The Day to be Thankful

Today is Thanksgiving and families will gather around the table for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner even if, after four years of a “Great Recession,” it has become difficult for some people to find reasons to be thankful. Lately, this important secular holiday has been at risk of being eclipsed by Black Friday, the ritual shopping spree that occurs the day following the turkey dinner. That day is entirely dedicated to sales which celebrate the start of the holiday shopping season, and which play a crucial part in the fourth quarter of the year’s budget.

Traditionally, shoppers wake up before dawn and start queuing up in front of stores in order to start the lunatic assault on unbeatable deals on games, toys and electronic gadgets. It appears to be a futile gesture by a “cargo cult,” which aims to alleviate an acute sense of emptiness through the acquisition of discount goods – or a pagan festival, which has similar representations in the rest of the Western world.

It may be that this sort of extreme shopping instilled with such patriotic ardor can only be found in America. Years ago, President Bush expressly asked Americans to “keep on shopping”* to fight terrorism. This slogan has now been changed by those who believe that the crisis can only be beaten through the sacrifice of consumption. The fact remains that in order to optimize Black Friday profits, the biggest stores of the retail sector need to attract customers this year, and the big chains opened at midnight rather than dawn in order not to waste even one hour of sales.

A spokesperson from Target said that this was “customer service not forcing people to wake up in the dead of the night”* but instead giving them the opportunity to get in line comfortably after dinner. The giant retailer Wal-Mart which, like Target, does not accept trade union representation for their employees, immediately replicated this initiative. Store clerks were simply told that they had to come to work the night of Thanksgiving and that whoever disapproved of that decision should be thankful to have a job in these times instead of complaining.

Come on, it’s Thanksgiving! In order to demonstrate how the economic polarization is surfacing underlying social conflicts, a Target employee from Nebraska named Anthony Hardwick circulated a petition asking for a shift toward humanity “in the name of workers’ dignity.”* Within a couple of days, he gathered over 200,000 signatures.

* Editor’s note: The original quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.