“You can’t fix stupid”.

1. Don’t even be in crowds obsessed with getting something for nothing. It’s like throwing a pass in football: three things can happen, two of them bad. Not worth the risk.

2. Disconnect worship of God from consumerist gift-giving. God does not need a new ipod, and the person you give it to will be no closer to God as a result of the gift.

3. Find new ways to love and be loved. Stuff never substitutes for time and attention.

4. Mr. Damour’s family will do the whole nation a favor by suing WalMart for a huge pile of money. Money talks, and retailers will change how they run these insane sales when they realize how much it will cost them.

Consumerism as mass psychosis.

Jargon and cliche take the place of careful consideration. Every consideration has been given to heightening the people’s desire and anticipation and then to gathering them into herds, with little thought for the dangers. The institutions of “Black Friday” have been poorly thought out, and it’s easier to preach to one’s own assembled herd than to think through the dangers of herds and they ways in which herds and their dangers may be averted, decreased, or controlled.

I saw all manner of people be they black, white, Asian, Hispanic…whatever comporting themselves with generally good behavior and manners…no matter how rich or poor they were (or how unwashed they smelled).

Although the place was packed to the gills there were no incidences of trampling of any kind. The only “incident” that I can think of was when a small child tried to steal something out of my cart…right in front of one of the cops and both of her parents.

You never saw such embarrassed people in your life. In between apologies to me in very accented and broken English the father was giving their small daughter an object lesson as to why stealing was bad.

“NO STEALING!”
/SMACKS KID IN FACE/
“VERY SORRY MISTER/SIR”
“STOP CRYING! YOU STOLE AND THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU STEAL”
/SMACKS KID ON REAR/
“AGAIN WE SO SO SORRY.”

Morals of the story:

People stop being mobtastic azzholes…it killed 2 people one person this time. Take responsibility…saving $300 or so on damn TV isn’t worth someone’s life!

Wal-Mart: please if you can see the crowd going completely nuts outside…don’t let them in until you call for adequate crowd control courtesy of men with guns and badges or better yet set up some sort of system beforehand (as my local Wal-Mart did)

When I went to my local Wal-Mart yesterday morning I counted 3 marked police vehicles and 1 unmarked vehicle (which I only noticed on my way out of the store). There were half a dozen officers from local Sheriff’s Deputies to State Troopers in attendance.

I saw all manner of people be they black, white, Asian, Hispanic…whatever comporting themselves with generally good behavior and manners…no matter how rich or poor they were (or how unwashed they smelled).

Although the place was packed to the gills there were no incidences of trampling of any kind. The only “incident” that I can think of was when a small child tried to steal something out of my cart…right in front of one of the cops and both of her parents.

You never saw such embarrassed people in your life. In between apologies to me in very accented and broken English the father was giving their small daughter an object lesson as to why stealing was bad.

“NO STEALING!”

“VERY SORRY MISTER/SIR”
“STOP CRYING! YOU STOLE AND THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU STEAL”

“AGAIN WE SO SO SORRY.”

Morals of the story:

People stop being mobtastic azzholes…it killed 2 people one person this time. Take responsibility…saving $300 or so on damn TV isn’t worth someone’s life!

Wal-Mart: please if you can see the crowd going completely nuts outside…don’t let them in until you call for adequate crowd control courtesy of men with guns and badges or better yet set up some sort of system beforehand (as my local Wal-Mart did)

Hundreds of people trampled others to death so that they could get to cheap retail goods the fastest — presumably to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ

.

Cannot presume anymore.

Walmart, along with a bunch of major retailers has worked hard to purge JC from XMas. Last year, employees were allowed but not encouraged to say ‘Merry Christmas’ again after their prior orders to say only ‘Happy Holidays’ caused some backlash.

A few years ago, all Xmas music with religious words was played as orchestral only, very low volume. Last year, perhaps due to sagging sales and backlash fear, some of the ‘Happy Holiday’ vocals were allowed (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire songs). This year, for whatever reason, religious songs began just after Halloween to get a headstart, loaded with Ave Maria and O Holy Night.

They have also daringly allowed the Salvation army to return to bell ringing, put up a sign that says ‘Christmas Store’ and installed the Secular Tree of No Meaning Intended in every store. I saw that tree in some videos of Black Friday mob scenes on the internet from other states. Huge Red and Green balls and no tree topper. No angels, Stars or other religiousity to taint the season.

This stuff seems trivial but this huge outreach to erase the connection between XMas and JC has paid off.

Many people now find it offensive to give a religious connotation to anything connected to XMas.

It is then a competition for consumption. A race to ace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a16gV5ZQ8g0&feature=related

There’s some kind of wider lesson to be learned here about crowds and the crowd mentality, which applies to things like “consensus” and public opinion, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Perhaps it’s in the way that when a group of people start feeding off each other and acting as one, then everyone forgets about their own individual responsibility. After all, you can’t blame a “crowd” because it doesn’t really exist, it doesn’t have a consciousness of its own, it’s just an abstract concept which defines a group of individuals. When people feel like they’re part of a crowd, it’s easy for them to engage in some kind of oppressive or destructive behavior. Everyone else is doing it, so why not them? Their individual responsibility is absorbed into an abstract construct – “the crowd” – which absolves them from any individual blame.

Thus when you have a crowd waiting to get into a store for a sale and everyone is pushing and shoving to get in the doors, it’s easy to think “what the heck” and do a little pushing yourself. If something goes wrong or someone gets hurt, then no individual is going to get the blame.

It’s the classic mob mentality. I’m pretty sure some of the same kind of psychological principles have been at work on a national and political level, like for instance during Nazi Germany.

Some interesting discussion you have provoked on this thread. And yet there are regulars on here who wish to see you shut out of the forum. Troubling. Perhaps the moderator will do the right thing and ban fascists instead of you.

jay12 on November 29, 2008 at 10:47 AM

Ditto. The ones calling for banning over opinions they don’t agree with – however distasteful they find those opinions – are the ones who need to go outside for awhile.

Galt is essentially correct. This incident is demonstrative of the SELFISHNESS mentality the poorer segments of the America’s black community have been encouraged to adopt over the past 40 years. This incident is an extreme example, yeah, but an example still…one not exclusive to blacks, but seems more prone to their communities (riots after sport events are won/lost…same thing? Similar?).

BTW: bringing up the Who concert is hardly relevant, as the crowd that thoughtlessly crushed the 11 to death would hardly have been a fair cross-section of white America as a whole.

there was one involving my hometown of newburgh ny back in 2006 /….a game vs kingston…i’m sure you can google it..

It takes a special kind of arrogance to trample over someone on your way inside an f’ing WalMart.

Hey don’t knock her….yesterday’s ex-princess-ex-beauty pageant-winner-TV traffic bimbo could be tomorrow’s ex-vice presidential candidate/prodigal governor and future hope for the Armageddon Party.