Black Friday Mentality.

Image from @RobD1970 on Twitter










Hello there, did you read or watch the news reports of Black Friday madness across the country? There were scenes of people pushing each other and trampling over others, why? Was there a limited world vaccine or cure for a disease we were all sure to die of if we didn't receive a shot? Nope, TVs and other goods were discounted, some as little as 37% off their 'usual' price. For this, people turned into, well, I can't say animals, I think animals would have been better behaved. They turned into greedy, selfish idiots, intent on rushing to grab their 'bargains' before anyone else did.

There are photos on the Internet of grown adults grappling for possession of TVs, videos of men threatening each other and women clinging onto their prizes as others tried to wrestle them from their arms. Watching some of the video footage, I wasn't even sure if people were really bothered what they bought, as long as they bought something. Was it pack mentally? Do people really get carried along with the crowd and find themselves acting in ways they would never have thought, or did these people go along to the sales determined to just bag something, to 'win their prize' at any cost?

Both the written news reports and video footage made me feel lots of emotions, but mostly sadness, and worry. Have we really all become so self centred and have such a sense of entitlement that we think this sort of behaviour is acceptable? Do we really value TVs and other so called sale bargains above human decency? What would happen if there was an emergency where we all needed to come together and help each other through it?

Later news reports lay the bulk of the blame for these scenes on the retailers, and while they may have played their part in whipping up a buying frenzy, let's not lose sight of the fact that we all need to take responsibility for our own actions. We all have free will, and we are all capable of exercising a little bit of restraint and kindness rather than greed and anger. No one involved in any of the scrummages has anyone but themselves to blame if their greed led to another human being being hurt.

I like a bargain as much as the next person, I love to feel I have a few pounds off my buys, but I don't covet a prize at the expense of hurting my fellow man. I couldn't conceive of any situation where we all felt the need to push and shove, hurting each other, forgetting basic manners and making ourselves the subject of some of the most shameful news headlines in a while. Come on people, the only time we should push and shove is in a life threatening situation, and then we should be pushing and shoving the most vulnerable of society to the head of the queue. A TV, which these people probably already have at least one of in their house, is really not worth losing your decency for.

Hopefully the reports are only indicative of a small minority of the public. I hang on to the hope that most of us still care, that we would be above this sort of behaviour. Let's all do something nice, just because we can, instead of spending money on frivolous rubbish, just because we can.

We've donated to our local foodbank this afternoon, just to show we practise what we preach. X

With love from the bears