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No-Buy-Friday vs Zombie Consumerism & the Rationalizations of ‘Stuff Junkies’. [1]
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Date: 2025-04-10
No-Buy-Friday vs Zombie Consumerism & the
Rationalizations of ‘Stuff Junkies’.
elenacarlena wrote this comment for my No-Buy-Friday diary of Thursday 4/3/23
“It’s a warning. If they see us organise not to buy on one day, then they know we can organise to stop buying entirely, to buy locally, to support unions, to support raising taxes on the wealthy, to vote out their favourite corrupt politicians. It’s “We’re not necessarily going to take away your money. But we can. Do better.” ‘
~~~~~
From its inception, I’ve recognized No-Buy-Friday as a means to an end.
Often there is criticism that as a movement it lacks a specific goal or target, which I’m guessing robs it of purpose in the eyes of some people.
They see it as empty for lack of ‘branded’ impact. They will invariably ignore or dismiss the larger message it sends, as if a lack of specificity makes it abstract and nebulous, pulling its teeth.
I take this critique for projection, sent forth by ego or avoidance. As most politically savvy people I know are enthusiastically supportive, that’s where I choose to do my banking.
To be perfectly honest, I’ve never been 100% certain what its original intention was, nor do I give a damn.
When I first heard of it, I assumed it was meant to send a message back to the oligarchs to stop taking our consumer compliance for granted, and conceived to pressure their megalodonic assault, as they strip Americas assets and burn the husk.
~~~
I began fabricating my adultifice during the 1960s protests against the Vietnam War, which, incentivized by the draft, incubated on college campuses. However, it quickly grew to denounce many of the ills of a society already rotting from the ‘bacteria’ of wealth and corporate malfeasance.
The environment, equal rights, anti-sexism — all took shelter under a makeshift tent thrown together by the passions of a generation rebelling against the stiff boot of conformity, conservativism and an elitist white patriarchal power structure willing to send its youth to die for ‘grand designs’. Vietnam galvanized us and in our Gandhian way we fought back with whatever non-destructive means were available.
Creativity stepped in to guide us and fill in the gaps.
With ‘fire’ off-limits we relied on numbers and smarts.
Seldom used before, boycotting proved a brilliant strategy.
A few decades later, during the Iraq war there were attempts made to revitalize some of the counter-fire we had employed earlier, including protests and boycotts.
But America had changed. Probably as a reaction to too-much free love and other ‘indulgences’, many cut their hair, hung up their beads and bought into consumer capitalism — lock, ‘stock’ and “Crate & Barrel”.
Although we were already well on our way in the 60s to becoming ‘stuff junkies’, this wholesale capitulation to the seductions of materialism, in many ways, desiccated our will and we traded our self-esteem for privilege. (The Manhattan Indians drove a better bargain.)
Protest during the Bush/Cheney administration was ineffectual and boycotts crashed on the launchpad, because voices on both sides of the aisle spoke out against them, telling us we’d only harm ourselves by threatening our precious economy. This reasoning was readily accepted because so many were already shopping-addicted — and priority-conflicted as a result.
After we were rolled in November, the pro-active amongst us began readying themselves to resist the onslaught we knew was coming.
‘Protest’ and ‘boycott’ were found in the back of the tool shed and dragged out to be hosed down and resuscitated.
Remembering well the demonstrable effect that boycotts had back in the day, when I first heard of NBF I was already on board.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, the term boycott comes with baggage. It has a retaliatory, punitive connotation, as well as being shaded with a tacit understanding that it is ‘loaded’ to target the corporate behemoths and the power structure behind them.
I’ve come to prefer the term ‘buynotts’ which are more corrective in nature and of a wider and varied application.
~~~
About a year after the pandemic, it occurred to me that if we were to save ourselves environmentally, we needed to ‘shut down’ again. I wrote several articles specifically addressing this and left numerous comments where appropriate.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/3/2185012/-When-you-re-ready-to-listen-there-s-a-path-out-of-this-mess-if-we-re-mature-enough-to-choose-it
In my mind, this is by far the most valuable prize to be gained by mastering consumption.
NBFriday has the potential to rally our troops and throw open the gates for defensive maneuvers.
I see it as a useful way to get ‘domesticated consumer sheep’ to come out of their materialistic stupor, toss their yokes and start to exercise the power they have as the other half of a consumption based society.
Many of the people who have embraced this once-a-week endeavor, have organically expanded its limits to employ it more liberally. They’ve tasted empowerment and comprehended its heft. In the comments, they speak of taking conscious charge of their spending and consumption as they learn by participating, the real difference between need and want.
In this process they segway from the ‘foraging’ of boycott to the full ‘buffet’ of ‘buynott.
~~~
It’s ironically less threatening to give yourself over to the commands of others than pursue self-realization.
Failing that, it can be convenient to find fault with and tear down the ideas of others, than it is to embrace responsibility.
By adopting the persona of a sceptic, you can tell yourself that through offering the insight of your elevated intellect you are making a contribution, when all you’re really doing is pissing.
NBFriday is not Athena, sprung fully grown from Zeus‘s head.
Initial conceptions are always raw and somewhat inadequately formed from the start, but they often carry the seed of change. Formative growth demands improvement, which leads to the adaptions necessary for realizing the function they were intended for.
Those of us that support No-Buy-Friday are anything but naïve. We know it isn’t perfect.
What in life is?
But our experience tells us that we have to start somewhere and not be stymied by unreasonable expectations. Our memories are stuffed with endless examples of the barely-noticed taking on outsized importance, just as the 60s protests started with ill-organized, and at first negligible, spontaneously coagulating groups of concerned and frightened youth.
Where others see inadequacy, we see possibility.
With focus, mutual support, commitment and tenacity, we can tap the source NBFriday offers us — fed by the spring of our indomitable will to survive.
The only obstacle is that which we through in our way.
[END]
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