The Ultimate Paradox

There exists a great paradox within the 48 hours of Thanksgiving Thursday and Black Friday. Thankful Americans spend one day a year recognizing how well-off they truly are before shifting their mindsets once again to mass consumption and consumerism, mere hours after carving the turkey.

Thanksgiving is a holiday that is meant to fill us up in all aspects—by the end of the day, both our hearts and our stomachs should be filled with contentment. It’s a holiday with the sole purpose of reminding us that what we already have is all that we truly need. But somehow, since Black Friday got its start in the mid-1960’s as a ploy to make profit off of holiday-excited consumers, the day has spiraled out of control. It’s been gaining momentum and sucking in customers ever since and, in 2001, it was deemed the biggest shopping day of the year, beating out the Saturday before Christmas by the power of good deals.

Much like the colonization of the New World,  in this scenario, we, as consumers, are the Wampanoag Indians, just trying to enjoy this holiday for what it is, and the stores behind Black Friday are Plymouth colonists coming in and disrupting something pure and harmless. Though we realize that Thanksgiving is a product of colonization of a native land, what we fail to recognize is that Black Friday is swallowing the holiday whole.

Thanksgiving is the courtesy of colonization, and similarly, Black Friday is the courtesy of commercialization and corporate greed. We can hop on the Mayflower from the comfort of our own homes now, too. Black Friday sales trickle into the internet as you are bombarded with emails alerting you to the start-times for online shopping discounts.

You may ask, what could possibly draw so many Americans out of their homes, filled with love and leftovers, faster than the pumpkin pie was scarfed down by their family last night? The answer is almost as perplexing as the concept of a Turducken. But, for simplicity’s sake, let’s just blame it on the obvious evil—greed. Ah, there it is . . . the paradox. Give thanks for what you have, and then go camp outside of Best Buy while you’re still digesting your turkey, just because the TV you watched the football game on with your family wasn’t high-def enough.

However, there is a glimmer of merit behind this holiday. Shoppers intend to venture out for gifts for their loved ones. A riot over two-dollar waffle makers at Walmart (check out the video on YouTube) was set into motion by a woman attacking the crowd in order to snatch six waffle makers. This is a clear example of just how easy it is to get carried away on this “holiday.”

This woman clearly let greed overcome her during her trip to Walmart, much like the hundreds of other individuals filmed getting aggressive towards other shoppers at the sight of the deal-of-the-day. Though these are extreme cases of post-Thanksgiving greed, they all display a scary reality to the millions of viewers watching the videos: we prioritize getting more of what we don’t need so much that there has been a national holiday dedicated to it.

Though the notion of a nationwide boycott of Black Friday is unrealistic, we, as individuals, can choose to abstain from the evil and protect the virtues of Thanksgiving. However, if we really can’t resist the allure of low-priced superfluous products, we can go out on Black Friday and give in to the temptation of buying a ping pong table for ten dollars instead of fifty, but we should recognize the privilege of being able to buy unnecessary things, just to bless others through the act of gift-giving. Please, don’t just grab six waffle makers because it’s a bargain. When someone sees a well-priced item on the shelf, they should ask themselves, “If this weren’t discounted, would I still be inclined to buy it?” If the answer is no, they should keep walking. Or better yet, next year, maybe they won’t go at all, and Thanksgiving will become a little more meaningful to us all.