Black Friday?

Black Friday?

Not even gonna lie. Even before I'd made a semi-career out of retail, the day drove me nuts. Not so much for the bargain-shopping aspect of it. I get the gist, even if yours truly might be the most penny-wise/pound-foolish this side of the Mississippi.

I told my friend Lisa, who'd wandered out into the madness, that the number of personal space violations don't make it seem like fun. Color me a product of our western life and times...unless invited in, I don't much care for folks entering that 12-18" neutral zone. As such, crowds are not usually my cup of tea. I tolerate them for certain things...concerts, sporting events, even the impromptu mixed martial arts fight that breaks out at the store.

But Christmas shopping? No. I can save enough money online, or in a late night excursion out to the Wal-Mart or Best Buy.

But, if you're looking to take in those deals, more power to you. I'm not looking to argue with you...the price of that TeeVee at Wal-Mart made me sit up and pay attention, too.

The other reason? The absurd sense of competition that seems to come out of it. Get a couple of beers in me, and you can get me started on a pretty good rant about the sense of entitlement a lot of us have (not excluding your old pal Big Stupid Tommy, even).

When you have one sense of entitlement bumping heads with another body's similar sense of entitlement, suddenly you have a competition.

Bump that sense of entitlement up against several senses of entitlement...say, people who have worked themselves into a frenzy surrounding the price of an XBox at Toys R Us, or a TeeVee at the Wal (hyphen) Mart...and suddenly you have a Battle Royale of epic proportions.

I told Lisa that if I had a vantage point where I could observe such an event unjostled and above the crowd, I might enjoy such a thing very much. Your old pal Big Stupid Tommy is an excellent and avid people-watcher.

But being caught in the middle of a sea of people whose priorities are out-of-whack enough to trample an old man at a discount store? Not fun.

Come on, people. This is the kind of shit that happens in the third world when there's a shortage of water. I don't condone a person being trampled to death, but if you're trying to get water to survive, at least I get that. Matters of life and death vs. the acquisition of stuff?

There's an evaluation of priorities, I guess.

I guess that's my point.

I like TeeVee. Quite a bit, actually.

Just not enough to trample a person.

Maybe it depends on the person, but on the whole, I don't like TeeVee enough to trample a person.

I wrote a few days ago that that there's a special hell for people who mistreat retail workers.

Well, if you trample a retail worker to death, there really is a special hell for you.

My sincere hope is that some good comes out of this. Not even trying to be funny. I'd like those people to be identified. I'd like them charged with and convicted of murder. I'd like to see a little bit of the mob mentality borne out of that aforementioned sense of entitlement curbed a little. And most of all, I'd like a few of them to see what a true matter of life and death is.

Yeah, this one's up in my craw.