Consumerism is a manic behavior that will bury us under a pile of trash

Date:   11/22/2006 12:59:12 PM ( 18 y ago)

"Take a consumer detox and stay out of the stores" on Friday Nov 24th.

This is the 14th annual "Buy Nothing Day", a global phenomenon that originated in Vancouver, Canada. It occurs on the the busiest shopping days in the retail calendar.

Our aggressive aquisition of material goods, an advertising-driven manic behavior, will bury us under a pile of garbage someday soon.


There are personal and environmental reasons for participating in Buy Nothing Day:
Participants could do the "zombie walk" thru malls to draw attention to the idea of reigning in our rampant consumerism, or hold credit card cut-ups, or talk to consumers about the 'environmental and ethical consequences of overconsumption' like avoiding products with over-packaging, products made from fossil fuels [plastics], or even just to avoid adding to their collection of shopping bags [plastic] by re-using or using the non-disposable kind. .
Personal reasons are things like allowing yourself to switch off from shopping and tune back into life for one day, to 'spend a day without spending', an escape from the marketing mind games and frantic consumer binge that has come to characterize the holiday season. Or, as for myself, it is to confirm my abandoning of "the holiday season" completely - I stopped doing Christmas altogether.

Global Warming has become much more important to people recently, with Al Gore's Movie and the Stern Report and the strengthening storms. Consumerism is a big part of that problem, due to it increasing our use of fossil fuels and the production of products that requires energy ; Capitalism itself is under attack due to global warming, and shopping is the heart of capitalism.

So whatever your reasons are, please Buy Nothing this Friday. I never figured out why the article says Nov 25th also, but extend it thru the whole weekend and see that nobody gets hurt by not shopping. Your cupboards and closets are FULL of stuff you could use instead of buying MORE [and then THROWING OUT the old] [often without ever using it].

Try it, you might like it!!
Karlin

Link to article:
"Friday is Buy Nothing Day - No purchase necessary"
http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewActNote6.cfm?REF=1

 

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