I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween. I love trick or treating, carving pumpkins, wearing costumes, the festivities, and thinking of spirits. I hate the commercialization of cheap plastic crap adorning people's lawns and the glorification of brutality and violence. The type of society that casually enjoys decapitation, gore, and skeletons, is a society that is far too comfortable. It is a society that has never truly experienced actual hardship or brutality. We need to stop normalizing violence in society, especially in Halloween advertising. You know where they don't have such violent Halloween media? Answer: In places where there is actual violence. In Mexico and the Philippines, where people actually get beheaded, Halloween or All Saints Day, is a celebration of lost spirits. People gather for potlucks in cemeteries and remember the spirits of lost family and friends.
I hate the proliferation of cheap costume stores popping up around Halloween. I understand everyone has to make a buck, but I certainly won't be spending my dollar there. How many junky costumes, and plastic accessories end up in the trash? All of it. Don't even get me started on those full face plastic makes; I can think of no better way to encapsulate your head in chemicals. Be original; make your costume at home and put some make up on.
the commercialization of Halloween is a symptom of a society that is too comfortable, too far removed from what really matters. it's a society (in general) that has lost the ability to contemplate, to reflect, to empathize, and to appreciate what really matters.
ReplyDeletesome people fail to see the link between the product and the producer, it's consumption run amok. some people's lives are bounded by Hamilton, Toronto, Kitchener, and Fergus. Thinking is too hard to do, let's watch Hockey Night in Canada. Celebrity pages (masquerading as the Life Section) plus the Sports pages take up over half of a newspapers' page. More people can tell you who won last night's game and the NFL schedule for the weekend than can people who can recite Harper's bulldozer of an agenda.
I'm just saying...