This portion of the site is yet to be developed. That does not mean however that you have to hold off with you ideas and suggestions. Let it rip!
But we know too that few of us respond well to purely negative signals. If you are a parent, for example, you will know that it is far better if you say to your kid, not just "NO, don't do that!", but rather also propose, "Why not do this instead.....". Thus in BND we don't want to tell people that they are stupid and bad, but rather, if we wish to succeed, we should also be saying.... "and wouldn't it be smart if we all got together to do this instead...".
So what about this? Without wishing to even try to impose anything like a sense of universal order or uniformity on the IDN movement-impossible right, cause it's a Critical Mass, self-organizing operation! -- may I suggest that we consider linking next year's Big Day to an action theme that is philosophically consistent with objectives. In this way we are able to go out on the streets in 1999 and say, not just "NO NO NO", but "NO TO THAT, AND WHILE WE ARE AT IT, WHY NOT THIS!"
And here are my first two candidates for IBND 1999:
Such cooperative projects will of course require your getting together with all the good people and groups that already are working on these other important and in many ways related agenda. And while it does not of course require that you agree with them on every detail of life, it still is a matter of cooperation and teamwork. But I think in both these instances you are going to find these people good to work with. At least that has been my experience.
This is not to suggest that BND should lose its soul and just become a passive mouthpiece for other groups and movements, but rather to open up some ideas for what might prove to be a more useful and powerful approach to getting our point across.
Might we at least take advantage of this forum to exchange our thoughts about this?
A few notes for now:
We must bear in mind that, like it though we may, the Buy Nothing approach is of course basically negative? That's an important thing to bear in mind when you consider that in taking the time and trouble to do all this we are -- at least I think this is the common goal -- not only trying to satisfy ourselves as activists willing to go on public record, but also to do something to mobilize opinion and action so that at the end of the day our world is at least a little bit be sustainable. That is what we are trying to do, is it not?
The Hook -- Thoughts on a Positive Approach and Partnerships
If you want a good model to help on the latter, you can have a look at what was done here in Paris on New Year's eve to organize a festive dinner for 1000 homeless people at the Parc de La Vilette. I don't propose this necessarily as a model, but at least as food for thought. Likewise for Car Free Day organization , you might usefully consult http://www.ecoplan.org/carfreeday as a point of departure.
It has to be admitted that the name Buy Nothing Day is one that only a mother could love. To me, it has all the appeal of a truck loaded with empty beer bottles rattling down the street. But one can whine and thrash about all one wants, and at the end of the day once the terrain has been occupied it tends to be awfully hard to dislodge. Still, and while my first step is to give up and day that we have what we have and almost certainly we have to learn to live with it, let me nonetheless list a certain number of things that popped up in a wine (French!) driven dinner. Here you have them:
Alternative Names?
Okay, you think all those are dreadful and brain dead. Well... do better!
. . .
Have something to add, correct, or suggest here? This is the place to turn for your handy email notice. Better yet, why not reply to the IBND mailbox so that your information and comments will get to the others immediately?
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