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Re: buy nothing day - - bad idea

Dan,

The point of Buy Nothing Day is *not* as a boycott. Instead of thinking 
about it as a *boycott*, think about it as a *fast*. Participating in it 
is more beneficial to the person choosing to participate than anyone else.

Apart from that, I do not consider it my duty to big coporations to buy 
stuff from them so their CEOs can take home big bonuses while 
outsourcing, downsizing and moving operations offshore to sweatshops. 
While it's true that spending money *might* boost the economy, I do not 
agree with the very narrow understanding of what an economy is that is 
peddled by Greenspan and his cronies. An economy is more than money. It 
is more than GNP. Even the most conservative supply-sider will agree 
that continual growth is *bad* for the economy (the only things that 
grow and grow continually are things that are either sick or are a 
sickness.)
And the price we've paid for growth this last time around (since the 
early 90s) was the advent of outsourcing, the continued upward shift of 
wealth to into the pockets of the already richest 10% of our population, 
  NAFTA (which allows American corporations to run sweatshops in Mexico, 
among other things), and the continued degredation of the environment.

If I could free myself from the clutches of big corporations by making 
and doing everything for myself, I would.

I *do* consider it my duty as someone who takes the teachings of Christ 
seriously to practice personal restraint and to oppose the wicked in 
their oppression of the weak and poor. I *do* consider it my duty to set 
an example. I *do* consider it my duty to be creatively peculiar, to 
make symbolic actions that might not change the whole world but will 
exemplify what I believe to be good and right and true. Our nation is 
filled with greedy, impatient, empty people who think that consumption 
will fill the void of their lives. It is filled with people who are 
becoming less and less able to have meaningful relationships, exchanging 
real life friends for Friends on t.v.. I remember an idea for a movie a 
friend of mine had in which there was a society that set up speakers 
everywhere and had music playing all the time, indoors and out so that 
people wouldn't have to face themselves or converse or anything else. 
They could just go to work, produce, listent to the soothing Muzak and 
go home all without being bothered by the emptiness inside them. In a 
nation of overconsumption, restraint and boycotting are sacred. In a 
nation of blaring t.v.s and stereos, silence is a treasure.

There is a point at which one decides to take an action not because it 
is going make life easier for oneslf, but because it will make life 
better for others, including one's children.


John

-- 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
|| BUY NOTHING DAY ||

November 23, 2001 is International Buy Nothing Day.
On the busiest shopping day of the year, the day after American 
Thanksgiving, people from over 30 countries take a break from the frenzy 
and cast their vote against the golden calf: consumerism and the global 
economy. (http://www.adbusters.org.)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.johnpauldavis.org

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