Black Friday

Black because it signifies the point that the retail industry in the USA moves from debt to credit. From red to black. It's not a UK thing but last Friday we imported the worst elements of Black Friday. Hard discounting. Greed. Fighting in stores. It was ugly. It was violent.

We saw people fighting to buy things that arguably they don't need. We saw the worst excesses of greed jump-started by marketing. Watching people scrap over Polaroid TVs was grotesquely fascinating.

In a world where consumption defines us. Where we use clothes as antidepressants, where we use brands rather than opinion to define ourselves, where what we own is more important than what we do I guess that I shouldn't be surprised. But I was. I was shocked. I don't want to be part of this. So next year I'm buying nothing new unless I can't get it second hand. This consumption, this greed, is not in my name.