New Buzz Words

I am always the last to know ~

Culture jamming - apparently this is acting out against a main stream idea, that in itself seems to influence people with no foundation as being good other than it is the current idea. Such as, the over purchasing or consumtion of goods for no purpose other than just to own said goods, or the thought that these said goods will make you happy. I think what I mean to say is it's a form of activism against commercialism. This leads us to ...

Whirl-Marters - apparently Whirl-Marters are activist against ove- consumerism, and at any given time they will whirl-mart a superchain store, with no announcement or plan, they walk the aisles of major stores (such as Walmart) just walking slowly and pushing an empty shopping cart. It has something to be with quiet protest, as apparently Walmart does not allow protesters in the store. Of course, I don't know any store that allows protesters in the store, but anyway,
They walk aimlessly up and down the maze of the aisles in the store with an empty cart. This has something to do with being entitled to that space without purchasing anything. That leads to...

Buy Nothing Day ~ apparently that day is November 26th which is, I think, suppose to be the biggest shopping day of the year. I did not realize that I have been participating in Buy Nothing Day all my life as I have never, that I can recall in my conscious mind, shopped after Thanksgiving. I detest busy stores. Once, at a Walmart grand opening my mother talked me into going to, I was so overwhelmed by all the traffic and the people that I locked my keys in the car with the car running. And no one could help me. The police officer asked me if my child was in the car. "No," I said, "I'm holding my child right here." "Sorry then," he said, "I can't leave my post to help you." So I made a couple of phone calls and everyone I called ,but no one could help, so we called a locksmith and he was laughing but he broke us in before the car ran out of gas. It took so long, we never got in the store to shop. But I would have hated it, I know.

Anti-preneur - now this is the word that lead me to the other words above. It seems there is a Canadian magazine called Adbusters that is trying to break the chain of name brand and being so mind-fixed on name brands, so are encouraging people to come up with their own brand of item and not buy the name brand item. It sounds like a fighting fire with fire method. So the people who come up with the items that aren't the name brand items, but maybe more organic or something but definitely doesn't feed the corporate machine, is an anti-preneur.

So anti-preneurs are culture jammers, but don't necessarily whirl-mart, but would probably give a shout out to those that do especially on Buy Nothing Day.

It's all new to me....
As long as I live, I can't believe some of the things that people come up with in order not to go along with that which is going on.

Why not take all that good time and energy and put it into feeding the poor or buying a child in need a pair of shoes. I'm being to cynical. I can't judge others for peaceful protest and finding a legal way to express their outrage of the things that go on around them.

I guess I have an activist bone in my body somewhere, as I did take to being a pirate by wearing one gold hoop earring in my protest of Aging Boringly. But being old, which got here before the boring part, I misplaced my earring so my pirating days have been put on hold.

I know I am not an over consumer. I know I don't need material things to make me happy. But what I don't know is, should I silently walk about stores with empty carts to pass along this message? Some how, I think, it works out better to bake a cake for your neighbor.

Oh well, free world, and all that, I suppose -- some people don't even like baking!

tu tranquilo,

Miss Roxie