Since 1992, Adbusters magazine has been promoting an annual "Buy Nothing Day." It is traditionally held on the day after American Thanksgiving, which is apparently the most shopping-intensive day of the year. This year, the fast from consumerism is marked on Friday, November 23rd in the USA and Canada, and on Saturday, November 24th internationally. There are activities in various cities worldwide where activists do things like walk zombie-like through malls, publicly offer to cut up your credit cards, or line up together to form convoys of people pushing shopping carts with nothing in them. But the main activity is the not-buying of things.I'm going to take the plunge and not buy anything on either day. Care to join me?
Imagine a day (or two) where you've decided beforehand that you're just not going to buy anything. No coffee beverage, no newspaper, no dinner and/or a movie, no gas at the gas station, no pop or chips. No impulse purchases of new shoes, mascara, CDs/DVDs, or that other cool doo-dad on sale 'today only.' Just a day (or two) of using what you already have. No need to even pay attention to advertisements on TV or the radio or the internet, because you've already decided that you have enough of this, that or the other thing. A time where we reclaim our identity as people, instead of just consumers. Where we remember that we are human beings who love and care for each other, not just handy marketing targets. Where we re-assert that the economy serves the people, the people don't serve the economy.
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Come to think of it, these past two days have been buy-nothing days for me. I didn't leave the house though, which makes it much easier for me.
It would be interesting to keep tabs on just how many buy-nothing days I can have in a week or a month, or how many I can string together in a row. Hmm.....
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