I really can't stand it anymore. Something needs to be done swiftly and severly.
The immediate materialism of the American consumer is absolutely disgusting me to the point that I want to yell at people... randomly and in a very loud tone (and kill their children).
Commercials spouting the glory of Consumer Christmas have been running since at least a week before Halloween. That's a full 2 months before this "holiday" takes place. Do we really need to saturate the market so heavily that the demand to
buy crap is stapled into our minds?
Granted, we're not all Christians/Catholics/Whomever the hell else celebrates Christmas, but isn't there any meaning left that doesn't involve the exchange of cash and little children
screaming their fucking heads off and/or yelling at their parents because they didn't get the hot gift of the season?
I can almost guarantee that on December 25th, if you listen hard enough... you'll be able to hear the superficial cries of tweens everywhere shouting "What the fuck is this?" when they open their gifts.
Materialism itself in this day and age brings me to the point of disgust. People constantly choose money and gift over actual emotion. I, personally, would like to think that something such as love is an unconditional emotion, and it can not be severed by the fact that one didn't get the other a good enough gift.
I must admit that the final breaking point with my tolerance was a Best Buy commercial that was shown about a week ago. (November 1st? It's not even Thanksgiving yet).
Two children are sitting in front of a Christmas tree... watching intently for the damn thing to fill up. Santa Claus comes bounding down the chimney to absolutely no welcome. He then looks under the tree and sees that the children are enchanted by a Best Buy box. Frankly, if I saw a mythical person shove his fatass down my chimney, I wouldn't care what's in the BB box. Of course the tagline was something along the lines of "We've got something to make everyone on your list smile". Who the fuck cares, and why can't being with your family offer enough happiness that a Nintendo isn't the only thing making them smile?
How about... "What are you doing for Christmas?" Are you going to see your family? Maybe you don't have a family... are you going to see friends? Maybe your house got fucking blown up in a meteor shower, and all of your family is dead? Oh, who cares? I'm getting a Nintendo!
It should not be about receiving things. If my parents came to me on Christmas Day and said "We didn't get you shit, but we still love you"... I'd tell them the same thing.
So considering there is absolutely nothing left in Christmas that doesn't involve material, I think Futurama is heading the right way with Xmas.
Frankly... The fact that there is a day known and recognized as "Black Friday", being the day after Thanksgiving that all stores put things on sale so that people can run out and buy $200 of manufactured love makes me want to blow things up... but that would lead to more and more paragraphs of ranting...
