Are we, you know, okay? Edmund Morris thinks not.
Over the weekend, I came across two bits of cultural data that troubled me and left me pondering. The first was this video taken in a Target store in Buffalo during the “Black Friday” shopping rush.
The creepy part here isn’t only the fact that people were hurt and could very easily have been killed.
Equally troubling is the fact that these sad, dreary people are piling over each other to go and spend heaps of money, often on things they don’t really need, using money they haven’t really earned.
(Yes, I’m both generalizing and moralizing, always a dangerous thing to do in the same breath. But it seems in order here, don’t you think?)
After watching this rather feral bit of consumerism, I stumbled across Edmund Morris’s appearance on CBS’ Face the Nation. The famous historian, an American who emigrated from South Africa, said this:
“We’ve become such an insular people…I come from another culture…and I’m aware of the fact that people elsewhere in the world think differently from us.
“I can sort of see us Americans with their eyes and not all that I see is attractive.
“I see an insular people who are insensitive to foreign sensibilities, who are lazy, obese, complacent, and increasingly perplexed as to why we are losing our place in the world to people who are more dynamic than us and more disciplined.”
As readers of the In Box know, I don’t usually buy this kind of anti-American blather. The facts indicate that we work longer, harder and often smarter than most other developed societies.
But that video from the Target store in Buffalo is troubling, no?
So what do you think? We like to blame Washignton and the politicians for our woes. But maybe we have met the enemy and they is us…
Your thoughts welcome.
You know, I enjoy moralizing as much as anyone, but those people – not “these” people – do not look sad and dreary to me. Many of them are smiling and excited. True, one man looks to be in pain from the accident at the door, but crowd rushes happen in many locales – sports events, concerts, crowded subway stations, etc.
Re generalizing:
“I see an insular people who are insensitive to foreign sensibilities, who are lazy, obese, complacent…”
Do you include yourself in this description? If not, who among your acquaintances?
My problem with generalizations like this is that you must either see yourself as one of those being generalized, or see yourself and your friends as outliers who are above the stereotype. I bet most people don’t see themselves as stereotypes. This kind of broad comment, though it may contain truths, adds nothing to our understanding of ourselves.
Edmund Morris is a superb writer; I rank his TR below only Caro’s LBJ among presidential biogs but, in person, from various interviews on TV I have seen over the years, he appears to be a supremely arrogant SOB.
Consumerism and materialism is a problem in this country. The video is pretty ugly.
Hey, that’s my Target. I was there the day before.
Nobody mentions the woman who enters at 0:25, turns around, helps, and doesn’t leave until she makes sure everyone is ok.
I see happy, smiling, well trained consumers. Buy, buy, buy. “Go out and buy stuff” Geo. W Bush. Shortly after they have it the fervor and shine will wear off and they will want something else. This holiday season is supposed to be about affirming our relationships with our loved ones and our fellow human beings at large. While giving gifts is one way yo do that, the kind of consumerism that leads one to wait outside a store in the wee hours of the morning and then threaten to trample those ahead of you is not what I think of when I think of the holidays. IMHO They may not wear sad and dreary faces but their programmed consumerism is definitely sad and dreary.
Is this any different than the crush recently during the water festival where 300+ people died or the thousands who die during the Haj in Saudi Arabia every year? It all depends on your values. Consumerism is #1 in the USA.
Considering the video: As a matter of fact, we have a choice of targets here. We can blame the capitalist system (as represented by the retail chain) or we can blame the well-fatted herd of consumers. Personally, I like to blame the “hidden” presence of the news media (through its Black Friday advertising binges and its inevitable coverage of stampedes and would-be stampedes, the collective media is the essential connective tissue linking the sellers to the buyers).
Notice how many in the crowd—including the tramplee—play to the camera?
I’m heartened by this video. First, I’ve seen way worse in other countries, at soccer matches, at religious events. Second, when someone fell, even though the push from the back was terrific, people tried to stop and help. And when people realized something was wrong, they did stop, as much as they were able. The real problem was poor planning by Target. The entrance has four sets of double doors, but they’re only using two. With a crowd that large, the store should have opened all the doors. And, knowing the crowd would be that big, and that enthusiastic, as the store managers surely did, they should have taken steps to make sure there would not have been a crush at the doors, by organizing the lines outside. No denying we’re fat. We sit too much and eat too much. But I don’t think our fatness means we’re inconsiderate, nor does it have anything to do with this video.
Moral of the story – shop online.
Ellen, your response is so very good, I want to keep your words about generalization someplace where I can look at them over and over. You put your finger exactly on what bothers me when people generalize about other people. It only works if you include yourself.
I don’t want to generalize and I probably do ALL of the time. But I am just looking at the particular people in this particular video, and to rush into a store in the middle of the night trampling people to save a little on some consumer item is off kilter, its screwed up there is something deeply wrong with it.
I don’t include myself and many other people in that because many people would never consider getting up in the middle of the night to rush into a store including myself. I have other deep problems that are not part of this video that are deeply screwed up about me.
What kind of behavior might we expect when insert after insert in the paper advertised “doorbuster” sales? Next year maybe the theme will be “Black Friday–deals to kill and die for”. Consumerism like everything else is a matter of degree and what is healthy. The cultural value has been one of excess for a long time. There are signs that this too is subsiding. As a result of the Great Recession, many Americans cannot overconsume, while others are choosing not to do so. Some reports indicate that people are looking for smaller homes, instead of McMansions. While it is good to have “enough”, beyond a certain point, consumption does not make people any happier.
It is a false God.
“Fred Goss says:
November 29, 2010 at 11:19 am
Edmund Morris is a superb writer; I rank his TR below only Caro’s LBJ among presidential biogs but, in person, from various interviews on TV I have seen over the years, he appears to be a supremely arrogant SOB.”
He may be arrogant, but he’s also correct!
Black Friday just symbolizes what makes our economy go:consumers. That’s what we’ve got left after the 1980 purge of manufacturing jobs and the full press toward “service” related jobs. A service economy needs people to spend, get in debt and always want more than they can afford. The media, the largest and one of the wealthiest service industries in this country, feeds the frenzy by promising to solve all your problems if only you worship this false idol or that one and of course buy their books and the products they push. This country long ago gave itself over to snake oil salesman and corporate middlemen. It always puzzles me when I hear discussions about how independent we are when most people can’t get through the day without checking in with whichever pundit or self-help guru validates that their right and everyone else is wrong. It’s the media’s job to sell insecurity and mistrust so that the corporations that own them can sell products that supposedly will solve all our woes.
I’ve never gone shopping on Black Friday and never will. I seldom buy things I don’t need and would be perfectly happy if no one bought me anything. I really don’t see what the whole fuss is about Black Friday shopping. To me it’s at best a shrug of the shoulders. I would much rather stay home be in that hustle and bustle. I guess I’m not a typical American.
I am better than all of you, even better than Scratchy.