Absolutely. Black Friday is one of the crown jewels of the American year. Far from being a sign of any sort of decline, it is a great day that showcases America's continuing strength.
There is nothing vulgar in the transition between the soaking sentimentality of Thanksgiving and the stampeding greed of Black Friday. It is a beautiful and exquisitely appropriate pivot between two modes that are equally important and necessary to the human being.
It is right to look back and give heartfelt thanks for what we have as we gather in the gloaming with those we are close to, for better and worse; it is even more right to then turn to the present and future and realize the
burning rage of the need for more. And yes, more meaning more material things, more consoles/ipads/X-Boxs and other great products that are yearly churned out in the ferocious quest for entertainment, convenience and interest in the midst of the human being's terrible struggle to prevail over materials.
It is this implacable rage for more, so perfectly and literally embodied in the great American stampedes of Black Friday, that drives the human being towards progress in understanding and mastering the material world that confronts and thwarts us at every step. The seeming troglodytes that break down the doors of Walmart on a chilly Friday morning when it's still dark in a gladiator-like quest to attain that X-Box have a better understanding of the true nature of life and of the human being's place in the world than the scolds who mock and disdain them.
It has been noted by many literary characters that the American par excellence possesses the capacity for the most childlike unabashed sentimentality and the most childlike untrammeled greed, often in dizzyingly close succession. This is true. What is rarely recognized is that these are both
superb virtues of the American character that guarantee our domination and supremacy going forward. And never is this capacity more vividly realized than in the great pivot between the Thursday and the Friday of Thanksgiving week.
Quote: (11-28-2013 03:53 PM)Cattle Rustler Wrote:
I love hearing about the "decline of western culture", it makes me giggle. To me, BF and CM are great days.