I’ve been reading about the Not One Damn Dime protest on inauguration day. The idea, in case you missed it, was to spend nothing on January 20th to oppose the state of things in Iraq. It’s sort of like Buy Nothing day only with less consumer, more political underpinnings.
I think I support Buy Nothing day. There’s a crazy consumer frenzy in the build up to Christmas and Buy Nothing day is a pretty good reminder that you don’t need spend a giant pile of money to have a good holiday. At least that’s my interpretation of it. But in general these one day spending freeze protests get up my nose. I think they’re too simplistic.
There are days, like, oh, New Year’s Day or Thanksgiving, when i’s kind of hard to buy stuff. Pretty much everything is closed, save the 7-11. Here in the snowglobe, you can’t buy a thing on Sunday. I’m pretty sure these days don’t bring down The Man. Why should days like the Not One Damn Dime day, the Gas Boycott, and October 19th be that different?
Okay, if you’re a shopping addict, maybe these pseudo events are good for you. You become aware of your consumer habits and you make a concerted effort to not spend any money. It’s good practice. Also, you become educated about ties between consumers, corporations, and the government. But hey, you could also just be a procrastinator. I need to put gas in the car, but I guess it can wait until tomorrow. And the action as a procrastinator is exactly the same as that of an activist observing the “event.”