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The many Foes of No-Buy-Friday & ‘Buynotts’. We billet the enemy within us. Commit! [1]
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Date: 2025-04-17
The many Foes of No-Buy-Friday & ‘Buynotts’.
We billet the enemy within us.
Something subliminally intangible in a comment to my NBF diary of last Thursday subconsciously triggered the theme for this diary. The mind (which is the drop box of god) ‘works in mysterious ways.’
Not so mysterious is my fear that NBF will be dropped like an old toy that’s lost its novelty.
Without determination and patience, this opportunity will go unrequited and wither.
Novel endeavors need time to kick in and dig deep enough into our consciousness to mine purpose and bond with commitment. When this process is cut short, although the aspiration may be revivable, not so precious time — the sands of fast becoming scarcer than our will to survive.
If we don’t scale the ramparts against those forces currently trying to put the finishing touches on our enslavement, we stand to lose our freedom, our dignity, and our lives — in short, we’ll be fucked.
However, standing firm, amidst shifting desires and morphing reality, is an attribute that has been rung out of us in the process of consumer domestication. Perhaps NBF will act the x-ray to determine if we still have a spine.
The minions of self-sabotage:
Although we’re largely unaware of it, the subconscious plays host to a squad of ‘sentries’, that like the Pretorian guard, are maintained for the sole purpose of eliminating any threat to the imperialism of denial and our palatial cocoon of delusional comfort.
Because these ‘guards’ shore up social compatibility by eradicating decent from ‘herd’ priorities, we perceive them as ‘normal’, allowing them to move freely amongst our needs and desires, policing our choices — and like in any police ‘state’, the results leave much to be desired.
Here is the roster of those we should be wary of:
The power of convenience
is first up because this succubus, which we’ve been seduced into embracing as the very stuff of life, vampirically drains the blood out of it. She insidiously permeates everything else on this list.
(“Everything else” being subject to responsible sourcing, so as to starve the beast, while nurturing sustainability and fostering alternative venues.)
The intrusion of expediency.
“I’ll be passing Walmart on my way home.”
“I should get this now, while I’m thinking about it.”
“The sale ends today.” …and other such B.S. self serving prioritizing rationalizations
for avoiding the responsibility of action.
Distraction, the destroyer of worlds, chokes purpose/vigilance by neglect.
It can starve NBF of the attention it needs.
Short attention spans.
Distraction has handcuffed this liability, which grows ever closer to zero, as consumption strives for infinite. This chronic erosion of immersed curiosity sets focus adrift, as depth is no longer plumbed and ‘goods’ of such caliber have become obsolete from a marketing standpoint. Genuine value has been replaced by superficial novelty which serves the purpose for which it is designed admirably, while empowering the vortex of consumption. Man’s collective A.D.D. plague, digs ditches to lower the bar of consumer irresponsibility to subterranean levels. Ironically, seeing our way out requires determination and focus, which we hack down to free-up the aimlessness of our wanderings.
The privilege of immediate gratification.
By fast-tracking expectations, this becomes a prime method for inflaming desire, as well as expediting the accumulation of waste., making it the butane of resource burning.
While this impatience is symptomatic of greater ills, it doesn’t linger for analysis. As one of the structural props of American consumer society, it is jealously guarded from such exposure.
NBF has much to offer, but this can only be harvested with perseverance and restraint.
Immediate gratification is a machete.
The apotheosis and scourge of American ‘stealth’ narcissism.
(Replace this bumper crop with wheat and it would feed the world.)
In America, narcissism attains stealth status, for the simple reason that in a society which aggressively breeds narcissistic tendencies, it gets hidden by the camouflage of commonality.
Is it just coincidence that ‘narcissists make the best consumers’? The resulting imperative of self-spoilage, crowns ‘want’, which then takes precedent all the way up to and including the exclusion of ‘need’.
Consumer ‘zombies’ (aka ‘Stuff Junkies’).
We’ve been bitten by the virus of novelty, and chronic dissatisfaction runs us around by the nose.
‘Mud’ leaves a lot to be desired, when building a wall of resistance.
Fear of commitment.
This hollow bugaboo probably elbowed its way to the front of the line as soon as the biological necessity of fear took hold of life.
Without commitment to insulate it, NBF will not withstand the heat generated by ‘greed’.
The fast pace of our lives
…and the even faster pace of news events; foments confusion, sows distraction, and abandons worthy efforts, to be buried alive by squandered time.
The demands of the ‘immediate’
…which elevates short term to the detriment of long-term considerations. NBF falls into the latter category.
The incapacitation of networking
when not being directed towards self indulgent ‘lotus-eating’.
As I confront the hand dealt from this ‘dark deck’, if it weren’t for the historically proven fact that when the need arises, it can be swept away like Alice‘s adversarial ‘aces and spades’, I would despair.
But our great adaptability, which includes the ability to innovate under pressure, as well as the sheer non-predictability of life, are the ‘cocktail’ in my I-V drip of Hope. Think of NBF as one of those transparent bags of miraculous fluids offering the inflicted its ‘restorative’ properties — to help the body to heal itself.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/14/2316362/-You-are-already-losing-it-all?utm_campaign=trending. Muriel Vieux 4/14/25
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/14/2316471/-Boycott-Salvadoran-Produbts?utm_campaign=trending
Paleo 4/14/25
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