Black Friday
Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, November 30, 2014
I don't usually use this blog as a platform to complain about society (apart from errant apostrophes), but the behaviour of the bargain hunters who stormed the shops on 28th November prompts me to break my rule.
What on earth did people think they were doing? Whatever happened to the British tradition of queueing? There was no politeness or consideration, and very little common sense. Wheelchair-bound people were knocked down and trampled over, shoppers were rugby tackled and people had goods snatched out of their hands at check-outs. The pressure of people broke down store fronts, and in the frenzy many of the goods were smashed.
If these had been starving people struggling for the last crust of bread, or passengers on a sinking ship vying for a place in the lifeboats perhaps some allowance could be made for them, but these were luxury goods, not essentials, that they were fighting over. I've seen troupes of monkeys behave better over a spilled box of fruit! The antics of football supporters are usually held up as the epitome of bad behaviour, but these shoppers were far worse.
It seems that normally respectable, considerate people were overtaken by a kind of mob mentality. They were crazed with greed, selfishness, insecurity and fear. Monkeys behave that way to keep their status in the group, but surely mankind should have progressed beyond it.
Science fiction writers describing such a situation might have some insidious drug being put in the water supply or piped through the stores' ventilation systems, to encourage the mindless desire to buy and triumph, even when the purchases were of no real worth and would probably never be used. It might make a scary story. However, this was real life and infinitely more terrifying. If the veneer of civilisation is so shallow, how can any of us be sure that if we are ever put to the test, we won't lash out at and betray our fellow humans for just as little?
What on earth did people think they were doing? Whatever happened to the British tradition of queueing? There was no politeness or consideration, and very little common sense. Wheelchair-bound people were knocked down and trampled over, shoppers were rugby tackled and people had goods snatched out of their hands at check-outs. The pressure of people broke down store fronts, and in the frenzy many of the goods were smashed.
If these had been starving people struggling for the last crust of bread, or passengers on a sinking ship vying for a place in the lifeboats perhaps some allowance could be made for them, but these were luxury goods, not essentials, that they were fighting over. I've seen troupes of monkeys behave better over a spilled box of fruit! The antics of football supporters are usually held up as the epitome of bad behaviour, but these shoppers were far worse.
It seems that normally respectable, considerate people were overtaken by a kind of mob mentality. They were crazed with greed, selfishness, insecurity and fear. Monkeys behave that way to keep their status in the group, but surely mankind should have progressed beyond it.
Science fiction writers describing such a situation might have some insidious drug being put in the water supply or piped through the stores' ventilation systems, to encourage the mindless desire to buy and triumph, even when the purchases were of no real worth and would probably never be used. It might make a scary story. However, this was real life and infinitely more terrifying. If the veneer of civilisation is so shallow, how can any of us be sure that if we are ever put to the test, we won't lash out at and betray our fellow humans for just as little?
