Buy Nothing Day
Today is the day on which we are encouraged by counter-culture organizations to buy nothing, in protest against the mindless consumerism of western society. By and large, I think this is a noble idea, but it does crack me up that there are websites where you can purchase t-shirts and stickers supporting the effort to go 24 hours without consuming anything.
This is no stranger to me, though, than the big box stores opening at 5:00AM so people can begin their Christmas shopping as early as possible. The idea of setting my alarm clock for a pre-dawn hour just so I could be first in line at K-Mart or Fry’s Electronics strikes me as heartbreakingly pathetic. On the other hand, I’d like to have a photo printer for 29 bucks, too, just not that badly.
Who are the people who show up these early morning sales, anyway? Last year a woman was seriously injured when she was trampled in a buying frenzy at Wal-Mart, I think it was. I wonder if she’s back this year for more.
The irony of this, of course, is that all over the world, for most people, for most of recorded and unrecorded history, probably every day is buy nothing day. So here’s another one of these odd efforts on the part of modern human beings to make a big deal of something that could hardly be more commonplace. I suppose it’s only a matter of time before we have “Use No Computer Day” or “Refrain from Plastic Surgery Day.”
Restraint, however, is to be commended in many cases; there are any number of things I would like to see people stop doing for a day. How about a “Kill No One Day?” Or a “Torture-Free Day?” And you could certainly put me on the mailing list for “Twenty-Four Hours Without Child Abuse.”
But I’ll try to buy nothing today, even though I guess I’ve already bought the idea of doing so.
This is no stranger to me, though, than the big box stores opening at 5:00AM so people can begin their Christmas shopping as early as possible. The idea of setting my alarm clock for a pre-dawn hour just so I could be first in line at K-Mart or Fry’s Electronics strikes me as heartbreakingly pathetic. On the other hand, I’d like to have a photo printer for 29 bucks, too, just not that badly.
Who are the people who show up these early morning sales, anyway? Last year a woman was seriously injured when she was trampled in a buying frenzy at Wal-Mart, I think it was. I wonder if she’s back this year for more.
The irony of this, of course, is that all over the world, for most people, for most of recorded and unrecorded history, probably every day is buy nothing day. So here’s another one of these odd efforts on the part of modern human beings to make a big deal of something that could hardly be more commonplace. I suppose it’s only a matter of time before we have “Use No Computer Day” or “Refrain from Plastic Surgery Day.”
Restraint, however, is to be commended in many cases; there are any number of things I would like to see people stop doing for a day. How about a “Kill No One Day?” Or a “Torture-Free Day?” And you could certainly put me on the mailing list for “Twenty-Four Hours Without Child Abuse.”
But I’ll try to buy nothing today, even though I guess I’ve already bought the idea of doing so.
posted by Professor Dave at 11:12 AM
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