consumerism as activism
Giving away my college degree for free, part 2.
What has surprised me the most about New York is how many people hate America right now. I’m surprised by how well educated everyone I’ve met has been about the issues with this country. Nearly every supermarket I’ve been to sells exclusively organic fruit and vegetables, my co-worker reminds all of us at work to never eat meat in the US because its filled with hormones, this same guy wants people to donate to a pro-Palestine solidarity group rather than get him a birthday present. The New York Times gets delivered to the apartment every morning and I try to read a couple of articles each day. Normally I have to stop and do the crossword after a few minutes because the news in America makes me want to kill myself.
Here’s the thing about New York today: what you consume is far more important than what you do.
We knew this was true for mainstream society pre-2020. Lefties would gripe about luxury cars, expensive bags, and over-priced restaurants. The idea that you can express your identity, morals and politics through the objects you own is not new. Marx wrote about the phenomenon he called “commodity fetishism”. This is the idea that we view objects as having innate value, value outside of the ‘mere’ labour and materials it took to make the object. Someone told me that it only costs something like $500 to make a Birkin Bag, yet they are sold for $30,000. We see objects as existing independently of the human that created it. The Birkin bag, therefore, is perceived to have inherent value. Why pay such an obscene amount of money for a object you can get for a fraction of the price? Because this bag is special. Imagine if we viewed all human beings the same way we viewed luxury items. If we believed that regardless of their “true” value, they were inherently priceless. My life insurance here in the US has valued my life at $15,000. Not enough to buy a Birkin.
Yes, American society generally accepts that objects are more valuable than the people who make the objects. This idea can be reversed as well. The objects we own might be more important than who we are.
New York City is so much fun. There is so much great art, so many beautiful buildings, a million fantastic restaurants and an endless number of muses to write about. When I am getting drunk drinking Micheladas in the Chelsea Market, sometimes I forget. When I wave at the turtles and Canada geese in Central Park, sometimes I forget. When I am working twelve hour shifts in an underground restaurant, thinking of nothing but the day’s specials and how much longer until I get to have a drink with my co-workers, sometimes I forget. But I do not forget for long because New York seems determined to remind everyone of the apocalypse, and rightly so. The people in this city are devastated, not least because the majority of them are immigrants.
There are museum exhibition popping up everywhere about the Black American experience, there are gift cards in upmarket stationary shops that say “this might be the last time we’re allowed to celebrate birthdays” and other equally depressingly dissociated messages. There’s 30 dollar locally sourced maple syrup and a million micro breweries promising to have a social impact on their neighbourhood (which made me chuckle, because all beer does that not just the ones that cost $10 per can). Every product you buy here in the US has a mission seemingly unrelated to the purpose of the object in question. Buying a latte becomes an act of resistance against child slavery, picking your supermarket indicates what political party you’re likely to vote for, even your shoes might give away your sexuality - and therefore your values apparently.
New Yorkers seem desperate to prove that they are opposed to the unending bad news cycle and the fascist we call the POTUS. There’s an ad in the subway that says it’s “for immigrants, for children and teens, for the disabled” and other marginalised groups. The ad is for an insurance company. I can totally picture the New Yorkers I know to go with this insurance company because its values align with theirs and believe that they have done their bit to help immigrants, POCs, people with disabilities, etc. When in fact boycotting health insurance and calling a national strike until healthcare is universally free would be far more effective.
I am guilty of this too, of course. I refuse to shop on Amazon (and wholefoods), I only buy organic and fairtrade, I avoid fast fashion as much as possible. But this leads me to believe that whilst I drink my expensive, fancy coffee and wear my 100% organic cotton t-shirt that I am genuinely resisting this fucked up capitalistic system that we are all prostrated by. But if it feels fun and easy, its probably not resistance. If you want to actually help the people affected by gentrification, widening income inequality, social services defunding, racism and sexism, join a community advocacy group. Attend a protest. Join a soup kitchen. GIVE PEOPLE MONEY. I tend to just give five dollars to anyone who asks whenever I have it. Because if I can afford to buy the fancy locally sourced honey from bees that belong to a union or whatever, I can afford to give the guy on the subway five bucks. And chances are, you can too.
Its really demoralising to be the on the subway full of people with Trader Joe’s totebags, Black Lives Matter pins, apple headphones and for a guy to beg the entire carriage for a dollar and for no one to look up. No one makes eye contact with homeless people here. People lie OD’ing on the street and everyone walks past them, as if they don’t exist. They are rushing to their B-Corp Marketing job, presumably.
If you want to make the world a better place, try making your street a better place. If you live in a nice area, try making your city a better place. Reach out to charities and offer your time and skills for free if you don’t have a lot of money. Protest, protest, protest! Join a union. Join a community garden. Join a library. Join a squatters rights solidarity group. Read widely about the Black Panther movement, the Anarchist movement, the squatters in Spain, the French tradition of striking, the London squatters in the 1960s. These people did not buy over-priced olive oil that educates Mexican farmers about cryptocurrency, they went out into their community and they did things that were socially unacceptable. We need social unrest if we want things to change. This is not a term I use lightly but I’m sick of pussyfooting around the problem: our own disassociation. Things have been bad before and they stayed bad until the community came together and disrupted the status quo.
I know your wrecked. We’re all exhausted. I know you just want to share infographics on your instagram story because that’s easier than leaving your house and talking to people who smell bad. But here’s the secret: consumerism will make you feel better about the world, but it won’t change anything. Taking action will.
