Buy nothing day is a great idea as far as consumerism, globalization,
agressive marketing, and 'saturated' American life-styles are concerned.


Lets not forget the many other sides of this: the influence of American
lifestyles on the world, the out-of -control consumerism being
aggressively promoted in the poorest countries, the already
out-of-control senseless 'something-for-every-need' consumerism in South
Asia, and I'm sure many other parts of the world. I give thanks that
thanksgiving is not part of this deal in the rest of the world. Will it
ever be?

But every part of the world today, urban or rural, is being poisoned by
the 'attidude of consumerism', as it is, all entwined with class
sensibilities, status, and things of such insane nature. Here's
Greenspan calling the market wild:

AG: But unfettered competitive capitalism is by no means fully accepted
as the optimal economic paradigm, at least as yet. Some of those
involved in public policy often see competition as too frenetic. This
different perspective is captured most clearly for me in a soliloquy
attributed to a prominent European leader several years ago. He asked,
"What is the market? It is the law of the jungle, the law of nature. And
what is civilization? It is the struggle against nature." A major
determinant of regulatory regimes is how a rule of law is applied to
strike a balance between the perceived benefits of wholly unfettered
markets and the perceived societal costs of overly fierce competition.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2002/20021119/default.h
tm

whether one agrees with all of the above or not, here's another aspect
which is likely to be very revealing about the rest of the world: women
as consumables: Miss World running away in shock from Nigeria [death
toll 500 ?] article: World has no place for Miss World By Sanjay Suri
http://www.dawn.com/2002/11/27/int10.htm




—–Original Message—–
From: owner-list@rhizome.org [mailto:owner-list@rhizome.org] On Behalf
Of Ivan Pope
Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 4:21 PM
To: Francis Hwang; list@rhizome.org
Subject: Re: RHIZOME_RAW: Buy Nothing Day


—– Original Message —–
From: Francis Hwang <francis@rhizome.org>
> And although some of the references in the NAN piece could've been
explained for the benefit of non-USian members, overall I don't see why
its
topicality should be in question, considering how political this list
is. In
the U.S., we consume a tremendous amount of junk, and then our
government
enforces economic imperialism using a number of brutal mechanisms,
ranging
from armed intervention to the Bretton Woods institutions. It's a
problem
that comes out of the U.S., but it affects the entire world in a fairly
direct way.
>
> Saying U.S. consumerism is only of interest to U.S. citizens is like
saying the Holocaust is only of interest to Germans.

Actually I was saying that Thanksgiving Day only means anything to
citizens
of the US. In the UK there is no buying surge at this point of the
calendar.
And we don't know when Thanksgiving Day is or why. So to tie a no buying
day
to a purely US event means the day is at least conceptually a US thing.
I know its sometimes hard for US residents to see that we do not
automatically understand your cultural references - but surely that is
part
of the problem.
Cheers,
Ivan

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