially and the appeal of a bargain is understandable. What is not understandable is turning into wild animals, with no regard for each other or sense, driven simply by greed. Perhaps if they were fighting over an antidote to some tropical disease I might understand or even empathise, but even then I would expect them to think with a degree of rationality.
I am not anti-american, I love American literature,music and films. I do not bemoan the Americanization of our country as some people do. I believe that every culture has its positive and negative aspects that we can observe and learn from. Black Friday is certainly one of the aspects of American life that I wish had stayed in America. I can only hopelessly wish that it does not become a tradition in Britain, but if my instincts are correct these wishes are futile.
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