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Celebrate "Buy Nothing Day" [VIDEO]

Posted by Howie Klein, Down With Tyranny! at 5:45 AM on November 23, 2007.


Today's action is just a 24-hour moratorium on consumer spending. I think if I've gone for 37 or 38 years without a Coke or Pepsi, I can certainly handle that.
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Celebrate Buy Nothing Day

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This post, written by Howie Klien, originally appeared on Down With Tyranny!

I didn't celebrate Thanksgiving yesterday but today I am celebrating Buy Nothing Day, even if it does gross out MTV.

1969 found me in Kabul, Afghanistan... very young and very high. I got a letter through poste restante from my friend Helen telling me about an American student boycott of Coke and Pepsi in retribution for the ramping up of American aggression in Vietnam (I think... let I said... very young and very high). I've never had a sip of Coke or Pepsi or any related products since reading that letter at the cafe in front of the Finance Ministry. Only problem is, no one remembers any boycott and that includes Helen, who doesn't even remember writing me a letter. Basically, I'm not even sure I was in Afghanistan when I started my boycott. It may have been Kathmandu in 1970 (which makes more sense since I recall that the impetus was the tragic shootings at Kent State in May, 1970, a month or two after I got to Nepal).

Todays action is just a 24 hour moratorium on consumer spending. I think if I've gone for 37 or 38 years without a Coke or Pepsi, I can certainly handle that. Here's the ad MTV refuses to run; I hope it inspires you too.

Digg!

Tagged as: economy, consumer spending

Howie Klein is the creator of the blog Down With Tyranny!


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The comments for this story have been closed. Thank you to everyone who participated. 		View:
Consume less and share more
[Report this comment]
Posted by: metamind on Nov 23, 2007 7:48 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's an addiction to money which is at the root of it all. Money makes it easy to consume more. You don't have to produce anything ... just get more money.

Our true addiction is to money. The Chairman of Sony Inc. was quoted as saying "In Japan we make things. In America you play with money."

Try growing your own food for a change. Raise a pig, cow or chicken. If all you need to do is "get more money" you don't realize what's involved in food production.

Share more of your possessions with others. If you can give someone something they need rather than forcing them to buy a new one you will be helpful in reducing our consumption. Learn to trust people. Let them borrow your stuff. Trust is a virtue.

Money makes us DIS-trust people. Why should I trust anyone when I can simply depend on money?

Trust people and DIS-trust money. It's a failed system. We are "working for money" now. We're trying to keep a failed system going by over-consuming.

Focus on building "trust relationships" rather than accumulating more stuff.

Grow a garden!

Steve Moyer
http://stevemoyer.us

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Wouldn't it have been more of a sacrifice
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Ellie1 on Nov 23, 2007 8:21 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
to make Nov. 23 "buy nothing day"? Most people will be back to work, full of tryptophan and leftovers, or too spent out from Black Friday to even think of buying things on Monday.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Disappointing
[Report this comment]
Posted by: rjgwood on Nov 23, 2007 10:57 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I thought the day after Thanksgiving (today) was buy nothing day??? Did i miss a big change, or what?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: Disappointing Posted by: ajsz
» RE: Disappointing Posted by: bornxeyed
Boycott big box stores and buy no gas on the 11th day of every month
[Report this comment]
Posted by: LeftWright on Nov 23, 2007 12:34 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
While a successful "Buy Nothing Day" the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) would be great, we need to send a regular message to big business that we want our congress and our country back.

Only shop local or not at all on the 11th day of every month.

(It is strange that the date was wrong in the above video, an old video perhaps?)

The truth shall set us free. Love is the only way forward.

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This kind of idiocy . . .
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Scientz on Nov 23, 2007 3:13 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
. . . is typical of the "left".

I challenge you:

1) Name a boycott that ever EVER worked.
2) Now ask yourself how many people, or what percentage of the population, actually took part in that successful boycott.
3) Now ask yourself how many people, or what percentage of the population took part today.
4) Now ask yourself what percentage of the population would HAVE TO take part in order to make a dent in corporate profits large to force them to acquiesce to your demands.
5) Now ask yourself why you are still stupid enough to believe in boycotts.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: This kind of idiocy . . . Posted by: thetruth07
» RE: This kind of idiocy . . . Posted by: Richard House
» RE: Memphis Bus Boycott. . Posted by: lamac66
5% uses 25% of resources
[Report this comment]
Posted by: vertical on Nov 24, 2007 10:07 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
They say that one American uses the same amount of resources as 250 Ethiopians. It is not your average American but our A-listers that use all those resources. I bet if we got rid of ourr a-listers we could cut uor consumption in half. For instance, Donald Trump is on the west coast when he notices he needs a hair cut and his hair engineer is on the east coast, so he gets on his Gulfstream and flies to the other coast to get his hair done. That flight would use the same amount of energy as if 18,888 incondescent buklbs were swithced fo cimpact flourecents, and those bulbs have mercury in them. They want the average American to switch their incondecsent bulbs for mercury laden comp[acr flourescent one. Save the Earth, kill a celebrity!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

How about "buy less crap"?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Salo on Nov 25, 2007 1:11 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As a small retail business owner, I"m getting a little tired of the Buy Nothing mantra. It's okay to buy stuff, but how about just buying less crap in general? I'm looking at all the so-called recycled green gift stuff out there...and you know what? it's still crap. How much junk do you need? Buy thoughtfully, and we'll all be better off. Even those of us making a living selling things.

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» "Buy thoughtfully" Posted by: YogiBear
Workers, not Consumers
[Report this comment]
Posted by: peachmcd on Nov 26, 2007 10:03 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I've celebrated Buy Nothing Day for the last few years, and didn't buy anything this year on Black Friday. It's just one day, tho. More important to consider our whole way of life, and change bad habits Every Day.

What disturbs me about AdBuster's video is that this org, which I love, seems here to buy into a rhetorical shift that has hurt most Americans gravely. Our fundamental identity in the media has been changed since I learned left from right.

I am a WORKER. I PRODUCE wealth for others, and see little of it. I need to eat to live, and I need to wear clothing or they will arrest me. But when you speak of me as a CONSUMER, you make someone else the producer, and I'm gonna argue with you about that, AdBusters.

Peach McD in Durham NC
Whose daddy was a proud union man and taught her well.

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