Smash the Marketplace! (Or At Least Ding It Slightly)

An author I know passed along an email from another author who says the following call to action originates from Stephen King, and I've got my reasons for taking the statement at face value. But even if it's not, I know the blue-staters in my readership will want to hear this:

"As you may--or may not--know, January 20th is more than Inauguration Day. It's also Not One Damn Dime Day, which may be the closest thing to a national strike those of us appalled by the continuing carnage in Iraq and this administration's complete lack of an exit strategy (any kind of strategy, really) can muster. The plan is simple: On January 20th, don't spend one damn dime. Don't buy a loaf of bread, a gallon of beer, a pack of Pampers, or the daily newspaper. Stick to your stocks...and stick it to the war machine, just a little bit. It's simple, and it probably won't do much good, but we can say this: the one thing of which the bozos driving this bus seem to have some dim grasp is COMMERCE. So remember: no Big Mac, no can of Coke at the Kwik-Pik, no lottery ticket, no copy of the new John Grisham. On January 20th, not one damn dime."

Before we all get too excited, though, Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter have pointed out in Nation of Rebels, their bodyslam on anti-consumerism (excerpted in This Magazine, where it goes under its Canadian title, The Rebel Sell), there's a big flaw in such "buy nothing" protests: you're still supporting the superstructure by showing up for work, and whatever blip this "opt-out" creates on the economic radar is, ultimately, insignificant. In all honesty, the ramp-up's probably going to be the only aspect that gets any real attention. That doesn't mean you should spend those damn dimes anyway; frankly, I think it's a marvelous way to focus your own attention on the issue, as long as you go someplace with that focus on the 21st, and the 22nd...

Here's another idea: does anybody know who the corporate sponsors/donors underwriting the inaugural balls are? Those are some companies you might want to hit with a sustained boycott of both consumption and investment... and Beatrice readers have come up with the list and a few context-providing articles: see here, here, here, and here.

And those of you New Yorkers who want to do something to focus your anger today could either watch as Maud Newton debates a "billionaire for Bush" about taxes at Book Court in Brooklyn Heights (in conjunction with Melville House's What We Do Now) or listen to Mark Danner talk about the use of torture in the war on terror at Coliseum Books.