Buy Nothing Day

I thought about writing a "Buy Nothing Day" post, but Andrew Sullivan beat me to the punch (and he's a much better writer than I):

BUY NOTHING DAY: I have absolutely nothing against capitalism, but I have to say I feel solidarity with the dissidents here. Watching images of people bursting through department door stores and trampling each other for a cheap DVD player at 5:30 am makes me wonder if I belong to the same species. Yes, I know there are bargains. But please. The sheer frenzy, the entire mania of consumerism, the notion that meaning is to be found in buying things and giving these things to other people or to yourself - it all leaves me cold.

That's one reason I'm such a Christmas-phobe. Each year, we have a communal campaign to persuade ourselves that we never have enough, the new things will assuage our real needs, that buying is the same as living. Yes, of course, some of this is fine, generous or even important. But the hysteria is a form of cultural disorder. And "Christmas" merely feeds it. If "Buy Nothing Day" helps assuage this a little, it's an excellent thing.