My first car was a '93 royal blue Chevrolet Cavalier. Calling it a piece of junk was an understatement.
Around the time I owned my car, around 2004, was the same time those "Support the Troops" yellow-ribbon magnets found their way onto what seemed like every person's car. So instead of following the pack -- which, being a 16-year-old, I wanted no part in -- I bought a gray-ribbon magnet from Spencer's Gifts that quite simply said, "Support Absolutely Nothing."
The 16-year-old me thought it was clever, abrasive and in-your-face.
The 16-year-old me wasn't so smart. I'm sure those who saw my "Support Absolutely Nothing" ribbon probably thought it was either mildly amusing or immature and needlessly anti-everything. Everybody should support something. It promotes maturity and responsibility.
But apparently, since 1992, there has been a national and international day of protest that promotes exactly what the 16-year-old me would have loved: doing nothing. I'm talking about "Buy Nothing Day."
Buy Nothing Day is a one-day boycott of consumption started by Canadian artist and social activist Ted Dave in 1992. Originally it was held in September until 1997 when it was moved to the Friday after Thanksgiving, better known as Black Friday, in the U.S. and the day after that in international countries. Since then, this day of national and international protest against capitalism and consumption has been celebrated every year.
Is this a good idea?
By one fairly common explanation, Black Friday is called such because companies come closer to being in the black, or in the profit margins. Black Friday is a good thing, especially now in an economy that is struggling to stay afloat. Our current national economic situation is a recession and is being compared to the Great Depression of the 1930s. As of October 2009, the unemployment rate has reached nearly 10 percent, a hallmark sign of a troubled economy.
Buy Nothing Day is ludicrous and completely backward at a time when we need our economy to improve. This is the same type of thinking that extremist right-wingers employ when they make outrageous claims like, "Obama is a terrorist" or "Obama will kill your grandmother." It's rhetoric and idealism that is strictly bred from over-zealous irrationality.
What is buying nothing going to do for our country? Enough people stop buying things and all of a sudden the politicians in this country rethink capitalism? Capitalism has been around for hundreds of years and someone walking around the mall with an empty shopping cart isn't going to change that.
This isn't an attack on liberals or social activism.
This is an attack on misplaced rebellion.
Why put such an emphasis on doing nothing when right now we need action? While the right-wing emphatically protests our current government and its practices regarding the economy and health care, the far-left wing seems to be left clueless as to what to do and instead gets swept up in extremist nutjob thinking like this.
And perhaps most importantly: What about those who participate in "Buy Nothing Day" everyday of their lives because they have no other choice? The homeless, the poor, they would all love to have the privileges that these raging protesters have.
How about instead of buying nothing on Black Friday, you buy something for someone who can't.
Capitalism and consumerism has its drawbacks, sure, but it's the system we've got here and it's the system that's ultimately going to stay, barring some point of no return. And I can tell you right now, that point won't consist of members of the over-privileged middle-class performing a sit-in in front of a shopping mall.
Change will come from people doing something. Better make damn sure it's something that counts.
