Buy Nothing Day was launched in North America in 1997.
Organisers wanted it to be “a day for society to examine the issue of over-consumption” and to protest at rampant commercialism and consumerism at this time of year.
They point out that 20% of the world’s population are consuming 80% of the world’s resources.
Pointing no fingers, but have you seen the size of the obesity problem in America?
The idea has been promoted by setting up stalls in shopping malls, where people go and have their credit cards cut up; participating in a zombie walk, where people wander shopping malls with a blank stare (that’s me, anyway); or organising a Whirl-mart, where protestors silently steer shopping trolleys around a store in a long conga line without putting anything in them.
Enshrined in America’s Declaration of Independence is the inalienable right for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.
This, to most citizens, actually means commercialism and consumerism.
The protest movement has been acknowledged in 65 countries but still has to attract any real credibility.
Buy Nothing Day in the UK was Saturday, November 29, but I don’t think any one noticed.
They were too busy shopping.
