Archive for the ‘Protest’ Category

YES, YES, YES!

Monday, April 7th, 2008

And also NO, NO, NO! I recently read this article from This Magazine (that's its name) and it's awesome. Basically, it's about an upcoming book called "The Rebel Sell" about how anticonsumerism ends up propping up the consumer society it tries so hard to tear down.Quoth the article: "This isn’t because ...

Cool kid

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

A lot of the "consumerist" and "anticonsumerist" news comes down to big things. New movies, mass trends or just op-ed writers pleading for people to stop buying so damn much. The little stuff gets sort of lost. Little stuff like a 16-year-old Australian girl named Marnie Edmiston who has an anticonsumerist ...

He calls me ‘Uncle Paul’

Saturday, March 8th, 2008

His name is Roland. He's my friend Rob's son and his third birthday party was today. Me being the good pseudo-uncle I am, I went to get him a gift. I went to a locally owned toy store, feeling all good and self-righteous. I rock. Then I tried to look for ...

We all eat food

Friday, March 7th, 2008

Since starting this site and thinking more about these issues, I have noticed a change in my personal life. I've been called bougie, a hypocrite, pretentious, pompous and all sorts of other crap. And it really pisses me off. Here's why: Would you call someone on a diet a hypocrite if the person doesn't have full-blown anorexia ...

‘Please, sir. I want some more.’

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

(Public domain Oliver Twist illustration. Source: Wikipedia.org) Damn. It would be so easy to post links to the news articles linking consumerism and childhood depression in British children. I could say something smug about how I knew it all along. Then I could stop blogging for the day and make a sandwich. But ...

Buy my anticonsumerism

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

I would like you guys to take a few seconds and look at this posting on Lifehack.org. It's called "How to Avoid Being Enslaved by Consumerism." Seriously, take a look. I'll wait here. ... hum de dum de du rai ey ... (softly crooning) Oh, Eileen ... Oh! You're back. I swear, I ...

Spending and God

Monday, February 11th, 2008

OK, time to tick everybody off. How does anticonsumerism relate to the big G-O-D? Religion is a contentious issue, but I'll try to keep it light by putting a picture of handsome actor George Peppard somewhere in the entry. This isn't my issue. Matters of faith aren't under my purview - I blog about ...

I finally figured out pictures!

Thursday, February 7th, 2008

In honor of me finally figuring out how to put pictures in here (still working on video) I decided to share some of the anticonsumer imagery that either will shock the nation out of its moneyed complacency or make everyone look like a jackass. It's called "culture jamming" and I am ...

X is for Xerxes

Friday, February 1st, 2008

It's a great Woody Allen joke: "Have you ever taken a serious political stance on anything?" "Yes. For 24 hours once I refused to eat grapes." Granted, that quote from the 1973 film Sleeper would have been a little more morally upstanding had it not come on the heels of Cesar Chavez's Great ...

On toys

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

One problem with writing a blog on anticonsumerism is that there are certain non-essential consumer items that I couldn't imagine life without. I'm not talking about iPhones or about Starbucks coffee or designer clothes (Blain's Farm and Fleet is designer, right?). I'm talking about toys. As a child, I was the proud owner ...