Black Friday sales are in the news both in Britain and the States. The first day after Thanksgiving, this is traditionally taken to be the first day of the Christmas shopping season. In the States, it is recognized as a holiday in some of the states. After years of economic doldrums, this Black Friday turned out to be quite special. Heavy discounts attracted huge crowds to many stores. Roads around some stores became gridlocked. There were stampedes galore. Disgruntled customers occasionally assaulted store staff members. There were fights among customers over many coveted items. Customers refused to leave stores even after they were told there was nothing on offer any longer. Police was called to many a store to help control the chaos. In the States, there was a boom in gun sales, as well. In online purchases, throngs of customers crashed many a website. And so on, and so forth. The Black Friday blues took place in two of the leading countries in the world, both of which are doing relatively well in economic terms. One is a going empire while the other used to be one. So, what does this tell you about the human species? More to the point, what does this tell you about the ability of the human species to resolve major problems on its way?