Comments on: Your Turn: Black Friday

By: Valkyrie607

Valkyrie607 — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:30:10 +0000

Just grumpy. Sorry.

By: arty

arty — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:11:06 +0000

Valkyrie607
If, as you say, “I’ve just spent nearly four years and many thousands of dollars preparing for a career in fixing all the damn problems this madness is causing,” then why on earth aren’t you out there on the battlefield waving your sword at the barbarians? Save us all.
We could use the peace and quiet.

By: Valkyrie607

Valkyrie607 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:29:46 +0000

Shopping is not a fun, innocent activity. Shopping is evil.
Did you know that 99% of all the things that Americans buy end up in the landfill after only 6 months?
That’s right: only 1% of the crap those people are spending cash on, waiting up nights for, careening around malls for, is going to last more than 6 months.
Meanwhile, think about the materials and the energy that were required to bring all that stuff to Wal-Mart in the first place.
Oil to run the machines that mined or extracted the raw materials. More oil to transport it to the factory where the raw materials are assembled. Whose environment are those raw materials being extracted from? And whose environment is being polluted during the manufacturing process? Then, once 6 months go by, more oil is burned to transport what is now a waste product to a landfill. A landfill. A mountain of trash. Because we are so enamored of profit we would rather design crappy products that break, and then make more of them, than design quality products that last a lifetime. Quality is expensive, they say, but check again 50 years down the line. I think you will find that the crappy, so-called “cheap” products are the ones that will be costing us the most.
The existence of landfills is an indictment of shopping as a “fun, innocent” activity. It is neither, not for those who are aware of the tremendous cost we all must pay to continue this insanity we call a global economy.
If you’re wondering exactly what my problem is, why I can’t just relax and enjoy it, well, it’s because I’ve just spent nearly four years and many thousands of dollars preparing for a career in fixing all the damn problems this madness is causing. I’m a bit grumpy because every year it comes around again, we’re all reminded that our value as citizens lies in how much we consume. Consumerism will consume the planet if we don’t quit it soon, and I mean that very literally.
Check out this link: http://www.thestoryofstuff.com

By: rob.

rob. — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:58:12 +0000

Good to see that being a consuming Zombie never goes out of fashion.

By: rob.

rob. — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:58:07 +0000

Good to see that being a consuming Zombie never goes out of fashion.

By: rob.

rob. — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:57:45 +0000

Good to see that being a consuming Zombie never goes out of fashion.

By: zatopa

zatopa — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:54:53 +0000

Xmas is for the kids.

By: mjfgates

mjfgates — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:07:32 +0000

These people are grinning, not necessarily because of an adrenalin high, but because they really want to be there. I think that this *is* actually the same reason that you don’t see a lot of photos of people atop Mount Everest or on rollercoasters looking blase’, but it’s got nothing to do with adrenalin. It’s simply that some places, just by getting there you’ve guaranteed that you’re the kind of person who is excited by the prospect of being there. People who hate amusement parks don’t spend fifty bucks on a ticket and wait for two hours to ride the De-Intestinator, people who are bored by hiking don’t climb up K2. People who don’t like to shop, don’t spend the night in a parking lot waiting for Wal-Mart to open its doors.

By: Brian O'Nolan

Brian O'Nolan — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:52:49 +0000

Extraordinary snobbism is evident in many of these comments – comb through them for disparaging and downright insulting remarks. As if these people were somehow beneath us, behaving in a very vulgar and even pathetic way. I’d ask all the refined souls who “analyze” (the quotes are mine, but you can have them) these pictures if they have never grabbed at a bargain in the sales themselves. Or never looked a little foolish in a snapshot taken when they weren’t expecting it.
The snooty, fake-academic (you notice I didn’t say faux, like you may have done) tone to many of the comments tells me far more about the authors than it does about the images.

By: chris

chris — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:57:18 +0000

He looks handicapped to me. Compare him in both images.