How Ugly Are The Feet Of Those: Real Lesson of Black Friday Deaths
Friday, December 5th, 2008
“Walmart Worker Killed In ‘Black Friday’ Shopper Stampede”
So read one headline about the senseless killing of a Wal-Mart employee by crazed consumers this past Friday. Several others were injured as well. Perhaps almost as sick as the wild greed that drove people to care so little for the man they killed (and witnesses have shown that they were aware of what was happening), was the anger of some customers when they learned the store had to be closed due to the death. After all, they had stood in line all night to shop. God have mercy…
I was baffled at how a person could get so consumed with the desire for “stuff” that they would literally walk over other people. Sure, I can understand it in the face of starvation or imminent death. But for a cheaper plasma screen TV or a $28 vacuum cleaner? Who would devalue the lives of others so much to save a few bucks on more crap, even if it might by some stretch even be a need, not just a want? Surely there is only a minority of people who could be that way.
As I considered this, something struck me. It hit me like a load of brick that nearly sent me literally to my knees: Most of us do, in fact, devalue the lives of others for our own selfish wants. Granted, I think very few of us would trample a helpless person under our feet to buy a discounted digital camera- the immediate result of such selfishness is too much for us to live with. However, what about when the effect of our choices are not so immediate? Is it ultimately any less moral repugnant or tangibly violent when the very real consequence is distanced from us?
Looking at the “best deals” around, we often fail to ask where the savings came from. After all, how many of these massive price cutting retailers offer discounts out of the goodness of their hearts? After all, if profit margins on the products was that high, couldn’t all stores offer such discounts? Of course not. Rather, the savings comes through business practices that exploit others in order to cut costs. Be in the tiny nations whose land was raped for the rough materials, the factory workers barely making a living wage in a place that pollutes their body and communities, the workers whose rights and interests are ignored and violated- through various means, our current system thrives on the exploitation of others.
And let’s be honest. While a small minority of people buy things from these store out of real need to save money. Most of us are not so much trying to survive as we are trying to sustain a level of comfort and privilege that requires us to cut corners in this way. There are alternatives, but not ones without cost or without sacrifice. The North American Dream has become the North American Illusion, a false reality that would convince us that we not only deserve everything, but that we need it. And yet, as we are freed from these illusions, we begin to see that we our choices not only cost us our souls, but that they cost others their very lives.
So as we consider those men and women who trampled that man to death, let us not be too hasty to judge or dismiss them without first consider our own choices. While this happened on Black Friday, our choices have far more reaching consequence and are made every day of the weeks. As the Body of Christ present in a dying world, it is not enough for us to simply abstain from such choices, but rather we must be radical living alternatives. In the words of St. Basil the Great (ht: Erika):
“The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in the wardrobe is the garment of the one who is naked; the shoes you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.”
(reposted from the personal blog of Jamie Arpin-Ricci)
