28 November 2008
Buy Nothing Day
http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/2008/11/27/the-church-of-stop-shopping/ Reverend Billy and Savitri D of the Church of Stop Shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. It’s known as Black Friday to many but to Rev. Billy and Savitri D, it’s Buy Nothing day. And with an economy in decline the Church of Consumption, where everything was a profit center, has taken a hit. What will replace it? Rev. Billy and Savitri D say that instead of looking to the corporations we can look to ourselves. Support your local economy. Give time not money. Hell, make something. Reverend Billy's Ten Commandments THOU SHALT 1) Forgive people, yourself and everybody else. We all shop too much. 2) Know your Devil. Shoppers are only dancing in the land of ten thousand ads. Consumerism is the system. Corporations are the agents of the system. 3) Respect the micro-gesture. Magicalize the foreground. Fore-go the plastic bag and grab that bare banana– Amen! 4) Practice asking for Sweat-free, Fairly-traded products. That's the rude that's cool. 5) Buy less and give more. Giving is forceful, the beginning of fantastic new economies. 6) Buy local and think global. Love Your Neighbor (buy at independent shops) and Love The Earth (walk to, bike to, mass transit to – the things you need.) 7) Citizens can buy or not buy, produce or not produce. We can change to a sustainable personal economy. Then corporations and governments will change. Envision the history of a product on a shelf. Workers and the earth made that thing. Resisting Consumerism is an act of imagination. 9) Complexify. Don't be so easy to figure out. Consumers tend to regularize. Shopping at big boxes and chains make us all the same. Viva la difference! 10) Respect the heroes of the resistance. A small band of neighborhood-defenders who staved off a super mall with years of protests? Beautiful. It's our turn now.
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"Love The Earth (walk to, bike to, mass transit to – the things you need.)"
Indeed. Back here in Prague again, I can't help but be struck by the superbly functioning public transit system. Trams, buses, trains, and now the latest import from France, hundreds of publicly owned bicycles for cheap rent: feed the meter your credit card, grab the bike, go, drop it off at a bike station nearest your destination and all done. Awesome concept.
The whole public transport mindset is ingrained here. When repair of a tramline adjacent to the river had to take place, alternative riverboat transport was arranged, with a bar on board, naturally. That is what I call civilization.
I was thankful for that, not just on Thanksgiving.
Do you ever think of remaining in Prague, or the Czech Republic? Seems sane.
Good to hear you're living a full life, Michal...
I'm thankful for friends.
Yes, I often think of staying back here, again, and making a safe haven for all us here. My family has the base here, it could be done. What makes me insecure about the idea is not the soul of this place, nor the people here, but the neighbors. The ones that trampled this land the last, the ones that still harbor the hope to reestablishing their recent control over Bohemia. There is a reason my father took us to the Land of the Free. There is a reason why I served five years in the Air Force of the Land of the Free. There is a reason why I am your neighbor. I can dream about coming back here, forever, but not until Bohemia's neighbors are like you.
And now that you got me thinking again, I have to mention another bizarre conflict raging in my mind these days, as a dual citizen. Namely, in the US I consider myself a liberal, with all its trappings, most times. Here, I vote conservative, with every bone in my body. Why? An extremely complicated situation, but liberal here means pro European Union, which is against Bohemian interests, in my mind. Sigh. Hop on a plane, and next thing you know, everything is upside down.
We are in constant states of conflict, it seems...and yet, today has been so good. Just hearing from you made it better.
Peace on your house, Michal...in your heart and on earth.
B
RIght back at ya!
Oh, and speaking of buying nothing, here is an excellent use of shopping carts:
http://www.dezeen.com/2008/11/30/moving-forest-by-nl-architects/
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