When the McCain-Palin ticket launched its Drill Baby Drill! campaign, many here and even in the MSM criticized the gimmick by pointing out that we cannot drill our way to energy independence. More than a few people, it seems, agreed with us. And yet many voices continue to flaunt the Buy Baby Buy! mantra, especially on this most holiest of shopping days, as the savior to democracy.
To get the economy back on track, so the story goes, do your patriotic duty and go buy a new HD television, Play Station, or fancy espresso machine. Remember Bush after 9/11: “go shopping.” How are today's appeals any different? It seems, however, that some people are saying no to the Black Friday euphoria and the damaging consumer culture that it represents. Perhaps the current economic downturn will actually make wise and sustainable buying decisions in vogue. It wouldn't be the worst that can happen.
Truth is, democracy and capitalism are not the same, nor does one necessarily lead to the other. You can have democratic guarantees in countries whose economies are largely socialistic; likewise, communist nations like China can exploit capitalism to the hilt. Buying stuff does not lead to or strengthen democracy, but that’s the way our politicians and most of the consumer industry frame the connection. It is a culture and mindset that can be deadly, as a recommended diary today reminded us.
I recall hearing an activist from Finland a decade or so ago say that his government is actually more democratic than ours because his gives citizens more choices – choices that matter. When Americans talk about “choice” as fundamental to democracy, we mostly mean consumer choices. We can find 58 brands of toothpaste in the grocery store aisle, but for the choices that really matter, such as choosing your next governor or president, you usually only have two options, and sometimes not even that. The Finnish fellow, whose name I can’t remember, noted that his local food store might only have six toothpaste brands, but his town has an equal number of names on the ballot for mayor.
It was about the time I heard this man, around the mid 90s, that I also met Juliet Schor, a sociologist/economist who wrote the best-selling The Overworked American and its follow-up, The Overspent American. We spent some time together and ended up collaborating on a project, and during this time Juliet encouraged me to look at my own consumer choices, which were by no means excessive, but I also knew my family could do with less, much less. Over the next decade or so we downsized considerably, simplified our lifestyles and buying habits, and eventually quit our 80-hour/week jobs and discovered we could live better and happier making and spending much less.
Juliet went on to found the Center for the New American Dream, and she was an early supportive voice for Buy Nothing Day, an initiative that encourages us to just say no on Black Friday – stay away from the malls, buy nothing. Now, if you believe Mr. Bush and Wal-Mart, staying home is simply unpatriotic; but some of us think buying only the essentials is the most patriotic thing one can do. As Juliet Schor writes in an LA Times editorial today:
… many other groups have long recognized that the consumer binge was unsustainable, financially and environmentally. It has been depleting our savings, to be sure, but also degrading the atmosphere, destroying ecosystems and undermining the potential of the planet to support life in all its magnificent forms. Ecological footprint analysis reveals that by the late 1970s, humans had begun to draw down stocks of “natural capital” – that is, degrade the Earth's ecosystems. We're turning arable land into deserts, transforming ocean areas into chemically induced dead zones and heating up the climate.
Of course, corporations are on to this, which has resulted in the current wave of green advertising – the idea that if you buy their product, you’re somehow helping the environment! Greenwashing at its finest. Suddenly Exxon-Mobil is the good guy concerned about sea turtles and old growth forests. Or if I buy this newfangled car that gets even higher MPG I’m actually helping to save those polar bears’ habitat.
Buy Baby Buy!, even if it’s a Prius or efficient light bulb, is still part of the democracy=capitalism con job, what a popular PBS program a while back called affluenza. The only way we can even begin to solve the economic, social, and environmental problems Schor talks about is by doing less, using less, wasting less, and buying less. Americans can't continue to buy, use, and throw away products at the current rate, just because they're now called "green."
And when you do buy, do so locally if possible. The environmental ethicist Peter Singer notes, for example, that if you just eat locally grown food, rather than frozen crap at McDonalds and the other chains, most of which are supplied by factory farms (In-n-Out Burger being a good exception), you’ll have a much smaller carbon footprint than the person who buys a Prius but continues to eat an industrial diet.
Sometimes I wonder if I should feel guilty, because if everyone followed my consumer practices, all of the employees at Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Applebees, and their ilk would be out of a job, because I literally never patronize them. Ever. But just as we pay people to make and sell junk that is harmful to the environment and our society, so can we pay people to make and sell products and services that are nourishing, sustainable, and life-affirming. As Schor says today:
Don't feel guilty about it. We can find better ways to support one another than funneling our money through giant multinationals in hopes that some trickles down to its employees. Support local and socially responsible businesses when buying what you need. Give all that you can to those who are suffering. Spend less time in malls and more connecting with friends and family. If the experience of those who have already decommercialized their holidays is any guide, you'll find yourself less stressed, more fulfilled and with a little more money in your pocket. I suggest more music, less wrapping paper.
Happy Buy Nothing Day. We're going for a hike.