Celebrating the holidays in style: Buy Nothing Day

Buy Nothing Day

"Now is the time to question the goal of a Big Mac in every hand, and Britney Spears as cultural Ambassador, to reclaim the meaning of being American."
-- quoted from this Eastern Michigan University article on Buy Nothing Day.

This Friday is Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. It is also becoming known as Buy Nothing Day through grassroots anti-consumer efforts.
My friend and I used to go to the Carousel Mall in Syracuse on Black Friday, not to specifically buy anything, though we would usually end up getting a game or something that was on sale, but to people watch and to stand around and take up space. Long lines and crowds aren't a problem if you have no agenda. It was like our own form of protest, though we were too apathetic to think of it that way and we had no knowledge of Buy Nothing Day.
Ironically, my friend is now a sales manager at a Wal-Mart and was recently telling me about his store's preparations for Black Friday.
I like the idea of Buy Nothing Day, even if no one actually buys nothing. I'll probably end up being too lazy to pack a lunch and end up spending money on food. But just telling people about the idea can do a lot to get them to think, to break them out of what The Northern Light calls, "pseudo-reality."
From the Northern Light's article on Buy Nothing Day: "Advertising has taught us to detach from reality and embrace a pseudo-reality. Inevitably, we spend money on superfluous products to enhance our pseudo-reality rather than to face the true reality."
That quote pretty much sums up everything Adbusters is trying to do. There's also a frightening amount of truth to it. Everyone liked that scene in Fight Club where Tyler Durden told us we are not our "fucking khakis," but everyone continues to buy. We were all entranced by the vision of Fight Club, but the same generation (or consumer demographic, same difference.) was seduced by the iPod. And then the iPod mini, because you need one in pink. And holy fuck! The iPod Nano is so tiny and shiny that I NEED to have sex with it! RIGHT NOW!
I have been a video game junkie for much of my life and I have absolutely no need or desire for an Xbox 360. There are games that I will eventually want to play, and the idea of being able to play games and talk to my friend in Texas almost as easily as when he lived two hours away is appealing, but the lineup of games is mostly sequels or movie-licensed crap. Yet people are incredibly excited about this launch. It's not a coincidence that this is the first video game system that had a 30 minute TV special hosted by a celebrity. People have by now conveniently forgotten the audience of freakish clone-people that were paid by Microsoft to clap and coo and form X's with their arms on cue at the E3 presentation.
Further disturbing statistics from the aforelinked Northern Light article: "Suggesting we are indeed the magnified reflection of our socio-political circumstances, Americans' $9 trillion personal debts exceed the U.S. $7 trillion national debt." It also mentions that 1 millions Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2004.
Think about how much power the Xbox 360 will use, along with your computer, DVD player, TiVo-like device, etc. Think about how much that electricity will cost, not in only in dollars, but in pollution from generating electricity. There's a C|Net article about home electronics power consumption that talks about how much electricity all these fancy new plasma TVs are going to use (some models will use as much as a refrigerator). It also mentions that the recharger for your cell phone, laptop, or digital camera often wastes 30-70% of the electricity it draws and can draw power even when it's not charging anything.
Anyway, enough ranting for the moment. Try not to buy things, or try to buy less, and try to tell people about it. And punch a mall Santa Claus in the face while you're at it. He's used to it, he's a homeless drunk.