Merry Christmas (shock! horror!!)
A friend just sent me this link to a current news story about a McDonald’s restaurant that has the following text on their sign (Get ready, and if you have small children at your computer, avert their eyes. This is not for the faint of heart):
“Merry Christmas — Jesus is the reason for the season”
If you’re reading on, I can safely assume i haven’t caused any permanent damage to your psyche. Good!
The reason this made the news is that a Jewish woman is complaining that the sign offends her. To the McDonald’s Corporation’s credit, when she called the corporate office to complain, they informed her that the franchise operator had not broken any rules and was within his or her rights in the wording on the sign.
Key quote: “I care because I’m Jewish, and the reason for the season is upsetting to me.”
This is just messed up. I don’t know how else to put it. When did people start to believe that they had a constitutional right to never be offended? If nobody ever did or said anything that offended someone else, nothing would ever get said or accomplished. Just as that McDonald’s franchise owner has the right to put that text on his sign, this woman has the right not to eat there, if it offends her. If the mere sight of said sign on her daily commute bothers her to the extent that she has to change her route to avoid it, then she is in need of a good therapist.
Last year, at about this time, when Target started enforcing their no solicitation policy on the Salvation Army, I was offended. I stopped shopping there, and suggested that friends and relatives do the same. I didn’t write their corporate offices and demand that they run their business the way I see fit. They’re free to do whatever they feel is best for their business. I’m free to shop where I want. It’s a small sacrifice. Who really needs to buy any of that obnoxious, striped, Swell brand merchandise?
If people like this would just go stuff a Whopper in their mouth instead of a Big Mac, and spend more time chewing and less talking, the world would be a happier place this Christmas season, and we could focus more on the meaning of the season (or lack thereof, for you atheists out there), whatever it is to us, and less on bickering about our neighbor’s nativity display.
gooselady:
*cracks up…* You know the name! Lol…I know it’s all MY fault. I love target…I miss shopping there..but bah..evil corps.
December 19, 2005, 4:01 pmbret:
Why not complain? If they’re doing something you see as being wrong, why not try to correct it? That way you could shop there again, and get to be pestered by ringing bells while doing so.
December 19, 2005, 4:13 pmgooselady:
BOL…ahhh bret..you don’t know my husband..he haaaaates target..it was just the icing on the cake.
December 19, 2005, 4:40 pmgooselady:
And ahhh….as for me? I don’t miss it much..overpriced.
December 19, 2005, 4:40 pmNeo:
Here’s my reasoning: The concept of incorporation is to give a company a status and treatment under the law as though it is a separate, living entity, apart from the people that it employs. A publicly-held company is beholden to its shareholders to make every effort to earn a return on shareholder investments so, in effect, shareholders (and more directly, the board of directors) are the “brains” of this entity. The corporation will do what it can to earn a profit, and affecting the perception of profitability is a chief means of influencing the company’s behavior.
Now, let’s look at the corporation-as-person scenario. Suppose that I find out that you buy your pants from PuppyBeaters, Inc., and I find it morally reprehensible that you give your money to a company that is known to support the beating of puppies everywhere — the cuter the puppy, the harder the beatdown. I have the right to refuse to associate with you, and let you know why. I might even tell my friends and neighbors not to associate with you, and hope that, of your own volition, you change clothing stores, deciding it’s better to have friends than brand new PuppySkin™ pants.
What is pointless, however, is to attempt to suggest or imply that you are in any way obligated to do or not do anything based on my ad hominem argument. If you do, great. If not, great. I am not in control of your actions. To take it a step further (and where situations like this almost always end up in this ultra-litigous society), imagine I hired a lawyer to take you to court for your choice of pants, requesting the government impose my values on you because you have offended my delicate sensibilities, causing irreparable emotional trauma? Would this be okay, assuming that your actions were entirely within the bounds of the law?
It’s about the expectation of influence and the perceived balance of power. Consumers should not have the expectation that a corporation has no right to do anything that offends them, any more than they can impose their will on an individual. The above article is a case where I believe the consumer grossly overestimates her say in company policy, and could better spend her time elsewhere should she wish to make a difference in that policy.
December 19, 2005, 5:18 pmNeo:
Goose,
I don’t hate Target. I just think they are too focused on being a more trendy Wal-Mart, with less reasonable prices and a more left-wing corporate culture. There’s a market for that type of store, but it isn’t me.
December 19, 2005, 5:20 pmbytor:
Personally I think WalMart being the “Borg of Retail” is a worse threat than Target. They invade a community, make the local economy dependent by driving the competition out of business and with their “SuperCenters” add more stop lights and traffic to already congested roads. They also treat their employees like crap and their handling of their workforce is starting a dangerous trend in which companies expect more and provide less and less in the form of benefits and even contributions for 401k.
Companies look at what WalMart has done and are seeing that as a model for business and supporters for WalMart say “They create jobs” True, but no one is young forever. Service related lower paying/benfit jobs that WalMart and others provide are not a replacement for the technical jobs lost to India or China. We are slowly becoming a third world country and if we don’t wake up and see the consequences of this, then we are doomed. The economy can not thrive on Walmart alone, we have to have industry to give American people decent jobs with decent pay. This is the American Dream and Walmart and others promote the opposite.
That being said, I did my Christmas shopping on-line with American sites and one trip out to the local seasonal store for Steinbach nutcrackers. Yes the Nutcrackers are German and I can not verify that the products from the website wern’t all made in America, but the point is the place I did business was small free enterprising people, not Walmart. My way of doing my part to ensure that local economy and small business people get my $$ instead of the Borg..
Merry Christmas and Neo is dead on with the whole thing about “the McDonalds Prophecy”. That lady’s complaint is baseless and this isn’t Tel-Aviv or Jerusalem, this is America and the first admendment allows people to speak their minds. She has certainly the right to express her opinion, but it has to be weighed in perspective. It’s not like the franchise owner was claiming that Hitler was right or “Hannukkah is a farce” or joining the mindset of the Iranian president that the Holocaust did not happen… That I could see as offensive.
Another perspective. A Synagogue says something like the light of the Menorah is the true light to god, well if someone Catholic took offense to that and verbalized that it was offensive to their beliefs, they would be labeled a Nazi or worse for complaining.
Bottom line (finally huh??) people should respect each other’s beliefs but should not quickly denounce or complain when they find themselves offended and should also realize the source of their feelings and put them in perspective. If I was that lady, I would be more worried that the Iranians might want Israel destroyed and less worried if something offends me.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and if someone does not agree with my attempt to pass a joyous greeting, then go believe in whatever you believe in or BAH HUMBUG!! :)
December 21, 2005, 4:52 pmNeo:
Hey Bytor! Long time no comment. Then again, long time no post by me. ;)
For a while I tended to beileve the same about Wal-Mart and most large retailers, in general — that they were somehow bad for stepping on the little guy. Then I heard a comment by Michael Medved on talk radio just a week or two ago that made a lot of sense:
Without stores like Wal-Mart that engage in aggressive price negotiations with their vendors, and can do so due to the sheer volume of business they do, the average working man’s dollar would not go nearly as far as it currently can. He used the example of a friend of his who buys baby supplies at Wal-Mart and claims to save over $100.00/mo. That is no small chunk of change!
I think valid arguments can be made either way, but there is something to be said for keeping prices down as a way to fight inflation.
December 21, 2005, 5:09 pm