No strings attached?

I sit here in utter amazement over the release of the new PlayStation3. I just read a story where a Walmart had people camped outside of the building waiting for the midnight hour to come so that they could purchase one of the twenty, PS3's that Walmart would recieve. Fights broke out, police were called in, arrests were made and Walmart was closed down for a while.

What has happened to us? This sickens me to the core. There are people starving to death all around the world but here in the "greatest" country on the planet, we will camp out, wait in line to buy a $500 toy and fight for the right to do it?

We've lost something along the way in our "achievments." We've lost what life is about. We are pawns in a Madison avenue game, puppets on a material string, supposedly smarter than any other time in history but childish in our behavior.

I remember a time in my life when men would have laughed at the idea of playing video games. It would have been a waste of time that could be spent doing something useful. Now we have phrases like, "Big Boys toys." Maybe that's part of the problem. We've forgotten what it means to be men.

The very makers of these games prove that we are like puppets on strings when they dictate release dates and times, knowing that we will show up. Imagine 30 years ago, some toymaker saying, we will release our new toy on the 15th of the month at Midnight. Ooops, just more proof. 30 years ago you would have been hard pressed to find a store open at midnight. It just wasn't that important. My, how we have advanced.

I say it's time we cut the strings and take back what we've lost. I plan to do just that, just as soon as I get through this line!