Tactical Briefing #5
Dear jammers, creatives, anarchists & revolutionaries,
As the days of Carnivalesque Rebellion draw near, a debate is emerging amongst our movement. On one side are those whose plans involve a raucous week of stopping traffic, letting off stink bombs and blackspotting billboards. Their argument is that only a festival of the most visceral kind of civil disobedience will shake consumerism to its core. Others, equally passionate and dedicated souls, say that the old lefty tricks of confrontation and escalation don't work any more. They urge a nuanced, slow revolution: a long-term meme war aimed at changing people's spirits and minds.
It strikes us that this is the same personal dilemma that each of us struggle with: deep down in our guts we know that the world demands a radical transformation of the global system. And yet, it seems impossible, perhaps even foolhardy, to topple consumerism and corporate capitalism by confronting it head on. Is there a way out of this impasse? What should we do this November?
Send your insights to [email protected]
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The second issue of Adbusters in our I, REVOLUTION series, is at the printers now and will hit newsstands worldwide next week. Subscribe now and we'll send you the first issue in the series as a gift [email [email protected] to arrange it]. The third and final issue in the series will be out mid-November.
4 comments on the article “Tactical Briefing #5”
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Anonymous
This may be off topic, but then again it might help adbusters' anti-consumerism cause.
The major reason I drastically cut back on my consumerism was to get debt-free. After listening to Dave Ramsey's personal finance show for months, his idea of getting totally debt-free finally bullied its way passed my consumeristic notions of how one should live. Dave's plan (not just advice) addresses several psychological barriers: stop trying to keep up with the Jones, discovering how secure it feels to be out of debt, that it's okay to use simple accounting, that you probably need to grow up, that you have to engage mature discussions with your spouse, stop being selfish, and much much more.
I know that some of you read this and think, duh, you should be able to figure that out yourself. If that were true, why is adbusters busting its back to educate and influence people to do the right thing. In fact, adbusters seems to learn from a variety of sources. I suggest they learn why Dave Ramsey's approach seems to be effective with the very audience that adbuster's is trying to reach.
To put this is perspective, Dave claims that he has helped millions pay off their debt. Let's say that he only saved a million people pay off their debt...and let's say that the average debt per person was a mere $1,000. That's still $1 billion dollars of debt that he helped people pay off. Which only could happen because people drastically reduced their consumption by about the same amount.
So, does the Buy Nothing Day campaign reduce comsumption by at least a billion dollars...I doubt it.
I should note that Dave approach has a mild Christian flavor and he has a show on Fox. Get over it. He is no neocon. Even if you don't like him, fine, but adbusters could learn from his success with the mainstream.
Anonymous
This may be off topic, but then again it might help adbusters' anti-consumerism cause.
The major reason I drastically cut back on my consumerism was to get debt-free. After listening to Dave Ramsey's personal finance show for months, his idea of getting totally debt-free finally bullied its way passed my consumeristic notions of how one should live. Dave's plan (not just advice) addresses several psychological barriers: stop trying to keep up with the Jones, discovering how secure it feels to be out of debt, that it's okay to use simple accounting, that you probably need to grow up, that you have to engage mature discussions with your spouse, stop being selfish, and much much more.
I know that some of you read this and think, duh, you should be able to figure that out yourself. If that were true, why is adbusters busting its back to educate and influence people to do the right thing. In fact, adbusters seems to learn from a variety of sources. I suggest they learn why Dave Ramsey's approach seems to be effective with the very audience that adbuster's is trying to reach.
To put this is perspective, Dave claims that he has helped millions pay off their debt. Let's say that he only saved a million people pay off their debt...and let's say that the average debt per person was a mere $1,000. That's still $1 billion dollars of debt that he helped people pay off. Which only could happen because people drastically reduced their consumption by about the same amount.
So, does the Buy Nothing Day campaign reduce comsumption by at least a billion dollars...I doubt it.
I should note that Dave approach has a mild Christian flavor and he has a show on Fox. Get over it. He is no neocon. Even if you don't like him, fine, but adbusters could learn from his success with the mainstream.
diogenessinope
I just bought the new issue: Carnivalesque Rebellion. I was taken aback by your publishing of Kitty Werthmann's conservative propaganda without comment. I realize that you do that on occassion. But also after reading Micah's ecofascist web article, I am beginning to wonder if Adbusters really buys into the illusion of total freedom and fascist name calling.
Fascism is not a very descriptive word when it is applied to anything except the actual historical movement. When it is simply used to mean "a restriction upon me or others that I do not like" it brings unhelpful confusion to any issue.
Believe me, capitalists find any limitation on what they can do "fascist." To them, your demonstrations and detournements compare to Kristallnacht. The religious find a limitation on school prayer "fascist". The atheists find imposing school prayer on them "fascist". How does this word help in understanding what we need to do?
Any political movement values certain choices and uses some form of coercion to devalue other choices. I personally find capitalism and imperialism and over consumption of resources and population growth beyond what is sustainable to be worthy of discouragement. I think that efforts to use technology to overcome limitations on resources, growth and population are much more likely to cause further problems than to solve the initial problems.
I have little interest in allowing appeals to liberal values to dissuade me from working against people and organizations who act to preserve rights for themselves without insuring the same rights for all humans alive now and in the future, all creatures and the Earth herself. And I will act to protect the Universe it/him/herself, in the case that we intend to solve our problems by draining other planets the way we have drained our own.
If consumerism is the sole cause of oppression of the whole for the benefit of the few, and detourning ads will cause everyone to become reasonable in their choices, Yeah!! But there was limited advertising in the Roman Empire and its imperialism working just fine. Isn't it possible that a critique of consumerism is just one of many tools we need to achieve responsibility and equity? And that name calling against people who should be our allies is counterproductive and one of the means employed to disable us?
diogenessinope
I just bought the new issue: Carnivalesque Rebellion. I was taken aback by your publishing of Kitty Werthmann's conservative propaganda without comment. I realize that you do that on occassion. But also after reading Micah's ecofascist web article, I am beginning to wonder if Adbusters really buys into the illusion of total freedom and fascist name calling.
Fascism is not a very descriptive word when it is applied to anything except the actual historical movement. When it is simply used to mean "a restriction upon me or others that I do not like" it brings unhelpful confusion to any issue.
Believe me, capitalists find any limitation on what they can do "fascist." To them, your demonstrations and detournements compare to Kristallnacht. The religious find a limitation on school prayer "fascist". The atheists find imposing school prayer on them "fascist". How does this word help in understanding what we need to do?
Any political movement values certain choices and uses some form of coercion to devalue other choices. I personally find capitalism and imperialism and over consumption of resources and population growth beyond what is sustainable to be worthy of discouragement. I think that efforts to use technology to overcome limitations on resources, growth and population are much more likely to cause further problems than to solve the initial problems.
I have little interest in allowing appeals to liberal values to dissuade me from working against people and organizations who act to preserve rights for themselves without insuring the same rights for all humans alive now and in the future, all creatures and the Earth herself. And I will act to protect the Universe it/him/herself, in the case that we intend to solve our problems by draining other planets the way we have drained our own.
If consumerism is the sole cause of oppression of the whole for the benefit of the few, and detourning ads will cause everyone to become reasonable in their choices, Yeah!! But there was limited advertising in the Roman Empire and its imperialism working just fine. Isn't it possible that a critique of consumerism is just one of many tools we need to achieve responsibility and equity? And that name calling against people who should be our allies is counterproductive and one of the means employed to disable us?
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