Buy Nothing
November 24, 2005
Noelle Nightingale
All mankind is of one author and is one volume… No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main… Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
–John Donne Meditation XVII
Our lives affect one another in ways that we can’t see. Your suffering means something to me and my joy means something to you. Invisible strands of interconnectedness bind us all together, and we live in a chain of cause and effect. These unseen strands of interconnectedness weave their way not only throughout the Trinity community, but across the seas and throughout the nations. This is why I’m participating in Buy Nothing Day, on November 25.
Buy Nothing Day is a tradition started by Vancouver-based Adbusters magazine, in which participants intentionally fast from consumerism for one day. My choices as a consumer affect not only myself and my community, but the lives of countless workers in impoverished nations. Buy Nothing Day is intended to raise awareness of the excessive consumption habits of the First World. If everyone on earth were to live like an average person in the high-income countries, we would need 2.6 additional planets to support our lifestyles (www.johannesburgsummit.org). Simplify your life, and embrace your connection with the rest of creation. On November 25, choose to buy nothing.
In conjunction with Buy Nothing Day, The Helping Hands Healthcore Collective is showing The Corporation, on Thursday, November 24, at 7 p.m. in Northwest Auditorium. On November 25, the Healthcore is celebrating Buy Nothing Day with a vegetarian potluck at the Brown House in Milner. Everyone is welcome. For directions or more information, e-mail me at Noelle.Nightingale@agape.twu.ca. For more information about Buy Nothing Day, go to http://www.adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/.
Now you go...
2 Responses to “Buy Nothing”
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Buy Nothing Day should be renamed University Students Don’t Think For Themselves Day. The whole idea does not create an environment of awareness for consumption habits. The only thing it creates is another outlet for college kids to “stick it the man.” Though university is supposed to be a place of learning, more accurately it is a place where the anti-corporate people amass in great numbers.
Undergrad sounds like he/she hasn’t been told about over-generalizing things. “The ONLY thing it creates is another outlet…” Come on, surely your learning at this revered institution of like-minded individuals has taught you to be more careful!
O-day is officially the “University Students Don’t [need to] Think for Themselves Day”. It’s when all the fun and festivities are so tightly planned and the directions on campus are so clearly indicated that a mind can lie dormant all day long. Every other day is a flurry of synapses and relays in the brain.
Without discussing the merits of buy nothing day specifically, I’m surprised that the objection didn’t arrive from the position of saying “why one day? shouldn’t it be every day?”
That’s my problem with all of these things! Buy nothing day, secretary appreciation day (and the PC version of it), women’s day, the day of the orphan, AIDS awareness day, Christmas Day, Easter Sunday, Homeless Orphans in Need of School Supplies and Toothbrushes Day, (not to be confused with Day of the Brat)…. ah, the list goes on and on. The point is: What’s with labelling a single day as a landmark moment of recognition?? It ought to be a consistent effort.
Convinced? Join with me on January 4th as I celebrate Say Nothing About Days in 2006 Day!