By Ma Kettle (Carol van Strum)
For five years, I have signed every petition that comes into my e-mail, have written and called legislators on every occasion demanded, have joined marches and sent donations I couldn’t afford — sadly, with effectively zero results. For five years, despite massive marches, on-line campaigns, call and write-in campaigns, despite revelations of treasonous lies, corruption, and crime in the highest places, NOTHING HAS CHANGED.
We are still murdering wholesale in Iraq, we are still holding prisoners without due process, our civil rights have been unilaterally nullified, we still have the most ineffective and expensive health care system in the world, poverty continues to increase, nothing is being done to stop the juggernaut of global warming — the list could go on and on. As if that were not bad enough, any hope of change through the ballot box is nullified by rampant, unchecked fraud in both electronic voting systems and the election process itself.
The reason we have no impact, no matter how large and growing a majority we are, is that the federal government in its entirety is controlled not by the electoral process but by and for corporate money. Furthering this usurpation is corporate control of the media, thereby literally manufacturing both our consent to be governed and the electoral process itself.
The prospects of removing a pathological tyrant and his corporate masters from government through any political process are woefully dim. The corporations that control the throne are stronger than ever, and the damage continues to metastasize. It is past time to take more drastic action than marches and campaigns.
The most drastic action we can take is non-violent and effective, and requires no one to stick their neck out, sign anything, or donate money. All it requires is personal self-restraint. What I’m suggesting is nothing short of a revolution, the equivalent of the Boston Tea Party on a personal scale. It is simply this: stop spending money. I do not mean go hungry or homeless. I mean stop spending money on anything you don’t actually need.
For each person, this will mean something different. For some it may be fast food or junk food or unnecessary restaurant meals. For others it might mean unnecessary clothing, or jewelry, or vacation travel, or new electronic toys or a second car. If two million people examined their spending habits and eliminated all but absolute essentials, and were committed to continuing their frugality for, say, at least six months, the effects would be extremely interesting.
One of the notable elements of this proposal is that the most unnecessary items we buy are those advertised on television. If sales should drop for those items, advertising revenue also drops (after the first mad frenzy to boost sales by increased advertising), and corporate control of the media is thereby weakened. At the same time, we, as individuals, discover not only that we didn’t need those things, we are actually better off without them and stronger for it.
If, practically overnight, say two million people stopped drinking Coke or going to McDonalds or buying unnecessary software, tv screens, cell phones, etc. or driving except for necessity, some very large companies would feel the effects in their pocketbooks, and even more impact would occur on banks and credit card companies that profit by encouraging people to buy more than they need or can afford. As the movement persists and grows, these corporations would have less money to buy politicians and legislation, and government might have to resort to the unthinkable recourse of representing the people.
There is ample precedent for this in our own history. In a single year between 1768 and 1769, for example, imports from Britain to the American colonies fell nearly 50% when colonists simply refused to buy them, putting a number of English companies in bankruptcy. The colonists not only survived this self-imposed hardship but prevailed in a war of independence that created this country and its constitutional form of government.
As with the colonists, this proposal puts action for political reform on a down and dirty individual level — literally putting your money where your mouth is. How much unnecessary stuff are you willing to go without in order to regain both democratic government and a free media?
By not buying non-necessities, individuals can avoid or pay off debt, and use continued savings to exercise more choice in purchase of necessities, thereby having even more impact on the market. For example, they might choose to pay a little more to buy from independents rather than from Walmart or other exploitive superstores, or to buy organic food, a hybrid vehicle, solar panels, or items made only in U.S. union shops, or whatever cause means most to them.
The astonishing thing about this is that by refusing to buy what we truly don’t need, we not only starve out corporate control of government, but corporate control of our personal lives. Through advertising and control of the media, corporations tell us what to want, what to buy, what to think, what to wear, what to look like, what we should be, what to love, what to hate, how to live, how to define ourselves, how to relate to each other — not for our own good, but solely and exclusively to turn a profit at our expense. And we pay them to do this by buying their products!
President Bush, the corporate puppet, spoke no truer words than his exhortation to go shopping as a show of patriotism after 9/11 — shamelessly redefining patriotism to mean support of corporations that own our government and our lives.
Is it unpatriotic to stop buying what we don’t need? Are we putting fellow Americans out of work? Think about it, please. Our purchasing power is the last power remaining to us. By not buying unnecessary products, we can force industry to start producing what we do need — uncontaminated foods, super-efficient transportation, clean, fossil-free energy (other countries are creating jobs producing solar panels, wind generators, energy-efficient trains, etc.).
Can this happen? Too right it can. It’s happened before. Within months of Pearl Harbor, the entire U.S. industrial complex, from auto factories to toy makers to corset manufacturers, was retooled and restructured to produce war machinery. For more than three years, people did without butter, new cars, gasoline, etc., to support a desperate cause.
Our cause today is no less desperate and urgent than World War II was: to restore the democratic government and way of life that war was fought to preserve. No government policies, no legislators beholden to corporate money, are going to do this for us, it is up to us to do it ourselves. Surely we can do without the Victoria’s Secret bra or new flat screen tv or hot SUV to regain control of what was once our own government.
This revolution, like the one that created our democracy, must begin at home, literally. It takes only this: turn off the tv, look around you, talk to your kids and partners, and ask each other what you really need today. Just today. And commit to purchasing today only those things you need. Then do it again tomorrow. Try it. You might find it exhilarating to have such power!
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Ma Kettle lives in the hills of Oregon and is a longtime anti-pesticide activist and corporate fraud expert. To get another copy of this proposal, write to makettle@planetwaves.net. Please send this proposal to your friends — please send neatly, by copy and paste. If your copy is too mangled, write to this address and you’ll get a new one instantly.
To reach her directly write to
carol@planetwaves.net.
While the topic is fresh, I ran across this at truthout, which talks about new techniques using neural trickery to make us buy (or vote or roll over).
http://www.truthout.org/spellcasters-the-hunt-buy-button-your-brain56278
Great post! Thanks!
Some wise, spiritually evolved people believe that in order to balance the wealth in the world, we need to give away half of everything we have. When I moved to Vermont, I did exactly that. There is no reason why you, me and John and Jane down the street and Joe and Mary in Uganda do not have what we need to live. The resources are there. Instead, people hoard and continue to amass material possessions they don’t need and will never even use in many cases. Remember when John McCain could not, or more likely would not, remember how many houses he and his wife own? They own seven. I have been guilty of gross consumerism. We all have. One thing I can say for sure is that it did not make me happy or satisfy the emotional need that was expressing itself at the time.
It is likely that things will get worse before they get better. We are alive at this moment in time for a reason. Here’s to using our creativity and making the best of it!
This is absolutely something we can do, in fact, in so many ways and for so many reasons are already doing it. As awareness grows, the hold of advertising seems to lessen. The reality of corporate rapaciousness, environmental and economic concerns all contribute to a rejection of an unsustainable lifestyle. This is something that has been on my mind for a long time.
In the late 90’s I moved from Texas to Spain, which still for a precious few years was primarily small family owned businesses. I was struck by how simple were the amusements, how full the museums, how people would sit in a cafe for two hours and talk without buying more than a six ounce beverage, how ten people would read the same newspaper, that people wore the same clothes over again each day, how fresh and cheap the food- bought daily so as not to waste…
The return in 2006 was a system shock. I haven’t been able to go back to being comfortable with long commutes, packaged food, or being told what to do or who to be. It really isn’t a sacrifice to buy less, rather it is being free from the cycle of work/buy/work/buy. It has become a comfort rather. Human size. More time for conversation and silly songs and art.
With the economy the way it is, it does seem necessary to have a way to communicate to corporations on a massive scale that this is our CHOICE. Any ideas of how to do so?
(And a huge thank you to Eric for all the attention he is devoting to the Cosmic Confidential in light of the last week’s events. Muchissimas gracias, Eric. While I eagerly await the new issue, your careful weighing of words means much.)
PS I s’pose it is possible to argue that different people have different ecological niches and footprints (like different species do) but I think as a general idea it holds – I’ve been reducing my consumption over the past 10 years just because that’s the way my life has gone. Community and all friends become very precious…
Linked to this is that if you divide world population into the available land you get a maximum of 1,5 hectares per person for everything (EVERYTHING) plus sharing that with other fauna and flora and in a sustainable way. If any of us are using more than this (clothing heating transport food etc etc) and I think the vast majority of us are (even all of us in the west/developed world?) we are stealing either from others or our children
And Ma,…you are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore! But aren’t these wonderful comments you have received from this rant? All of the suggestions and observations, yours and theirs, are things I (we) could and should be doing on our own, but how much more motivated I (we) am (are) when doing it with my (our) fellow countrymen (women) (people). Kept hearing how saving was a good thing for the citizens but bad for the economy. Tough teabags I say!
Thing of it is, this is the way we all lived in the ’40’s, and nobody felt terribly, terribly deprived. Of course, we were doing it a lot for the country and the war effort. But hell, we would be doing THIS for the country and for our fellow citizens, not just the boys overseas. I just LOVE THIS COUNTRY!
Of course, some people would lose jobs. . the advertising people, but they can use their cleverness in better ways and might even feel better about themselves again.
Will share this great motivating feeling with neighbors and friends and family. Thanks to all for the great ideas and the energy and drive to put it out there.
be
Kelly:
Keeping and maintaining things that last and are of real-life value is going to be an interesting shift for our society’s disposable commodities mindset.
I am chanting this as I finish reading your comment: Enduring is Beautiful.
How very Pluto in Capricorn.
This lifestyle isn’t as hard as people tend to think it is. Yes, it takes awareness, but in that awareness lies the boundaries of personal power. The good news is that at the moment, it is in vogue. This fact can carry people a long way. I remember my life partner and I living in rural areas with just one car. Our lifestyle has always included either one car or no car. Not always understood. I sense a shift now. Perhaps out of necessity. I am confident that anyone trying your proposal will discover unexpected goodies and it just might make a difference.
Thanks.
Dear Ma,
Thank you for your posting. I agree with your suggestions, however, I think they are part of the solution. Many good ideas were shared as a response to Fe’s post from yesterday. As you say, we do not need to march, we can do everything we need to do from the comfort of our homes.
“No Taxation Without Representation!” is a revolutionary times motto we can all relate to. Our interests and needs are not being represented by our government or corporate America. We are the cash cow in both cases, keeping our country running as we continue to be taken advantage of. It is time to stand up and say that we refuse to participate in this fraud any longer.
It goes without saying that we should not be buying things we don’t need. Only 70% of the population is currently in a position to do that anyway. And 70% is the figure today. It will be lower tomorrow as more and more people loose their jobs and their homes. A new system needs to be created while we stop feeding the existing mess.
What we have done to the people of Iraq is unconscionable. Watching President Obama’s face as he announced increasing troups in Afghanistan revealed that we were no longer dealing with the man we had elected. It is time for us individually and collectively to generate our own HOPE.
It is time for the American people to simply say, “No” in whatever form they feel comfortable saying it. And saying it with their words as well as their dollars. If you are not buying that new SUV, then write to the car company and your representative Washington and tell them why not.
Cool beans. I’m already doing this. I started simply because my emotional back ups from teenage nuclear family holocaust simply make it difficult for me to hold a job to have money to buy stuff. I stopped driving in 2000 cause my car broke and I couldn’t afford to fix it and that was after living in a mindset where I couldn’t conceive of how to live without a car from the time of my early childhood. My profession was driving as I delivered pizza and flowers most of the time I was employed. I gave it up cold turkey and never went back. Having a car seems more of a burden to me than taking time to walk, bus or bike which also improves my health. Car seats hurt me. I’d rather not sit in them. Ditto for fast food, animal products, new clothes other than undies, socks and shoes, and lots of other stuff I just don’t have the money for.
Internal martial arts are in my life because I’ve had friends who transmit the traditions to me via practice and I’ve occasionally had the money to spend on lessons. Big pharma gets nothing from me anymore. I used to be addicted to ibuprofen cause I had chronic tension headaches that would incapacitate me. Learning internal sensitivity from kung fu and acupuncture treatments (and talking a lot to the acupuncturists to learn how to better care for my own body without anything but my body, space and time) means I can manage my headaches (what headache?) locally and I don’t need to buy patented materials from corporate greed monkeys.
I feel like I’m part of a minority that’s too painfully small to affect anything and I’ve always got more to learn. Bring on the Revolution! Velvet please. I’m sick sick sick of guns and explosions.