Mad World

"Retail history is expected to be made in the UK today with analysts predicting the busiest shopping day ever recorded. Visa Europe believes that the nation's shoppers will use its cards to spend over £1 million a minute, nearly £18,000 per second - totalling £1.5 billion across the day."

"Visa predicts that the busiest shopping hour of the year will be on Christmas Eve between noon and 1pm, in a final flurry of activity before Christmas Day. A rash of discounts and sales is likely to hit profit margins as stores fight to entice cash-strapped shoppers through their doors."

- Sky News

"Millions of people have hit shops across the UK to secure last-minute purchases ahead of Christmas Day. Meanwhile, online shopping association IMRG expects consumers to spend £186.4m online on Christmas Day. It forecasts that £367.8m will be spent on Boxing Day.

"Hectic scenes have been reported across London's West End... [A spokesperson for IMRG said]: "There are also a lot of people at the Marks and Spencer and John Lewis food counters, where people seem to be panic buying."

- BBC News

"Time is running out for Christmas shoppers across the country as they hit the high streets in a last-minute buying frenzy. One million people were expected to descend on London's West End over Friday and Christmas Eve , spending an estimated £100m.

"In contrast, ugly scenes broke out at stores across the US as shoppers vied to lay their hands on Nike's new shoe. The release of the company's retro version of a classic Air Jordan model, which cost $180 (£115) a pair, was responsible for disorder outside stores from California to Georgia."
- The Guardian

Sometimes it feels like a dystopia of a world where every single original meaning or thought has been turned upside down to fit a particular agenda of a given time.

When did we get there as a society? When did it all become about materialism, so much so that we seem to spend our time buying, buying, buying...

There was a children's movie on TV earlier and as I ate my lunch I watched parts of it. I'd seen it before anyway. It was about some guy becoming the new Santa, but there it was, staring back at me, the ideology of spending and materialism for children to be inspired by.

This so-called Christmas time has nothing to do with family or anything innocent or pure. It's a give-away for excess and materialistic orgies.