Life After Shopping
Entirely logically, the Rev. Billy Talen of the Church of Life After Shopping has endorsed today’s Buy Nothing Day, suggesting people stop shopping and start giving. Video from his interview on “Democracy Now” here.
“We can’t just be full of cheap stuff everywhere made in sweat shops thousands of miles away with fossil fuel everywhere, plastics everywhere, and credit cards and everybody in debt. We can’t continue that. So we’re looking for an alternative.”
There’s only one way to avoid the collapse of this human experiment of ours on Planet Earth: we have to consume less.
So this November 27 (November 28 in Europe and overseas), we’re calling for a Wildcat General Strike. We’re asking tens of millions of people around the world to bring the capitalist consumption machine to a grinding – if only momentary – halt.
We want you to not only stop buying for 24 hours, but to shut off your lights, televisions and other nonessential appliances. We want you to park your car, turn off your phones and log off of your computer for the day.
We’re calling for a Ramadan-like fast. From sunrise to sunset we’ll abstain en masse, not only from holiday shopping, but from all the temptations of our five-planet lifestyles.
Take the Plunge:
You know what they say: a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. You feel that things are falling apart – the temperature rising, the oceans churning, the global economy heaving – why not do something? Take just one small step toward a more just and sustainable future. Make a pact with yourself: go on a consumer fast. Lock up your credit cards, put away your cash and opt out of the capitalist spectacle. You may find that it’s harder than you think, that the impulse to buy is more ingrained in you than you ever realized. But you will persist and you will transcend – perhaps reaching the kind of epiphany that can change the world.
For more information:
https://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd
