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Features
Imprint, Friday, November 9, 2007
When you buy nothing, you’re doing nothing
Annual Buy Nothing Day criticzed — it accomplishes nothing and is a big waste of time cal market. The definition of consumerism can vary, and is unclear — much like the purpose of BND. Most definitions consider consumerism to be “purchasing outside of your basic needs” or “equating personal happiness with the purchasing of material possessions and consumption;” essentially buying things you don’t need for reasons that are inconsequential. Another definition is that it is an increasing consumption of goods to benefit the economy. The last definition is why consumerism is often associated with mass society and “evil” capitalism. “The man” is manipulating us into buying more stuff from the free market to satisfy the desire to have ever increasing
community editorial November 23 to the 24, 2007 is the 15th annual Buy Nothing Day (BND). A day to stand up against consumerism, where we are all encouraged to take some time to “remember that no one was born to shop,” a day where the “environmental and social consequences of first-world over consumption” are brought to light to shock all the zombie yuppies scrambling to buy matching gardening clogs for their pruning shears. The problem with this protest is that it actually perpetuates the mentality that drives consumerism, while simultaneously limiting the possibility of an ethi-
profits. While everyone can agree that consumerism is detrimental to our society, our environment and our souls, there is little discussion of what actually drives it and as a result attempts to stop it, such as BND, sell short. Consumerism is born from a combination of our materialistic values and an inexplicable need to distinguish ourselves; consequently we try to distinguish ourselves through our material possessions. This causes a purchasing arms race that some people participate in unknowingly, and some people can’t escape. Imagine attending a job interview in either an Armani suit, or a polyester no name brand. Which do you choose? While you
might never consciously take into consideration what someone is wearing when you’re doing the hiring, the chances are someone hiring you will. These situations ultimately motivate what you buy. You need to buy a nice suit to keep up with the other people applying for the same jobs, even though you don’t really need it. Then there is the other guy who buys the suit because he thinks it makes him better. The results, despite the intentions, are the same, but it is the mentality of the guy who connects the suit with status and self-worth that starts the race to the bottom. This desire to be elite that drives consumerism is the same motivation behind BND. People, who actively participate in buying nothing, join
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groups, have protests, give speeches all about how they are not doing anything on Nov 23 and 24 and that makes them better than everyone else. What makes it worse is that these same people are more likely to make ethical purchases, and as a result, the corporations that suffer are actually the good ones. BND will also never achieve its goal of “trying to raise awareness about consumerism;” it is only going to attract people who are aware of it already. “Joe ‘bling’ who drives a Hummer is not going to lose his desire to have a souped up SUV because of a Facebook group and an information booth. BND is just a way for people who all think they are ethically superior to everyone else to have a day to celebrate it, while at the same time limiting the purchases and support of the more honourable companies and corporations. It is true that thoughtless overconsumption is something that we as a society must stand up against, but parading around our values is not going to do anything. We have to work with the motivations and mentalities that already exist, and will never change. We have to remember that we need to buy things; food, bus tickets, even hybrid cars. It may be possible to buy nothing for one day, but to make a difference, we must buy better everyday. We as the consumer always have, and always will have the power to control the market. Conspiracy theories aside, we can demand products that are ethically sound through our purchasing habits, and when that doesn’t work (because the majority of people don’t care) we can demand policies that support better companies and penalize the morally corrupt ones. Taking tax credits from the bad guys and giving them to the good guys will hopefully provide the motivation for companies and people to make the right choices. We can’t rely on people to change their minds about the value of material goods but hopefully we can manipulate the market to have prices that reflect the unseen costs to the environment and our society. While this might not be the perfect plan due to my lack of knowledge and foresight into economic policy and philosophy, I would rather buy this as a solution to consumerism, than buy nothing. Getting their mom or dad to break up with your significant other for you, will make you the talk amongst their friends
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