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thatcrazycajunToday in the United States, and tomorrow elsewhere in the world, is the official launch of the annual holiday shopping season, This season more than ever, retailers are counting on all of us to spend money most of us don't really have to buy gifts, tchotchkes and other things...as predictions are that holiday shopping will decline this year due to the worldwide economic crisis.
Some, however, have a different view of this occasion: as a day to stop and consider the real cost of mindless consumerism—on workers in developing nations who slave in sweatshops for pennies a day; on the rapidly diminishing wilderness, overflowing landfills and polluted air and water being made ever more so by encroaching development and industrialization; on our own ad-bombarded, stuff-encumbered emotional and mental states. Which is why every year at this time, Canada's Adbusters Media Foundation (publishers of the quarterly hard-left magazine Adbusters) declares what retailers call "Black Friday"—so named because it is the time of year when their books finally are "in the black," that is, when as much as half their annual profits are made—to be Buy Nothing Day.
On this day, AMF urges people to avoid the sales, skip the stampede and keep their money in their wallets, purses and pocketbooks, save for essentials such as food, medicine and truly necessary transport. They urge you to give nothing that can't be made with your own hands, or recycled in some way from things already bought. It's intended not as an empty ritual to be abandoned the next day, but as an opportunity to see what life might be like without the satiation of that endless, artificially-induced "urge to buy"...and to consider making a lifestyle of it. And for those more activism-inclined (unlike Your Humble Correspondent), they offer suggestions for public demonstrations or speaking out about it.
Today, even if you've already gone shopping for non-essentials, read their manifesto and at least think about how each of us contributes to the destruction wrought by corporate giants on the environment, on workers, on society and on the economy. And about what the holiday season is really supposed to mean...whether your holiday is Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, Solstice or none at all. It's worth thinking about...for our descendants' sake if not our own.
ADDENDUM, 7:21p: For an example (sadly, not the first such) of what happens when the consumer frenzy whipped up by megacorps reaches its logical extreme, see this story (courtesy of a couple of folks on my f-list): Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death by Shoppers.
Some, however, have a different view of this occasion: as a day to stop and consider the real cost of mindless consumerism—on workers in developing nations who slave in sweatshops for pennies a day; on the rapidly diminishing wilderness, overflowing landfills and polluted air and water being made ever more so by encroaching development and industrialization; on our own ad-bombarded, stuff-encumbered emotional and mental states. Which is why every year at this time, Canada's Adbusters Media Foundation (publishers of the quarterly hard-left magazine Adbusters) declares what retailers call "Black Friday"—so named because it is the time of year when their books finally are "in the black," that is, when as much as half their annual profits are made—to be Buy Nothing Day.
On this day, AMF urges people to avoid the sales, skip the stampede and keep their money in their wallets, purses and pocketbooks, save for essentials such as food, medicine and truly necessary transport. They urge you to give nothing that can't be made with your own hands, or recycled in some way from things already bought. It's intended not as an empty ritual to be abandoned the next day, but as an opportunity to see what life might be like without the satiation of that endless, artificially-induced "urge to buy"...and to consider making a lifestyle of it. And for those more activism-inclined (unlike Your Humble Correspondent), they offer suggestions for public demonstrations or speaking out about it.
Today, even if you've already gone shopping for non-essentials, read their manifesto and at least think about how each of us contributes to the destruction wrought by corporate giants on the environment, on workers, on society and on the economy. And about what the holiday season is really supposed to mean...whether your holiday is Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, Solstice or none at all. It's worth thinking about...for our descendants' sake if not our own.
ADDENDUM, 7:21p: For an example (sadly, not the first such) of what happens when the consumer frenzy whipped up by megacorps reaches its logical extreme, see this story (courtesy of a couple of folks on my f-list): Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death by Shoppers.
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-29 12:19 am (UTC)The story is from 2006, but just as important in 2008.
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Date: 2008-11-29 12:34 am (UTC)(from the link you cited)
At least a couple of the premises in this paragraph can be disputed. Part of the stated point of BND is actually to get in the faces of the "wealthy high consumers" and at least give them a chance to be made aware of how their choices affect others and the world. Some may not care, sure...maybe even most. But if it only causes so much as one well-off consumer to stop and think—and maybe, just maybe, make a change or two—isn't the exercise still worthwhile? And more so, if it can reach more than one?
And as for "Whitey McPrivileged," it's intended for him too. Even if he does go right back to "business as usual" the next day, he can't say he wasn't at least given the memo if/when things really do go to Hell. Personally, while I am white, I hardly consider myself privileged; I take home less than $50K a year and live in a small apartment. And I don't generally spend excessively, even when I have been flush; my worst extravagance has been SF conventions and the monthly trip to the comic-book store. (And the former has been drastically reduced of late, for various reasons you already know.) But I promote BND if for nothing else than to at least prompt a dialogue about the whole matter...even if only in someone's own mind and heart.
I'm glad to have your opposing viewpoint presented here. And there is certainly a valid argument to be made that judicious use of one's money—such as your author does on BND–may do at least as much good. But I vigorously dispute that BND accomplishes nothing at all, or it wouldn't still be around and have so many supporters after more than a decade and a half.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-29 09:43 am (UTC)Easily the WORST mall on LI in terms of safety and security.
If you ever have to go there, keep a CLOSE eye on your wallet, and consider wearing a bullet-proof vest.
Bear in mind that this info is about 10 years old. I don't know how gentrified it's gotten since then, but the fact that this sort of thing happened on Long Island (and in that particular area) is not really a surprise to me.