You know Capitalism has truly reached religious status....

[Marxaveli]

when you see this type of shit occurring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8O6IMYSSs7c

Fucking commodity fetishism.

[#FF0000]

that isn't commodity fetishism.

black friday is great though lol

And I think this is what can be expected when something hard-to-obtain is suddenly very very easy to obtain. Something expensive is suddenly rather cheap and I can get it? But a million other people are going to try to get it too? time to fight people.

[Marxaveli]

Sure looks like CF to me. If it isn't what is it exactly?

[p0is0n]

Sure looks like CF to me. If it isn't what is it exactly?
I think caramelpence does a good job summarizing it:


Well, a fetish itself is something that is the product of human activity but then becomes a power over human beings - like the religious idol that human beings physically produce and endow with mystical qualities and then feel the need to pray to, despite its ultimately human origins. Commodity fetishism is a condition in which human beings fetishize commodities by treating them as if their status as commodities was inherent rather than being specific to a historically conditioned mode of production. It is the condition of universalizing commodity production rather than acknowledging its historical specificity. In this way, human beings come to give commodities independent power, but the important thing here is that this is not a matter of pure illusion or a purely subjective error - under capitalism it is actually the case that commodities exert power over human beings, and it is on this basis that human beings come to universalize commodity production and accept it as given.

[Marxaveli]

Well, if the above description of CF is accurate, then I'd say my labeling of this video as such is pretty spot on. It is crazy how something such as a phone has the power to make people act in a religious-like fervor to the point where they fight or riot over a inanimate object. At any rate, this is really a sad symbol of what capitalism has done to us.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Don't worry, here's the antidote:4aYrurD-E7E

WalMart and other retailers have created this anual frenzy - in fact WalMart is the one that keeps pushing back the start of "Black Friday" that has now begun to provoke some push-back from workers.

If a rich man threw $1000 into the gutter and people on the sidewalk dove for it, we shouldn't moralize about the people putting their hands into the sewage, but the inequality and daily competition that makes reaching into crap worth it.

[Haunter]

If a rich man threw $1000 into the gutter and people on the sidewalk dove for it, we shouldn't moralize about the people putting their hands into the sewage, but the inequality and daily competition that makes reaching into crap worth it.

True.
I think black friday should be used better.
Now, you see in that video people fighting over cell phones.
Non-necessities. And all of those people probably *already own a cell phone anyway*.

But can you imagine what would happen if cell phones were replaced with food, water, electricity, or some other essential resource?