Last year, I wrote a post about Black Friday called “Maybe Not Immoral, but Close.” In that post, I predicted that by this year, I’d move from calling the Black Friday Shopping Idiocy “close to immoral” to just wrong. So I’ve done it – the Black Friday Shopping Idiocy is wrong. Don’t do it.

It was probably wrong a long time ago, when retailers decided to take advantage of our greed and discontent and whip crowds into a frenzy on the day after Thanksgiving. Did anyone else catch the irony of that? The day after Thanksgiving (a day celebrating gratitude and contentment), we get up while it’s still the night before (still the day of gratitude and contentment), drive to the local mall or huge store, park a mile away, stand in line with hundreds of crazy people (and I mean literal, diagnosable crazy people) and hope to not be crushed to death getting into the store, all to save a few dollars on a new TV or whatever. Oh, then we get home and complain about how crowded and crazy it was, which makes us just as dumb as the other people we’re complaining about.

Anyway, that was probably objectively wrong years ago – but now I’m officially calling it. The Black Friday nonsense is wrong. Stop doing it. Don’t participate in it.

We have too much already. I’m not saying don’t buy gifts for people at Christmas; that’s fun, and I’m doing some of that. I’m saying don’t forget we have too much already. Therefore, having too much already, don’t participate in the Black Friday Idiocy. Don’t let yourself become one of the BF Idiots, when you probably don’t need to get those items you’re becoming an idiot for. Just stop it, already.

However, if you’re determined to abandon all sense of decency and morality (not to mention all common sense), and if you’re determined to buy into the very problem of Christmas commercialization that you probably complain about – go for it. It’s up to you. I’ve said all I need to say, except for one thing….

If you end up at the Gap on Black Friday, and notice a short, cute girl working there, be nice to her. She’s probably my daughter.

**For more insight on Black Friday Idiocy, check out Seth Godin’s blog.