Christmas
consumerism runs wild
Ahh. The Christmas season is upon us. It
is a time of love, family, colorful decorations
and pretty lights…oh yeah, and gifts. I
can’t help but be a little bothered by the
theme Christmas has adopted. The only people
that get genuinely excited about Christmas
are little kids. The rest of us think of
only money, traffic, debt, time and malls
— the only true tangible experience of hell
on Earth.
The worst part of it all is that we are
force fed the commercials and the advertisements
and we all just accept the fact that this
is the way things are. We need to buy tons
of stuff to show people that we love them.
The news even gives us advice about staying
out of debt during the holiday season, as
if having to drain our savings to buy stuff
is inevitable and we should all be resigned
to the fact.
Is anyone getting my point? Where did this
come from? Commercials for diamonds are
telling husbands to “show her you love her
on Christmas”. Is this really what we have
reduced love to? Why does no one stop and
ask him or herself what they are doing before
they commit themselves to the stress of
the mall during Christmastime?
I do not think putting ourselves in debt
was of our own making, but we sure accepted
it all pretty easily. We are all consumers,
we are the passive masses, but we don’t
have to be. Simply asking questions changes
things.
Presents are fun, especially when you’re
a kid. But more of the fun comes from opening
them and being surprised, of spending time
with family and of eating more turkey and
stuffing. The television keeps spewing out
advice and suggestions about how to stay
out of debt by not putting too many gifts
on credit cards. Their suggestions do not
provide any kind of options. You must buy,
they tell you, but buy wisely. All this
occurs amidst the attack of commercials
telling us that they can solve the great
mystery of love if you’ll only give them
a chance.
So there’s my Christmas rant. I don’t expect
a Christmas revolution to spawn from this
column. I just want us all to question why
we feel the pressure we do around this time
and where the root of this pressure exists.
Don’t even get me started on Valentine’s
Day. Have a relaxing break and try to avoid
that death trap they have so sweetly named
the mall.
Tina Page is a journalism major at Cal State
University Long Beach.
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