We commonly decry the commercialism of the holidays, but often participate
nevertheless.  We have a choice!  We can "just say NO."  Friday, November 27 is "Buy Nothing Day," an opportunity to vote against the consumer society that is devastating both us and the planet.  It's simple:  for that one day, don't buy anything.
         Vicki Robin, co-author of "Your Money or Your Life," observes that each dollar we spend is a vote "for what exists in the world."  When I buy unbleached toilet paper made from 100% post-consumer fiber, I vote for recycling and less toxic manufacturing.  Purchasing organic grains and vegetables, I vote for sustainable agriculture.  If I don't buy toxic household cleaners, then less poison is produced.
         An axiom of modern life is that "expenditures tend to rise to meet the level of one's income."  Spending often surpasses income, as our epidemic of credit card debt shows.  We must avoid this trap, and instead apply an old fashioned idea:  save!  If we can invest the savings in healthy things like windmills or water purification, this will further magnify the power of our "votes."
         Our "standard of living" measures consumption, but what many of us crave is more time and a higher "quality of life."  An organization called "Redefining Progress" has developed the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), which would replace the GDP (Gross Domestic Product, formerly the GNP or Gross National Product).  "Progress" has been measured by growth of the GDP.  If neighborhoods are unsafe and people buy bars for their windows, that increases the GDP. Similarly, if the Exxon Valdez springs a big leak and it costs over 2 billion dollars to clean up some of it, that also counts as "economic growth."  Of course these aren't things we want, and the GPI counts them properly, as minuses.  While exactitude is impossible, the GPI accounts for things like the unpaid work of gardening or caring for children and the elderly, or the time people spend with their families and friends (these are plusses).  Though the economy is supposedly "robust," our GPI has been falling since 1970.
         How did we get into this mess?  Rampant advertising fuels the consumer fire,
keeping us spending and running on the treadmill while we tear up the planet.  By the early 20th century, automation had enabled us to meet our basic needs with much less work.  But if the machinery wasn't kept busy, manufacturers would suffer a poor return on their investment.  Advertising stepped in to "educate" us to want what we don't need, and thus kept the wheels turning.  For example, car models were changed each year so that we'd buy the "newest, latest, and best."
         This process accelerated after World War II, and advertising became progressively more sophisticated.  Our mass media aren't mainly selling magazines or TV programs to us; instead, they sell audiences to advertisers.  That is, they are selling us, or, rather--our attention.  Brilliant advertising artists use the latest discoveries in psychology not to help us, but to manipulate us.  We may say "I don't pay attention to ads," but I for one admit to being influenced by my surroundings.  The message of advertising as a whole is that material possessions and consumption are the tickets to happiness.  This idea is incorrect and very dangerous for us and the planet.  The single most important step in disconnecting from this insanity is to turn off the TV.  Try it for a week!
         Communities might consider how to reclaim public spaces from mass marketing.  If a community can restrict pornography, then why not also advertising blitzes that fuel an obscene consumerism?  Does anybody doubt that Joe Camel got more kids to smoke?  He should have been run out of town long before RJ Reynolds agreed to bury the slimeball as part of a big settlement in 1997.  Some will immediately protest that freedom of speech is sacrosanct.  This is a difficult issue and I may change my view, but I think freedom of speech should apply to individuals--not necessarily to large institutions that dominate the media and use this power to exclude and "marginalize" truly dissenting viewpoints and thereby set the boundaries within which public debate can occur.  Enriched by the Civil
War and capitalizing on the resulting chaos, corporations wielded money and influence to re-write the laws that governed their own behavior, culminating in an 1886 Supreme Court ruling that corporations have the same rights as natural persons.  These institutions have increasingly dominated our lives ever since, and we've forgotten that they were once subordinate to the will of the community.
         A related issue regarding public spaces concerns our style of commerce.  I've been following an e-mail discussion at a wonderful website called "The Center for a New American Dream" (www.newdream.org).  A man named Christopher in Thailand has perceptive comments about public, open-air markets that are common in many countries.  I spent three months in Guatemala; public markets are everywhere.  There are no restrictions:  if you have a basket of onions or some T-shirts, you can set up shop and start to sell.  Christopher observes that people can thus "participate in the economy" at the most basic level, and buyers can directly support their local economy.  In Guatemala, these markets are safe and friendly places that join people in a festive community atmosphere.  Christopher says they're similar in Thailand.  We have a glimmer of this with our wonderful local Farmer's Markets and occasional street fairs, but these are really pretty rare occurrences in the United States.  For the most part, such public commerce is strongly suppressed in our culture, yet apparently we believe this suppression is justified, while fearing that any restriction on Coca-Cola's ability to assault us with billboards would
be wrong.
         Mass advertising, consumerism, harried lives, health problems, and environmental destruction--they all go together.  Does anyone want to register a small protest and vote for a more humane and sensible world?  On November 27, observe "Buy Nothing Day."
 
 

        "If the GDP is Up, Why is America Down?"  This is a great article that appeared in the Atlantic Monthly magazine in October, 1995.  It describes:  "why we need new measures of progress, why we do not have them, and how they would change the social and political landscape."
        Redefining Progress is the organization that developed the "Genuine Progress Indicator" which is discussed in the Atlantic Monthly article.
        TV-FreeAmerica "is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that encourages Americans to reduce, voluntarily and dramatically, the amount of television they watch in order to promote richer, healthier and more connected lives, families and communities."
        GreenMoney has information and links regarding socially responsible investments and related issues.
        The Center for a New American Dream is an incredible resource.
        My articles "A Return to Frugality" and "Taking Responsibility" are complimentary to the article above, and the links from those articles are very relevant here also, especially links to Corporate Watch and Noam Chomsky.  In addition to his study of US Foreign Policy and the politics of power, Chomsky has done an incredible explication of how our media perform "thought control in a democratic society."  In addition to his many books, his ideas on the media are featured in a video called "Manufacturing Consent."