"By-products of a lifestyle obsession"

Most people are materialistic to a certain extent (including myself), but the holidays always seem to bring out the extreme cases, like this Florida couple who set up camp outside of Bestbuy on Wednesday in order to get deals on Black Friday. From the article,

"We've been doing this for six years now and we got beat out by the same guy for the last six years," said Lorie Davenport. "So this year, we said, this might be our last year, it might be our last hurrah, so we're coming extra early if we have to because we are gonna be first if it kills us."

Now that is extreme. They must really really want or need something that's really really cool, right? You would think . . . however:

Although the couple say they're not sure what they'll buy when the doors open at 5 a.m. next Friday, they are hoping for a good deal on a large-screen TV or perhaps something from the Apple Mac line.

To me, that's the worst part: they don't even know what they are standing in line for, and I don't think they even care that much, as long as they get a good deal on something. I have an image of that Honeycombs cereal mascot - that spazzed furry thing that jumps around saying "Me want honeycomb! Me want honeycomb!" That's how I imagine these people: "Me want good deal! Me want good deal!" Insanity!

I am not going to any store on Black Friday because I can't stand large crowds of insanity (large crowds at an amazing concert - different story). The good deals just aren't worth it, and I don't want stuff just because it's a good deal. Even if I did go, I'd never get a deal on anything I want because I would never camp out, so I'd get to the store when the shelves are half-empty, and I'm not pushy enough to get to the shelf first.

I'll end it with quotes from my latest obsession, Fight Club (the film - I have yet to read the book):

"You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you."

"We're consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra. "

"Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think every thing you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned- Tyler."

Happy Saturday! (I almost typed Friday, not because I was thinking about Black Friday, but because I honestly thought it was Friday. I do this a lot.)