Tomorrow You may Die

Have you ever seen the movie Brazil? It's a fascinating and very strange film; what else would you expect out of Monty Python animator turned director Terry Gilliam? He certainly gives you what you bargain for visually. But do you remember how it's always Christmas in that film world? It's that way because the government has become to big and clumsy, and as governments can't seem to manage economies very well (governments tend not to understand economics) that government made it Christmas all year. The intent was to encourage people to spend for the sake of the economy. It was all that government could think to do, everything else, as should be expected, having failed.

Enter Black Friday, that infamous day after Thanksgiving when shopping excess is supposed to be all the rage. But can the American buying public wait that long? That's a whole four days from now!

Never fear! There are billboards up already across the Detroit Metropolitan area advertizing that Black Friday prices are available now, this very day. There's no need to wait under Friday; shop now!

Granted, these adverts are placed by a private company without government coercion. That only makes our point off by degree, not substance. We must spend because we must help the economy, even with unimportant or knee jerk purchases, because we must help it. Besides, our government has in the past tried to steal the holiday season for that same nefarious purpose anyway. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, that man of the people, wanted to manipulate their feelings and have Thanksgiving earlier simply to increase the Christmas shopping season. He had to try something: his other policies weren't working. Thank goodness a German madman stepped in to kick start the American economy or FDR would have never gotten a fourth term. That's important to a power hungry man.

It is quite interesting that governments and large private entities who are so concerned these days about separation of church and state don't mind tapping into religious sentiment when it suits their selfish purposes. Don't allow your a cashier to say Merry Christmas, but take all of the person's money, honey. We can't have Nativity Scenes on public property, but remember that Christmas is driven by wonton excess for the sake of your country.

That attitude stinks. But what can we expect of an increasingly secular world? Tomorrow you may die, and without having pleased your friends and indulging yourself, what kind of life would you have lived?