【Buy Nothing Christmas】 — There’s so much more you can do than overconsumption
The “Zero Waste Christmas” Reverse Graffiti Activity by Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association & the Society of Wilderness
Right after the purely consumption-encouraging, so-called 11/11 and 12/12 “Holiday”, now comes the Christmas. While your smartphone message is bombarded by various advertisements and discounts, perhaps you might wonder: Is it normal to buy things to the ones you care about, while not knowing if the “gifts” are really what they need, or just a waste of money?
From midnight to dawn on the December 21th, staff and volunteers of Wild at Heart & Society of Wilderness went to busy commercial landmarks in Taipei—we brought the stencil board with our demands and a high-pressure water jet to make “reverse graffiti” urging people to spend more time with the ones you love, instead of spending time in the crowded malls to buy “gifts”. Our target were the crowded shopping people in the malls, and our demand was “True Love Is Not Bought”, “Instead of overconsumption, spending quality time with each other is much better for the relationship”.
This was one of the “Zero Waste Holidays Campaigns” held by Wild at Heart & the Society of Wilderness. In order to remind the busy people in Taipei that “Overconsumption” is actually a strategy of the industries to encourage “Buying More and More”, people should pause for a while to think, and stop twisting the true meaning of holidays by the endless consumption.
【Holidays are not necessarily equal to Consumption】
For the last decade, holidays like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, White Valentine’s Day, Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day and the Chinese Valentine’s Day were gradually packaged by industries and retailers as “Impulsive Consuming Days”. They even CREATED the holidays for purely buying things like 11/11 and 12/12.
Under such nearly brain-washing atmosphere, people gets anxious or even feel guilty for not buying something for their beloved ones on all these holidays! But in fact, no consumption nor gifts can compare to a true-hearted companion. What people care about is definitely not some useless gifts that might become wastes far before the next holiday.
【True-Hearted Companion v.s. Buying Stuff】
We firmly believe that, taking a walk with your loved ones around somewhere with a mutual good memory, helping parents with household works and sitting down sharing latest life events, etc., means so much psychologically than getting jammed in malls trying to buy some stuff that perhaps your loved ones don’t even like or need.
Therefore, Wild at Heart & Society of Wilderness, beginning this Christmas, will further campaign against overconsumption in the future holidays—and of course this includes the “pure-buying holidays” invented by the industries.
【Merchandises exist for the industries’ Income. However You and I exist for the ones we LOVE】
Living in the era of Consumerism and Commodity Fetishism, we must keep our heads clear that Capitalism is doing its best on resource extraction, mass production and encouraging over-consumerism just in order to achieve the highest profit. We must emphasize our slogan for the coming Christmas again: Buy Nothing Christmas—There’s so much more you can do than overconsumption. While our natural resources are being depleted by the Capitalism’s mass extraction (which is also definitely unsustainable), Wild at Heart & Society of Wilderness truly wish that from this Christmas, people will stop thinking “buying gifts” as the only way to please the ones you care about.
Love our environment and protect the ones you love!
The humans’ relationships are NOT built upon “buying things” and “sending gifts”.
(The staff and volunteers of Wild at Heart & Society of Wilderness doing Reverse Graffiti around busy commercial landmarks on the dawn of December 21)
(The walls around the Far Eastern Department Store, near the XieMen Metro Station)
(The exit of the ZhongXiao Fuxing Metro Station)
(The intersection of ZhongXiao East Rd. and Fuxing South Rd.)
Contact:
Xavier Sun, Zero Waste Campaigner, Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association, Taiwan.
Mobile: +886-987675792