Counterargument to Leonard

Dear Students:

David Sirota, writing for Salon.com as well, argues counter to Leonard when he asserts that "Black Friday's true meaning...is less about succumbing to the agitprop of a commercialized holiday than about deeper cognitive dissonance and self-delusion.  We know greed isn't good, but we nonetheless actively embrace its narcissistic temptations.  We tell ouselves the shopping and profligate spending is about yuletide altruism, when what's really driving sales is avarice.  So devoted are we to such avarice, in fact, that we now fuse it to our national holiday of thankfulness and shroud it in a veneer of Christmas spirit, all to preserve materialism as something to celebrate rather than to shun--or even to question."

See the full article here:

http://www.salon.com/2012/11/28/dont_blame_commercialism_for_your_shopping_madness/