Santa Can Wait: Celebrate Buy Nothing Day this Friday

This week, hundreds of people around the world will take part in one of the most important global climate actions that you’ve probably never heard of.

Organized by Adbusters Magazine, the Carnivalesque Rebellion week of action takes aim at consumer capitalism with five full days of creative “culture-jamming” culminating in the annual celebration of Buy Nothing Day this Friday. The prescription is for pranks and acts of creative disruption much along the lines of the Yes Men’s hijinks – consciousness raising actions that mess with the corporate-state PR machine and flirt with the boundaries of legality. Around the world, Carnivaliesque participants will release stink bombs in the halls of central banks, chain shut department stores, take over busy shopping streets and plaster economics departments with anti-growth manifestos.

So what exactly has a pledge to boycott the shopping mall got to do with climate activism?

Well, it goes much deeper than the obvious connection between consumption and carbon emissions. Climate change is after all more than anything a product of one overarching force – the most destructive force ever unleashed on the face of the planet besides perhaps the meteorite that took out the dinosaurs. And no, I’m not talking about fossil fuels, and the greenhouse gas emissions they produce; I’m talking about the growth capitalism ideology that has fueled increasing consumption of those fuels, and keeps fueling it even as the world careens headlong over an economic and environmental precipice.

In tackling growth capitalism head on, Adbusters is confronting climate change more directly than sometimes even environmental advocacy groups tend to do. Often, traditional climate activists (and most progressive issue movements in general) operate like doctors seeking to address the symptoms of a disease. But as I've argued before, unless we address growth capitalism itself, rather than just the impacts of our fossil fuel consumption, then any effort we embark on to address climate change (or create a truly prosperous society, for that matter) will amount to nothing less than trying to treat cancer with pain killers.

Beyond its ultimate goal, the tactical approach and spirit behind the Carnivalesque Rebellion week of action are also perfectly attuned to the nature of the problem.

Unencumbered by the concerns about donor backlash or political etiquette that limit most organizations, the Adbusters organizers have designed their day of action around a brand of activist thought that hews closely to the true spirit of rebellion. The basic formula is a form of civil disobedience that is tailor-made for a society in which the oppressive forces exert themselves via memes, ads, social and institutional complaisance and mental constructs rather than guns and security walls.

You can participate in the Carnivalesque Rebellion by checking out the meetups on this page. Of course, if subversive confrontation and anti-growth mayhem are not your cup of tea, you also simply refuse to take participate in the annual deadly consumer orgy known in the U.S. as Black Friday (aka Buy Nothing Day).

Either way, you’ll be doing a very good thing by our climate and our civilization, but no matter what you do make sure you don’t do it alone or in silence.

Be a true climate activist by signing up for a buy nothing day meetup, and then sign on to the petition supporting the position of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy to declare your support for an economic system that’s compatible with a livable planet and true prosperity.

Photo credit: kevincole via Flickr

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