Ah yes, the wonderful holiday season is descending upon us. The Clark Griswolds of the world are scurrying to put up Christmas lights and place tacky decorations in their front lawns. It's hardly December, yet life-size candy canes, inflatable Santas and plastic snowmen abound. Thanksgiving is almost a distant memory. It seems that each year we begin to celebrate Christmas a little earlier, but this past week there has not been much cause for joy.
While we were still digesting our second or third helpings of turkey and stuffing last Friday, terrorists were wreaking havoc throughout Mumbai, India. A small band of 10 militants, believed to be Pakistanis affiliated with the group Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pious), seized control of two major hotels and stormed a number of other buildings, killing nearly 200 people in a two-and-a-half-day ordeal in India's financial capital. What is most disturbing about these attacks is that they seemed completely arbitrary. The terrorists appeared to strike randomly, targeting Western tourists, locals and policemen. Also, no motive seemed to drive these senseless killings, making the disaster all the more frightening.
Despite this discomforting reality, I would venture to guess that this incident did not spoil many of our Thanksgiving breaks or prevent us from enjoying time with friends and family; however, it definitely cast a grim shadow over what is supposed to be one of the most peaceful times of the year. In my family, we were especially thankful my sister had decided to forego attending a friend's wedding in Mumbai this past week and tried not to dwell on what might have happened otherwise.
Here in the United States, Black Friday was certainly a shade blacker this year as well. At approximately 5 a.m., a giant mob of shoppers hell-bent on getting good deals broke through the glass doors of a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, N.Y. and shamelessly ran over a young employee, who later died as a result of his injuries. Four other workers were also wounded by stampeding customers, who amazingly continued to shop after the incident. Some have already begun to criticize Wal-Mart for its lack of security and safety precautions, but there seems to be a larger problem here: us.
Of course, the employee's death is tragic, but the human behavior that caused it is arguably even more so. If we were to extract a message from this mess, it would be that our society is so infatuated with accumulating meaningless stuff that we are willing to bulldoze anyone who stands in our way to get more, a bad habit that is accentuated during the holidays.
Yes, most of us do not act like this, but the Wal-Mart debacle speaks volumes about our priorities during the holiday season. Furthermore, the widely held belief that American culture is materialistic and superficial does hold water in light of this extreme example of rabid consumerism. Kudos America, your true colors really shine through during the holidays.
These two unconnected events seem to be turning holiday logic on its head. Awful things like this are not supposed to happen during a joyful celebration like Thanksgiving, but as much as we would like to set aside a time when the world would stop turning and people would live peaceably for just a few days, it is not possible. At the same time, however, certain problems can be avoided.
For example, whereas the killings in Mumbai were impossible to predict and the actions of the terrorists uncontrollable, a human stampede at Wal-Mart is the product of a society that is very confused about the true meaning of a holiday. Black Friday in Mumbai had nothing to do with Thanksgiving. Black Friday in Valley Stream had everything to do with it. Hopefully the latter will serve as a much-needed wake up call for all of us this December.
Unfortunately, it seems the holiday season is slowly losing its charm, and our society fell to an all-time low this past Friday when we trampled a man to death the day after we gave thanks for all that we already have. Luckily though, we can only climb upwards from here. Our next opportunity is right around the corner.
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