Dignity and Deals

“People in places many of us never heard of, whose names we can't pronounce or even spell, are speaking up for themselves. They speak in languages we once classified as ''exotic'' but whose mastery is now essential for our diplomats and businessmen. But what they say is very much the same the world over. They want a decent standard of living. They want human dignity and a voice in their own futures. They want their children to grow up strong and healthy and free.”

Former Vice-President and Senator Hubert Humphrey said these words almost half a century ago as the last remnants of 19^th century colonialism were giving way to 20^th century movements for independence.  In the decades following WWII, millions of people in the 2/3 world stood up to the powers of the world and claimed self-governance and dignity.

Over the last year, we have seen much of the same thing happen in the events of the Arab Spring.  Millions of people have stood together and cried, “enough!” to forces of oppression and degradation.  At the heart of much of the rhetoric of the Arab Spring has been the importance of liberty as a necessary ingredient of full human dignity.  We as a world have witnessed the power of the many against the few and the refusal of whole nations to continue to submit to systems of enslavement and degradation.  They demand nothing less than their basic human dignity.

What a contrast between the masses of people in Tahrir Square in Cairo risking their lives and putting themselves in harm’s way for a taste of freedom and the masses of American shoppers camping out and putting themselves in harm’s way to get a $2 waffle maker or $100 plasma TV.

At few times in modern history has the juxtaposition between societies been so great.  While millions around the world demand the most basic of human rights and the most elemental level of human dignity, millions of Americans shove and struggle not for their rights but for their waffle irons and TVs.

Personally, I don’t care whether someone wants to get a cheap deal on Black Friday.  If lining up all night to save $50 is your thing, then I say go forth and shop.  The shopping itself is not the problem.  What troubles my soul is the idea that while so many of our neighbors are struggling for their very dignity as children of God, we are so easily distracted by shiny objects with a sale sign over them.

With seeming obliviousness to the difficulties in our own society much less around the world we line up for the sales as though our only concern is more effecient and cost-effective consumption.  Is our freedom and liberty as a people really so perfected that we have nothing more to worry about than how much we pay for an appliance or electronic component? 

In a nation where the division between rich and poor is greater than at any point in human history; where tens of millions of children go to bed hungry; where cities are willing to spend millions to move out protestors whose message they dislike but nothing to house the homeless; are our priorities really where they need to be? 

I am not sure that it is an either/or proposition in the end.  It may very well be possible to be a saavy shopper without becoming so distracted by consumption that you forget the world around.  The trouble comes when saving money blinds our eyes and our souls to the world and the very real needs in it.  A good deal is a good thing until it demands of us so much of our time and energy that we become enslaved to the very desire for the deal and, in our enslavement, robbed of our dignity.

So line up for the waffle irons and TVs and other super-duper deals, but while you wait to save a few dollars take a moment and consider what this system of consumption and consumerism and human commodification is doing to your and your neighbor’s dignity. 

In other words: what does it profit a person to gain a cheap waffle iron but lose their God given dignity?