First, you probably don't want to play this video around any ears you consider delicate.
I am wondering just how we managed to produce such a bunch of crass, greedy, selfish assholes. Is this a result of corporate marketing finally succeeding in completely taking over the world and sapping out the last bit of humanity from our souls? Is it the fault of the parents, or are they also corporate victims? When the kids grow up, will they come to their senses and say "Enough is enough, it ends here and now"?
This is one of the hardest things to endure during the days (months?) preceding Christmas. The big marketing pushes to make the holiday all about gifts - and those gifts will be held up for judgement to see if they are good enough - your children, spouse, mother, girlfriend, boyfriend, best friend, co-workers... they will be judging you based on the quality of your gifts, so make them good. This doesn't just happen fictionally is advertisements, it happens for real, and is one of the causes for such great holiday anxiety and depression. People are afraid that their efforts are just not good enough, they will not measure up to expectations.
What caused these attitudes? Is it corporations and their marketing? Is it human nature? Is the bad combo of those two things? What can be done about it? Can we just jump off this crazy Merry-Go-Round en masse?
9 comments:
I got my candy thermometer to replace the one I broke..and a bottle of Tabu to replace the one I had used...I was a happy camper.
There is something horribly horribly wrong with this society.
This generation has no future.
Spoiled brats are spoiled brats in every era. We just have way more of them now than at any time in history. Thanks, consumerism!
Books and art supplies make the best gifts in my opinion.
I wonder how many people out there got guns for Christmas.
M2M (raj sjarma and m2mdaily): those are corporate spam posts but the wording was mildly entertaining so I will leave them there (for now).
*actual* commenters: We are almost completely off the insane vicious cycle of the gift exchange. We give each other NO gifts for either Xmas or birthdays.
We have a couple of long-distance friends who we exchange modest gifts with (usually CDs), and MrB's family are given very modest gifts as well (and I receive a couple of gifts there - his mom is always way too generous). I always make a calendar via Cafepress and that's what they get whether they like it or not. I try to make it interesting and personal. MrB gives each kid (adult or juvenile) a fancy chocolate bar, even though I wish he would quit it. The really little kids are given gifts, for sure - plush toys or educational toys.
OK spammers, I am no longer entertained. Buh-bye.
raj sharma said...
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m2mdaily said...
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Late to the party so I missed the spammers. At 61 I remember a time when Christmas wasn't inundated with constant ads on TV but instead Christmas specials like Andy Williams, Bing Crosby, et al. I blame advertising all the way - it's turned people into drones/robots that do as they're told. This year I made a donation to a local group that is opening a low cost spay/neuter clinic in 2012. I got great responses from my co-workers. I'm just plain tired of getting & giving gifts. TOO MUCH STUFF!
Each spam had a link to some corporate website or somebody selling something. those dropped out when I pasted. Oh well... [shrug].
I like the charity gifts the best (as long as it's a secular charity). :-)
I have to say that since we have a couple of Republicans at work that I toyed with the idea of donating to Planned Parenthood, just to piss them off. Most everyone - since I hired a lot of them - are animal folks, with some being animal rights people/vegetarian/vegan.
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