Buy Nothing Day in Redding

It was before 7 am when the first Buy Nothing Day celebrants arrived at the Wal Mart next to the Shasta Mall. Shockingly, the parking lot was packed - the store already crowded. The sextet of fun loving anti-consumerists were ready.

Two were equipped with flyers telling it like it is: Buying a bunch of crap you don't need sucks the quality out of life on earth in every imaginable way. Sweat shops, destruction of nature, false senses of identity, debt, shopping addiction, being chained to jobs you hate to pay for it all. The flyers also put special emphasis on the manners in which marketers and advertisers create negative body images for women in order to manipulate them into buying things. Anorexia, bulimia, cosmetic surgery, low self-esteem, men who only see beauty as the media tells them to - it's all out war out here in the 21st century just under the veneer of polite daily life at the mall.

3 dashing non-shoppers wore "consumer" patches on their backs as they maniacally grabbed at merchandise and chased after a carrot and cell phone dangling from a string brandished by a sixth intrepid fellow (whose patch read "debt") who shouted "You're so close to being happy! Just a little bit more stuff and you'll get there! I promise! Max out that Mastercharge!"

They were able to rampage around the Wal Mart for quite along time before deciding to move on to Target where the scene was repeated and the Mall where it was repeated again. Amazed and delighted shoppers were given flyers and many expressed admiration for what was happening. Much honest dialogue occurred. Of course not everyone appreciated all this and many disagreed with Buy Nothing Day on principle ("Buy Nothing?! Hell no!"), but we're past worrying too much about them, right? Not when so many agree and want to have a good conversation about it. Security folks were handled assertively and with humour and they were almost magically unable to stop the consumer spell from breaking all around if only for a while.

Perhaps most importantly, all of this occurred without any self-righteous or dogmatic bullshit taking over the show and it was organized collectively without some boss calling the shots.

Many heads were turned, all the literature was eagerly taken, some folks really thought about one of the primary pathologies of American life, thankful teenagers saw something they'd maybe only read about happen, seeds were planted and a group of people came together and put their creativity into action and came out more bonded and experienced after another fun day of subverting authority. Good stuff.

The pranksters only wished that they had called more friends to come along with them as many were dismayed not to have known about the festivities. Next time.

Consumerism wasn't vanquished in its entirety but who expects to take it all down in three hours anyhow? Viva la anarquia!