RANT: TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY

 

THANKSGIVING HAS COME AND GONE here in Canada, but in the United States it’s this week, on the fourth Thursday in November. The OED defines “thanksgiving” (uncapitalized) as “the expression of gratitude, especially to God”, and since time immemorial, in many cultures and regions, there are celebrations, festivals and special days set aside to acknowledge the harvesting of summer’s crops. In Britain, there have been days of thanksgiving to celebrate the sinking of the Spanish Armada in the sixteenth century or the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 to blow up Parliament and install a Catholic to the throne of England.* But there hasn’t been a national day celebrating the harvest season, though there are numerous local celebrations throughout the country in  autumn.

In Canada, since 1879, Thanksgiving has been a national holiday. In 1957 the second Monday in October was fixed as the official Thanksgiving Day by Governor General Vincent Massey in a proclamation calling for "[a] Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed."

 

John Michael Greer wrote a recent blog post on the upcoming festive season, including Christmas, which is scarcely  a month away. (How time flies!) Being a Druid, he doesn’t celebrate the Christian holy day, nor does he practice a traditional Thanksgiving, so he stands apart as an observer. He says, this season is the time when the two main religions in America are most in evidence: Christianity and Consumerism!  He’s being tongue-in-cheek here, but his point about our compulsion for mass consumption of food and drink, and to buy and spend is clear. And Canada is no exception. He notes we also ‘gorge’ on sentimentality and kitsch—putting up the same old decorations; watching the same TV shows and movies (If I have to watch Jimmy Stewart and that fucking angel, Clarence, one more godamn time…!), and listening to the same old songs over and over. Why, Santa, it sounds more like a cult to me!

JMG calls Christmas “Gurge-mas”, which is appropriate for a season characterized by gluttony and wanton consumerism. The idea of reflection, of giving thanks and being truly grateful for what we have, is lost in the mad dash for the newest wide-screen television. Even worse is “Black Friday”, following Thanksgiving in America (Canadian businesses promote the day as well), when stores open their doors amid garish displays of advertised goods all on SALE! SALE! SALE! and consumers, in a nearly religious frenzy, rush inside, devouring everything in their path. Such activities are lauded by MSM advertising and, of course, the business elites.

 

ONE WAY TO COMBAT THE RELIGION OF CONSUMERISM is by not buying anything—to set a day aside and spend nothing on-line or off. And such a day exists. It’s known as “Buy Nothing Day”. Started in 1992, in Vancouver, it is a grassroots, protest movement against the rampant consumerism in our societies. Globally, activists have taken up the banner, promoting the day following Black Friday¹ as Buy Nothing Day in their own countries. (So, this Saturday, November Twenty-Seven, folks!) It’s a small start, but if enough pressure against a boulder is kept up for long enough, eventually it will tumble from the mountain. I look forward to adding my ‘pinky power’ to that effort.

 

Cheers, Jake.

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*That particular "thanksgiving" is on November 5 and the English call it Guy Fawkes Day. (“Remember, remember the Fifth of November!”) Guy Fawkes was one of the main leaders of the assassination plot, and as an aside, isn't it a little odd that one of chief conspirators involved in a plan to blow up Parliament, the King and just about every elite in the country in one fell swoop has a holiday named after him? Granted, on GF Day, the seventeenth century terrorist was burned in effigy in bonfires across the land.  So, there’s that. Today his image seems more in sync with anti-authoritarianism, to my mind, and I have to wonder if it’s Guy who's being burned in bonfires on these days? Perhaps, he had the right idea about blowing up the elites and starting over from scratch. Just sayin'.

[Incidentally, when he was scheduled to be executed for his part in the conspiracy, Fawkes apparently fell to his death before he could be slowly hung, drawn and quartered, so a bummer for those who paid scalper ticket prices for ring side seats. Ed.]

    Count Floyd

 

 ¹ Again, it’s probably just me, but don’t you think they could come up with a better name for Spender-Bender Day than Black Friday? I know in Accounting La-la Land it’s supposed to be the day when retailers are “in the black" (i.e. out of the red, and making a profit.) But the name  reminds me still of bats and coffins and other verrry, scaary stuff.