Progress in an economic recession...

As we all have heard, this year's holiday shopping season was the worst it has been since the 1970s. So what's to blame?

The economic recession, deep discounts, and brutal winter weather have been cited by the International Council of Shopping Centers as the main reasons for the lack of shopping. According to the ICSC, sales in U.S. stores during the week of Christmas have fallen almost 2% from last year. Despite retailers efforts to draw in consumers with incredible discounts, the numbers show that things are bad as ever for the U.S. economy. 

As for me, my post-Christmas Day account of my friends and family's gift load did not seem like the holidays as usual. Furthermore, I have been thinking about how the economy's ability to force people to disinterest themselves with material possessions could actually be a form of progress. 

Once again, I feel the need to quote the transcendentalist genius of Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Property also holds of the soul, covers great spiritual facts, and instinctively we at first hold to it with swords and laws, and wide and complex combinations."

Material possessions hinder our perception of what is important, and ultimately what is part of the true reality of our world. In his essay "Self-Reliance", Emerson points out how "property also holds of the soul". It controls us. Our thoughts and our actions are heavily swayed by our quest for material satisfaction. 

This holiday season, Americans did not go all out on material goods as we have in the past. This article from CNN.com proves it. I argue that this is an example of real, honest progress. Even though we were basically forced to detach ourselves from the usual department store spending spree, we still got through the holiday season with less material rewards than before. From my own account of things, nobody seemed to be complaining. I mean how badly do we need that new iPod after all?

In the end, I hope that this year's unavoidable downturn in holiday shopping could lead to purposeful relinquishing of over the top spending in the years to come. Perhaps we could make a progression in which more Americans can begin to act from Emerson's principles regarding material goods. I am trying to realistic on this topic, so I do not want to cross my fingers. However, I cannot deny my desire for American society to one day make this undeniably true progression.