The idea behind “Buy Nothing Day“:
For 24 hours, millions of people around the world do not participate — in the doomsday economy, the marketing mind-games, and the frantic consumer-binge that’s become our culture. We pause. We make a small choice not to shop. We shrink our footprint and gain some calm. Together we say: enough is enough. And we help build this movement to rethink our unsustainable course.
Yeah, man. Right on.
This is a typical sort of presumptuous and reactionary stupidity. “If there is societal pressure to do X, I must perform the opposite of X!” But only for one day, of course. There are obvious problems with the concept:
- Why is this a good idea? By reviling the “marketing mind-games” and overtly reacting against it (in a pointless manner) you acknowledge that it has an authority over you. One day a year you don’t shop then the rest of the year your conscience is clean to live like a pig?
- What is your plan beyond “buying nothing”? What is the goal? Just that people not buy things they don’t need? How do you “shrink your footprint” by reducing your material expenses? You still participate wholly in this society. You pay taxes, you watch television, you use the infrastructure, and you buy the food and necessities this imperfect system makes possible (try growing oranges in winter), much of this produce coming from other countries and individuals who welcome your ambivalent spending.
If you want to live frugally and purposefully please do so. There is no quarrel with that. I don’t think anyone could make an argument for pointless waste and expense. On the other hand, many people who engage in the “frantic consumer-binge” by shopping after Thanksgiving Day do so because they feel they have a reasonable desire and excuse to do so. In other words, doesn’t it sound arrogant to accuse normal people like my grandmother of consumerist binging?
I totally see the point of Buy Nothing Day. Part of the reason for it is what you pointed out–it’s difficult-to-impossible to totally disengage from consumer culture even if you object to it. Most people who have problems with consumer culture aren’t to the point where they want to go live off the grid or whatever (personally I don’t think isolating yourself from others is the answer anyways), but that’s no reason to just throw up your hands and do nothing, even if a lot of what you do end up doing is mostly symbolic.
It’s not a judgement on your grandma if someone is choosing to participate in Buy Nothing Day, or even to criticize the buying orgy that occurs on Black Friday. Most people don’t even stop for a moment to think about the icky side of post-Thanksgiving shopping, to think about how much we have when others (including most of the people who make the stuff we buy) have so little. To me, if there is a point to Buy Nothing Day it is largely just to get “normal people” to give those things a moment’s consideration even if they do end up going shopping anyways.
Regarding your statement about the “If there is societal pressure to do X, I must perform the opposite of X!” thing. I think that’s a pretty simplistic / pointlessly insulting way of looking at another viewpoint. Some people may do “rebellious” things out of perversity, but others have better reasons. Just as some people might do more “normal” things because they’re mindless conformists, while other people do them because they’ve made an intentional decision for good reasons. There’s also the danger of reacting to reactionaries–if you get steamed thinking about what you see as knee-jerk rebellion, so you endorse the “normal” thing with a vengeance, you’re being reactionary too.
I agree with Susan. I think the point of buy nothing day is more to remind people to think about what the holidays mean and maybe reevaluate some things in their lives if their main focus is buying a ton of crap out of obligation.
Don’t get me wrong. I love to shop and I love a good bargain. But I think that before the buying frenzy takes over, maybe people should stop and think about where their money is going and whether or not buying that extra scented candle is really necessary. Wouldn’t it be nice if instead of fighting the other million shoppers at sprawlmart, they stayed home, had a cup of coffee, and wrote a check to the charity of their choice or just called a friend that they hadn’t talked to in a while?