Friday Red Friday

Last Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, Jdimytai Damour, a 34 year old Wal-Mart associate was trampled to death by shoppers on Long Island, N.Y.  Excluding all terrors that would involve my kids, I think that death by trampling might be on my list of top ten worst nightmares.

This is not only because the pain would be relentless, but also because of other factors that I might be thinking, if there was time amidst the whole shock of the situation, such as, "I'm actually going to die right now."

And the tragedy only multiplies.  Perhaps if I was standing only ten feet away from that deadly spot, my life would have been spared for another half of a lifetime.  Also, getting hit by a car in an accident, or getting run over by a herd of wild animals might be easier news to swallow than the fact that my own intelligent fellow humans were the ones killing me; in fact, they were the same ones I was getting paid to serve that day.

Is a bargain really enough to drive someone to murder?  Some (not so smart) people might call this passion, and maybe it is some twisted form of the definition but I'd like to think of passion as something that runs a little deeper than my desire for a 32-inch flat screen TV on sale.  I might be willing to pay good money for a good bargain on a high quality product, but one doesn't generally find that sort of thing at Wal-Mart.

Yesterday I went shopping for a new cell phone at T-Mobile because a single button on mine no longer functioned, making text messaging, my main form of mobile communication, impossible.  The sales assistant who was helping me explained that my phone had water damage and that they would not be able to repair the phone.  "Water damage?  But my phone has never come into contact with water," I said.  He said that even a little condensation could ... [destroy the whole electronic device].

I reminded him that we live in Seattle, where there is a 100% chance of condensation on a fairly regular basis.  He said that he could give me a small discount on a new phone if I add 2 years to my contract, as if he was doing me a favor.  He showed me their least expensive phone.  I raised my eyebrows and said, "Really?  Not only does this phone have very few features, but it's overpriced, and it's ugly.  And it definitely does not look condensation-proof."  Fortunately he was a good sport and was able to laugh along with me at the absurdity of the situation, but I'm still stuck with a non-working phone.

So what about these trouncing Black Friday shoppers?  I would much rather be the dead employee than the people so miserable they have to kill a man in order to satisfy a drug-like stupefied infatuation.  But in all fairness I must put myself in the shoes of these victims too.  I've certainly experienced a mob mentality before, in the form of mainstream Christianity, but that doesn't really have anything to do with this blog post.

One summer I was at a very large music festival and I had been separated from the rest of my party in the crowd.  The band I was watching had just ended their show and as the people in the front left their places, the section of the crowd where I was standing began moving toward the stage.  I felt like I was going to get crushed and there was nothing I could do except get carried along.

Eventually I found myself way too close to the monstrous sound speakers on the stage which would make my already deaf ears even deafer.  So I had to shove my way out of the front row and any concern for the feet I was stepping/falling on, or the faces I was shouldering would've only defeated my purpose.

Together, and even through competition, a mob can accomplish much more than individuals but it can also (obviously) do untold damage, such as in the case of a mafia.  Walter Lippmann said, "Where all think alike, no one thinks very much."  I would guess that the Wal-Mart mob did not intend to kill anyone, not literally at least, although it is a little disturbing that they wanted to keep shopping after their manslaughter.

Still, how many areas of life am I mindlessly being carried along with the rest of crowd because it is too much work and suffering of ridicule to swim against the school of flow?  When it is a matter of eternal life and death, no passionate rebellion is too extreme - only too ignorant.  Jesus was a lone ranger in many ways, including in His death.  Although we need each other, the responsibility for our thoughts, beliefs, and desires belongs to each of us alone.

Well, maybe this post is about mainstream movements after all.

I can't believe the news today
Oh, I can't close my eyes and make it go away
How long, how long must we sing this song?

...

Broken bottles under children's feet
Bodies strewn across the dead end street
But I won't heed the battle call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall

...

And the battle's just begun
There's many lost, but tell me who has won
The trench is dug within our hearts
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart

...

And it's true we are immune
When fact is fiction and TV reality
And today the millions cry
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die

...

The real battle just begun
To claim the victory Jesus won

...

~ U2, Sunday Bloody Sunday