With my Google alerts primed for any mention of business ethics and bailouts, I caught this amusing article today: Santa Claus Demands Massive Bailout.
Christmas seems different this year. Claus appears to be as murderous as he is demanding. Christmas is seen as a warzone. Don't we have enough warzones already? If enough people call something a battle, I guess that makes it easier to sway diehards to their cause.
I wonder how we will remember this holiday 2008 in years to come - will it be regarded as the death knell for consumerism as we once knew it? Is it the eulogy for the retail dream of the past decade? It's tough to see the resiliency of the American spirit shining through when Americans are so anxious to divide themselves over such basic issues as the right to social equality.
It seems to me, based on the cultural climate, that we're off the beaten path for good.
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1 comments:
Cripes! What a downer!!
I'm guessing the *ahem* Wal-Mart Incident will make its way into historical accounts of the economic crisis. I like your characterization of "Santa," who is totally those desparate shoppers--moms and dads wanting to preserve the magic of Christmas for their kids. What's totally nuts, if you look at this from spaceship view (that's like bird's-eye view but farther away still),is, like, whothefuckCARES if little Jimmy got the stupid Wii game he wanted? It's Santa's own goddamn fault for training kids to think that's what makes Christmas fun.
That being said, you're totally right about the warzone thing. Dehumanizing the "enemy" is a lovely necessity of war. The anti-consumerism argument I hear (and agree with) has tended to depict those shoppers as monsters rather than treating them gently--they are, after all, a consuption-centered culture watching the bottom fall out of its economic stability. That's scary shit, when you consider the stock we ALL place in stuff. I work in retail, so I've observed the amusing irony of people coming to shop in my store and, while they're here, complaining to me about those greedy shoppers.
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