Celebrate
Thanksgiving By Buying Nothing This Year
by
Rev. Paul J. Bern
Is
there a tradition any more primitive or disgusting practiced across
America today than that of Black Friday? Hordes of consumers mob
stores for great deals on useless "goods" like flat screen
TVs that one must have a cable TV subscription to watch it, smart
phones and tablet computers that break every time they're dropped,
video gaming “stations” that are addictive, or the latest clothes
manufactured by Southeast Asian or Latino children in some
God-forsaken sweatshop somewhere. Every single year I am further
struck by the apparent lack of focus by Christmas shoppers on the
original reason for the season. Thanksgiving is the holiday when we
give thanks for what we have and count our blessings. It is a time to
put things into perspective and realize that we are not so poor after
all, economic hardship notwithstanding. St. Paul wrote, “I know
what it means to have little and I know what it means to have plenty.
I have learned the secret of being content no matter what my
circumstances.” We would all do well to learn to do the same.
The
Christmas shopping season is the time when we are supposed to be
celebrating the birth of our Lord. Instead, all I see each year are
large crowds of people caught up in an orgy of consumerism and
materialism. Hordes of people buying this and that, spending like
there is no tomorrow in a feeding frenzy of capitalist consumerism.
Think about how much good it would do if the birth of our Lord was
celebrated with that much enthusiasm. What if we were to organize a
National Buy Nothing Day to protest economic inequality? Or how about
a $15.00 per hour minimum wage? Or maybe to protest the cost of
higher education, we should boycott our student loans! What if
everybody stopped sending in their payments until the loans were
forgiven? Two thirds of the US economy is consumer spending. Think of
what a shock wave it would send if any such national protest/boycott
were to be organized!
We're
in a pretty messed up place politically and environmentally.
Multinational corporations and financial firms pretty much own the
government. Global warming is not only a real and present danger, but
rapidly accelerating. There is a plastic "raft" in the
Pacific Ocean bigger than Texas. And as people we're constantly being
taken advantage of to make this situation last longer so that
corporate profits and bonuses can climb even higher than they are
now. The strong link between these two things – our society's
consumerism and the terrible political, social, environmental, and
economic situations we're in – demands immediate and urgent action.
By buying things from these corporations and feeding into this model
of an economy, we only encourage and empower it. So I'm asking you:
please join me in buying nothing this coming weekend.
So
this Black Friday, I'm calling for a Wildcat General 3-day Strike.
I'm asking tens of millions of people around the world to bring the
capitalist consumption machine to a grinding – if only momentary –
halt. I want you all to not only stop buying for 72 hours, but to
shut off all but your most essential lights, all your televisions and
other nonessential appliances. I'm asking you to park your car, turn
off your phones and log off of your computer for the day. I'm calling
for a three-day interlude of fasting and prayer. From sunrise to
sunset we'll abstain en
masse, not only from
holiday shopping, but from all the temptations of our greed-based and
debt-funded lifestyles. Ideally, everyone will power down their
electricity for the day and just enjoy some time with their family or
friends or both. If you can't do that, at least refrain from the
Black Friday madness. Don't go to a store for some kind of deal.
Avoid the stress by not going out in the traffic. Don't shop at the
big box stores - in fact, don't shop anywhere. Just take a break for
Friday, Saturday and Sunday and do nothing at all.
You
know the old truism: a journey of a thousand miles starts with a
single step. Things are falling apart – the temperature rising,
the oceans churning, the global economy heaving – so why not do
something? Take just one small step toward a more just and
sustainable future. Make a pact with yourself: go on a consumer fast.
Lock up your credit cards, put away your cash and opt out of the
capitalist spectacle. It may be harder than you think, that is, the
impulse to buy is more ingrained in many of us than you may have ever
realized. But you will persist and you will transcend – perhaps
reaching the kind of epiphany that can change the world.
Some
might criticize me for publicizing this idea during such a tough
economic times. "We need people to consume in order to drive the
economy!" To that I say this: it's not good if we need people to
buy useless crap in order to maintain our economy. That needs to
shift fundamentally. And the only way to shift it is to stop buying
useless crap. So will you join me? Will you take the plunge and break
the chord from your normal consumerist ways? Let's all stay at home
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and have a time of prayer and fasting,
and some quality time with each other. In this case, fasting doesn't
mean we must totally abstain from food. But you can go on a liquid
diet (soup only, etc.) for 3 days without doing yourself any harm. I
have done this before successfully, so if I can then so can you! If
we're going to give thanks, then let's begin by giving thanks to God.
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