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David McElroy

making sense of a dysfunctional culture

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Despite ‘OccupyBF’ rhetoric, local shoppers say no one dictates to them

By David McElroy · November 25, 2011

If you believe the organizers behind the misguided effort called Occupy Black Friday, Americans go on an orgy of consumer spending because it’s the “one day where the mega-corporations blatantly dictate our actions.” So they’re organizing a boycott of stores to “hit the corporations that corrupt and control American politics where it hurts, their profits.”

There’s also a Stop Black Friday website, which sounds suspiciously like the Grinch drumming his fingers nervously as he says, “I must find some way to stop Christmas from coming.”

The boycott includes giants such as Walmart, Target and Dick’s Sporting Goods, as well as lesser-known chains such as Dollar Tree. (Does anyone really go to Black Friday sales at Dollar Tree?) Since this group is convinced that people are doing what “corporations” are dictating, I went over to the Target near my house Thursday evening to talk to people standing in line waiting for sales to start at 10 p.m. I’m happy to report that I couldn’t find an oppressed person in the bunch.

Rebecca was in line with her 17-year-old daughter, Jennifer. I explained to them that some activists on Facebook say that Target and other corporations are dictating their actions, and Rebecca laughed.

“The only way someone ‘dictates’ my actions is if they have something I want to buy at a price I want to pay,” Rebecca said. “I’m out here tonight because I can save some money on things I want to buy anyway. This is going to be a major portion of what I’m going to spend for Christmas presents, and I’m saving money to do it this way. It’s pretty arrogant for some ignorant yahoos to claim I’m only here because someone forced me to. I’m here because it’s in my best interests — to get what I want.”

I told Rebecca that the online group claims that everyone should be shopping at local, independent retailers instead of bigger stores.

“I don’t care who owns a store,” she said. “I want what I want at the best price. If Target has it, that’s fine. If one of the little shops down the street has it, that’s fine, too. I don’t have a political agenda. I just want to deal with whoever can give me what I want without breaking me.”

Not everyone I talked with was as articulate and outspoken as Rebecca, but nobody felt that any company was dictating what he or she had to buy.

“That’s silly,” said Ronald, a 62-year-old who had accompanied his wife just so she wouldn’t wait in the cold alone. “Some people think we just go buying everything they show on TV, but that’s not the case. It it was true, I guess all the ads on TV would work — and they’re all the time advertising stuff that dies because nobody buys it. We buy what we want and don’t buy what we don’t like. We vote with our dollars.”

When I was outside the store around 6:30 Thursday evening, I counted 54 people in line. The group was an interesting demographic mix. In addition to the other suburban white folks who live nearby, there were quite a few — nearly half – who were blacks who had come from more urban, lower-income parts of Birmingham. Arionna had some definite feelings about the idea of avoiding big stores and shopping at small local merchants instead.

“Do they know how much things cost at those little stores in my neighborhood?” Arionna asked. “I can’t get the kind of stuff there that I want and the prices for what they have are two or three times as much. And they people are rude to you and the place is dirty. Now why would I want to give those people my money when I can come to a clean store and pay half the price? I got four girls and I can’t afford to feed them and put clothes on them if I don’t save every dollar I can. I’m going to buy where my money gets the most and I don’t care who owns it.”

I couldn’t find anybody who felt as though the “big corporations” were dictating anything to them, but maybe they’ve all been brainwashed by seeing too many television commercials and don’t realize they’re marching lockstep as they’re told.

One of the best points I heard tonight was from the older guy who pointed out that big companies frequently introduce products that fail. How do the Occupy Black Friday people explain that? How do they explain the fact that many companies go bankrupt when they don’t offer people what they want at competitive prices? Why do Occupy Black Friday organizers believe people should make the choices they dictate — instead of the choices that make the most sense to the individuals?

The Occupy Black Friday people sound like socialists to me. If you read their Facebook page, their language sounds really compatible with what you’d find in run-of-the-mall socialist literature. Of the three people they mention in their “likes” on Facebook, two are outright socialists and the third may as well be: Bernie Sanders, Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore.

The kind of people behind Occupy Black Friday are the ones who want to dictate to people. Companies such as Target and Walmart don’t have any power to dictate anything to you. They’ll beg you to come shop with them. They’ll try to tailor their offerings to be what you want. But they’re not going to give you sanctimonious lectures if you don’t make the choices they want you to make.

I won’t be shopping anywhere Friday — whether it’s with big companies or small, local shops. Frankly, I think people would all be better off if they spent less of their money on consumer goods and saved more of it instead (preferably in hard assets). I live pretty simply and don’t really understand most of the consumer shopping that most people do.

But that’s just me. I do what I want with my money. You do what you want with your money. That’s the way it should be — regardless of what either governments or socialist protesters want.

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On a live awards show Sunday night, one man made a joke about a female celebrity. The husband of the celebrity was offended and hit the man who made the joke. Or maybe it was staged for entertainment. Who knows? Who cares? Social media is full of discussion — and even arguments — about this idiocy today. This baffles me. Let’s assume for a moment that the event happened as reported. People have been having such idiotic fights ever since there have been humans. Half the bars in the world see such brief dustups regularly. It simply doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people believe they need to talk about this — or even need to have opinions about it — is more evidence of the bizarre media brainwashing that convinces many to care passionately about brain-dead trivia. Your life will be happier and saner if you focus on yourself, your family and your friends, not on whatever scripted (or spontaneous) bilge that the media wants to pipe into your home.

I’m in the middle of migrating this website to new servers this week. This means you might encounter some unexpected behavior until I get all the bugs worked out. Clicking on my links (including this one) might cause your browser to give you the message that it’s a site without a current security certificate. It’s not actually unsafe, but there’s something which isn’t yet set up for the security certificate. I apologize for any such errors you might encounter while the process is going on. If you notice any problems with content which didn’t migrate properly, I would appreciate you letting me know the details at davidmcelroy@mac.com. Thanks for your patience.

I often wonder what animals think when they look at us and consider the society we’ve created. Yes, I know this is fanciful and unrealistic, but what if they could? Would they be astounded at how we treat each other? Would they be disgusted by the ugliness and pettiness which fill so many of our daily interactions? The truth is that I’m feeling pretty disgusted with humanity tonight. I made the mistake of reading some online interactions that I should have avoided — and it sickened me. The people involved appeared to be vile and stupid and arrogant. I wish I could pretend they’re a tiny minority, but I know better. It’s times such as this when I most need to escape much of “civilization” and disconnect from their world. If humans are going to be worthy of “ruling this planet,” we have a lot of growth to do. And I fear that growth is nowhere in sight. So my buddy Thomas, above, and all of his friends would be right to judge us harshly — and to think, “Why do you folks get to be in charge?”

I should have expected this, but I honestly didn’t. The article I wrote last week about disagreements over treatment for autistic children brought me angry emails. You could almost call it “hate mail.” Of the five emails about it so far, two have been to tell me that I’m wrong to even listen to critics of the most popular therapy for autistic children — and the other three tell me I’m wrong for not condemning the treatment as the “obvious” abuse it is. If you read the article, you know I didn’t take a position on the issue, because I simply don’t know enough to have an opinion. But by talking about the issue, I stepped into a heated controversy. The emails from the two sides convinced me of nothing. But they did give me even more empathy for the unfortunate parents who have to figure out for themselves where the truth lies for their children.

Have you ever had what you thought was a new idea — and then discovered that “old you” had the same idea years ago? I had that experience tonight. And it’s been wonderful. I came up with an idea tonight for a very short satirical film that would be a promotion for a fictitious college. The point is to make the college promote — as good things — everything which is actually terrible about most modern colleges. Then I remembered a fake college that I invented back when I was in college. I had created student recruitment brochures and various newsletters back then, so I decided to call my “new” college by the same name I’d invented years ago: Ochita College. As I searched my computer for any old material I might still have about Ochita from the past, I discovered an email I sent to someone in 2009 — outlining essentially the same idea which I came up with tonight. Since I didn’t remember writing that, it felt like magic. So my next film project just might be this one instead. If all goes well, you might soon see “Ochita College: Your Future Starts Here.” This should be fun.

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