From www.a-frecords.com

As many of you already know, the day after Thanksgiving is traditionally the start of the Holiday Shopping Season. The trend towards ever more excessive levels of consumerism in the so-called "First World" countries is exactly why ADBUSTERS, a progressive magazine concerned about the erosion of our physical and cultural environments by commercial forces, started BUY NOTHING DAY eleven years ago.

BUY NOTHING DAY is a protest of everything that is wrong with consumerist Western culture. The day after Thanksgiving was chosen for BUY NOTHING DAY because the advertising and retail industries have hyped it as THE shopping day for the holiday season for so long that it is difficult to separate the two. Instead of spending money on this day that has for years been associated with little but the start of a month-long spending spree, ADBUSTERS encourages all of us, at a minimum, to buy nothing at all, all day long, on November 29, 2002. Regular people and activists all over the world have taken this idea and have run with it, staging protests, teach-ins, sit-ins, leafleting at malls and setting up "BUY NOTHING" shops that have nothing for sale in order to educate people about BUY NOTHING DAY.

All through the month they'll be posting suggestions of what to do on this day on their site. But if you don't want to go, I'll post them here. Today's suggestions are:
1.GO HIKING AND ENJOY THE GREAT OUTDOORS.

2.START LEARNING HOW TO COOK OR BAKE.

3.CALL A FRIEND.

[ 11-10-2002, 07:43 PM: Message edited by: SSJ4Sephiroth ]

<font color="#33cc33">Why can't you do all those things and shop for deals?
The merchants may have commercialized the season, that doesnt mean you cannot take advantage of decent deals to get things for the people you love.

By protesting it and making a big fuss about it, you admit that the merchants won. The season is not about letting them tell you what to do or not to do, ignore the hype and get things you think the people you love might want. Sure you can hand make items, or you can give them nothing, but I earn the money I spend on them with my hands and my mind, so the store bought gifts I buy for them are every bit as much a product of my love as something I created myself if I had such a skill.

It seems sort of like protesting the Catholic Church because the Jews added another candle to the Minorah(sp?) to me. </font>

[ 11-10-2002, 07:58 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

Hey thats a great idea, lets ignore all the privlages we have.

But what if i get thirsty ? :D

<font color=skyblue>I will be travelling to my mom's that day, and will HAVE to buy gas, because of the distance.
</font>

<font color = lightgreen>I'm not saying that there is nothing wrong with "Western Capitalist culture", but why should we buy nothing on the day after Thanksgiving? Why protest against buying gifts for others?

Western capitalism isn't any worse than any other socio-political system, you know....</font>

. . . I'll do it! especially seeing as I already imported all of my presents early! :D *hugs Uetenna Movie and metroid prime*

<font color=lime> I encourage everyone to participate in this. This way I won't have to work so hard on that day. Of course that will just make "Buy Nothing Day" more likely to be something that occurs not once a year but every day. </font>

Blah, I never go by others or advertisors to decide when I shop for Xmas, I do it when *I* want to, and this year I think I'm shopping online, lot of good deals online way cheaper than the retail stores around here. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I don't believe any of you have ever heard of protesting an ideal? It didn't say you shouldn't buy gifts or drive or give up any rights; it's not admitting that the merchants have 'won' anything, as it's not making a fuss, you're just not showing up. It's just one day that corporations see as a time to exploit people and their eye for a 'deal'. The people who devised this idea didn't force anyone to do it, mind you, they just suggested it. Personally, I see it as just a protest of the day I call 'Corporate Frenzy Day', on which people go completly insane in their fervor to acquire items at a slightly lower price. The gifts will still be there the next day, or will be back in stock in a week or so, so why fight the crowds?

It is not like protesting the Catholic Church for that; it is protesting the way corporates abuse our frenzy for slightly lower prices. If you don't want to do it, then don't. It's just a suggestion for anyone who may want to make a statement, albiet small, to the high-ups.

And as for ignoring the privileges we have, may I ask where in God's name you got that from out of all of that? Not shopping on one day isn't ignoring any priviiges we have except for the ability to engage in rampant Capitalism.