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18 November, 2005
Buy Nothing Day

Why? It's a question humans have applied to many different things. From lemmings running into the sea to the reason life exists, we humans have always wanted to explain the purpose of things. Before we understood science, we created deities to explain natural phenomena like thunder and lunar cycles. Psychology, sociology, and genetics seek to explain human behaviour. Curiosity is a very human trait.

But so is denial. Many others don't want to question their behaviour. They don't want to question their traditions. These people do things because those things have always been done, or because everybody else does them. They feel that questioning can lead to destruction. This, too, is a natural impulse. The moment somebody asks why we did something, we think they're challenging us, like they're suggesting we did something wrong.

But "why" is not inherently a challenge. It is merely a curious inquiry. To ask why is to seek information, not to condemn or destroy. Of course, if the answer reveals that we're wasting resources, things may change. But they'll only change towards less waste, because waste is bad.

Do you know why the keys on a computer are laid out the way they are? Because typewriters were designed that way. But why were typewriters designed that way? Because previous typewriters started jamming as typists typed too fast. So the current keyboard layout was designed to slow down typists. In this instance, asking why leads to the discovery that we're wasting time.

I propose another "why". This one is far more common. I ask why so many people buy Christmas presents. I do it. Most of us do. But why? In fact, so many people ask this particular "why", that an annual day was devoted to that very question. That day is happening for the fourteenth time this year. It's called Buy Nothing Day (BND), and it falls on November 25, 2005.

When my wife and I moved into a shared home, we culled some of our possessions. Among the things she got rid of were Disney movies on video. When someone we know found out about this, she got very upset and defensive. We had not condemned, accused, or ridiculed her. But our questioning the value of movies she owned made her feel threatened.

This is how many people react to BND. Their chain of reaction goes something like this: defensive, offensive, derisive, ridiculing, argumentative, condemning, then dismissive. The reason the reaction is so strong is that their attachment to consumerism is so strong. Which is exactly the reason that BND is so important. To question the "why" behind our society's addiction to buying things.

Every person who feels threatened buy BND points out that it couldn't possibly affect the bottom lines of retailers. They say it's just an extreme behaviour exhibited by fanatics with nothing else to worry about. Of course, the same could be said about religious fasts. BND is about hurting retailers as much as religious fasting is about hurting farmers.

The point is not to deprive stores of money. It's to encourage people to question why they're buying. Buying things is so engrained in our culture that it takes something like BND to make us see how we rely on spending cash every day. BND is simply a soft finger-snap in the face of a hypnotized culture.

If you challenge the value of this idea, I challenge you to research it. The consumption statistics you'll find may shock you. On the other hand, you could just take the challenge of buying nothing on November 25, or any single day.

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