Are values degrading?

As I was watching the news this weekend I was shocked by the amount of outrageous accidents that occurred on "Black Friday". A pregnant woman was trampled by a mob and had to be taken to the hospital, for example, and a store clerk was actually killed by the crowd as he let them into his store. These types of ridiculous stories really made me wonder what the world is coming to. Correct me if I'm wrong but this just does not seem like something that would have happened 50 years ago. I find it highly disturbing that people could be so self-consumed as to harm someone else in order to be the first one to the iPod display. This kind of ignorance and lack of concern is a major problem with this generation and the overall lack of values is truly upsetting and foreboding for the future.

I feel that a lot of this behavior can be attributed to the high priority society places on material aspects and the fact that, through TV and videogame violence, a good portion of this generation has grown desensitized to other human beings. We are so accustomed to seeing violence both on TV and in real life that we tend to overlook it. As we get more used to being around violence, we also become more accepting and less upset by it. This degradation of values and the appreciation for human life is depressing at best.

The fact that the day after Thanksgiving could be so filled with materialism in itself is contradictory to the spirit of the holiday. Thanksgiving should be a time to appreciate the things that matter in life, family and friends, not a time to rest up and leave at 1 in the morning to hit the sales at your local mall. In my opinion, Thanksgiving has become far too commercialized as a shopping oppurtunity and much of the original value of the day has been lost in translation. Thanksgiving should not be all about shopping and eating; it should be about people and memories. Too often I believe people lose that meaning. Any thoughts?