Crucified at the crux of greed and envy.

[richardf8]

Learned from level_head who learned it from rowyn that at a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, an employee was stampeded to death by a mob awaiting the store's early opening. Do read the story if it is not familiar to you

Comments

[deckardcanine]

Everyone who discusses this incident faces the fact that the worship of greed can be more disgusting than any other common worship.

Your repetition between paragraphs somehow reminded me of a butchered "Dayenu" translation, even before you cited Ben Zoma. And as long as I'm thinking Jewish, I'm a little surprised to see you write out "God" instead of censoring part of it.

[richardf8]

I had not been thinking along the lines of Dayenu when I did that, I simply wanted the refrain. However, there is something appropos in your mention of it, given my quarrel with our "too much is never enough" society.

I don't muck about with the word "God." For starters its an English word, as old as English itself. It is not a Name, and therefore I don't see how the rules concerning Names can be applied to it. The only exception is if I am in a community where the standard is "G-d," in which case I follow the minhag out of respect for the community.

[deckardcanine]

Fair enough. I just thought I'd seen you type "G-d" or a variant like "G*d" in the past.

[childings]

I'm so glad I don't work retail anymore. Also I was sickened to find the woman in the news video blaming the retailers for not being "organized enough".

[richardf8]

Didn't watch the video, but oy. The sheep are blaming the shepherd for not riding herd on them enough. Ugh.

[_wastrel]

I can only wish I could have articulated my reaction to the collision of insidious socio-economic memes it took to cause this so coherently. On a personal level, I'm that much less likely to take on faith that being afraid of crowds is irrational. From crowd to mob, there's not always a full step.

[locakitty]

I read about that and was absolutely pissed off. Especially when I read that the customers continued to trample through while the EMTs were there trying to save the poor guy

[richardf8]

Can't say much more to this than "yup."

[deckardcanine]

Not murder if the killing was unintended. In truth, I'm disinclined to shame anyone but the people in front who deliberately broke the doors.

Here's the thing: If you're in a crowd and you see someone getting trampled, you may want to help the person, but you're also aware that the same thing could happen to you if you stop to do so. And then you'll have helped nobody. It's a reasonable fear of the frenzied, unknowingly violent people behind you that propels you forward.

The trick, then, is not to be in the crowd in the first place.

[timtylor]

Just letting my brain freewheel here, but could sales shopping have become a sort of mass sport? I'm thinking a bit of things like medieval "mob football", which by the look of it was a big crowd activity that could also turn very bad. Of course, shopping frenzies are far more individualistic than even the most mobbish team sports. But I'm wondering if excitement and the desire to be caught up in the event might be as much part of this as the simple greed for cheap stuff.

[richardf8]

Except that the limited availability of the cheap stuff is the event. No simple greed for cheap stuff, no event.