The economy should be a part of life, not a steamroller crushing creativity and self-realization. Bailing out speculators while ignoring the imperatives of reducing working hours and building community centers is a blindness.
Hey jammers, creatives and meme warriors,
Three more days to go! Check out our Buy Nothing Day action pyramid online for inspiration and ideas. Organize your own Buy Nothing Day jam (or join an existing one) by posting on our BND events wiki.
TACTICAL BRIEFING
FOR BUY NOTHING DAY ORGANIZERS:
Jump you
Credit: NICHOLAS ROBERTS/AFP/Getty Images
It's hard to explain the rationale behind BND in the middle of this economic meltdown we're in. Every day feels like BND to most people right now. So this year in our press releases, interviews with reporters and communications with BND celebrants around the world, we are confronting the issue of the economic meltdown head-on. We're asking citizens, policy makers and pundits to examine the root causes of the crunch we're in and telling them that it was not caused by lack of regulation or toxic derivatives or the usual stuff that everybody is talking about. It is in fact our culture of excess and meaningless consumption - the glorified spending and borrowing of the past decade that's at the root of the economic crisis we in.
Here's the latest Adbusters BND Press Release. Circulate this widely--
BUY NOTHING DAY ORGANIZERS
CONFRONT THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN HEAD ON
Now in its 17th year, Buy Nothing Day is celebrated every November by environmentalists, social activists and concerned citizens in over 65 countries around the world. Over the years, Buy Nothing Day (followed by Buy Nothing Christmas) has exploded into a global movement, inspiring the world’s citizens to live more simply and buy a whole lot less.
Designed to coincide with Black Friday (which this year falls on Friday, November 28) in the United States, and the unofficial start of the international holiday shopping season (Saturday, November 29), the festival takes many shapes, from relaxed family outings, to free, non-commercial street parties, to politically charged public protests, credit-card cut-ups and pranks and shenanigans of all kinds. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending.
Featured by such media giants as CNN, USA Today, MSNBC, Wired, the BBC, The Age and the CBC, Buy Nothing Day has gained momentum in recent years as the climate crisis has driven people to seek out greener alternatives to unrestrained consumption.
This year, Buy Nothing Day organizers are confronting the economic meltdown head-on – asking citizens, policy makers and pundits to examine our economic crisis.
"If you dig a little past the surface you'll see that this financial meltdown is not about liquidity, toxic derivatives or unregulated markets, it's really about culture," says the co-founder of Adbusters Media Foundation, Kalle Lasn. "It's our culture of excess and meaningless consumption — the glorified spending and borrowing of the past decade that's at the root of the crisis we now find ourselves in."
Economic meltdown, together with the ecological crisis of climate change could be the beginning of a major global cultural shift — the dawn of a new age: the age of Post-Materialism.
"A simpler, pared-down lifestyle – one in which we're not drowning in debt – may well be the answer to this crisis we're in," says Lasn. "Living within our means will also make us happier and healthier than we’ve been in years."
Do what you can to spread the the BND message this year. Blog it, up-vote it on Digg, or slap a poster on a wall. This could be the breakthrough year when the heavy consumers of the world finally get it.
Warm regards,
The Adbusters Team
www.adbusters.org
Original: Buy Nothing Day Organizers Confront the Economic Meltdown Head On