You may already know about the "Buy Nothing Day" (BND). It's a day of informal protest against consumerism organized by environmental and social activists in North America and around the world on the Friday (or the weekend) after Thanksgiving. It has been going on since 1992, when the first BND was organized in Vancouver, Canada.The Friday after Thanksgiving, known as the Black Friday, is the grand kickoff to the biggest shopping season of the year in North America. Hence, the symbolic importance of holding the BND on this day.
The ads and fliers of this movement draw people's attention to over-consumption in the developed countries. For example, they point out that the developed countries, which are only 20 percent of the world population, consume over 80 percent of earth's natural resources. An average North American consumes five times more than a Mexican, 10 times more than a Chinese person, and 30 times more than a person from India. Consumerism is causing huge environmental damage and socio-economic disparities.
On this day, the participants are asked to refrain from shopping for 24 hours. The organizers hope that this day would be a starting point. A day on which people in the developed countries reflect on their consuming habits and adopt a life style committed to consuming less and producing less waste. In the capitalistic economies, consumption is seen as a power through which consumers can influence the practices of corporations. Hence, the organizers also hope that this abstinence will force companies to adopt environment-friendly and fair-wage practices.What I wonder though is that can we really address the problem of consumerism without addressing the larger phenomenon of materialism? As I see, consumerism is merely one facet of the broader 'matrix' of materialism. This matrix is the 'hegemony of materialism' in our lives, especially in the West. Materialism is the dominant norm. It surrounds us so powerfully that it has become invisible, like water for fish. Watch this clip (here) in which one of the founding organizers of the BND is interviewed by a CNN anchor. Again and again the CNN anchor asks the organizer, "but why shouldn't we?" Why shouldn't people spend money when they can? Why shouldn't people buy stuff what they wish to have? The BND organizer responds with many reasonable and persuasive answers. But, as obvious from the anchor’s repetition, it was hard for her to think above the standpoint of one's own needs and desires.
Hegemony of Materialism
I feel that we cannot effectively address the issue of consumerism if we isolate it from the broader matrix of materialism. Our public awareness campaigns should directly address this matrix in a systematic way. Because materialism is at the roots of how our so-called modern societies are structured. The free-market capitalist system wants you to compete with each other for materialistic accomplishments and gains, in your career, in your lifestyle, in your social relations. The capitalist system is accompanied by a dominant cultural temperament that values individualism and materialistic competition, and that places success and status in materialistic accomplishments. It seeks human happiness and quality of life in material possessions, in the gratification of human desires and wants, in having luxurious cars and big houses, in having lavish entertaining gadgets like tv, cell phones, stereo, computers, in going on cruise vacations, and in having a care-free, responsibility-free lifestyle. Materialism is a totalizing system, like the totalizing system depicted in the movie Matrix. Consumerism is but one facet of this broader matrix of materialism.
Where do we locate this matrix of materialism? Materialism is the economic structure surrounding us. Materialism is the outlook and values in our minds. It is grounded in our very materialistic needs and desires. It is a powerful social force that rewards those that obey it and punishes those that resist it. It seeks to suppress human spirituality and reduce human beings to mono-dimensional materialistic beings, as homo-economicus that are concerned only about maximizing their individual profits and that seek their happiness in only materialistic accomplishments. The materialistic outlook makes people think only about themselves, their own wants and desires, their own profits and gains. The resultant is the socio-economic disparity that we see in the world where over 80% of world resources are consumed by less than 20% of the population. In US alone, the top 20% own more than 80% of the wealth. And they all do it guilt-free because this is how it is supposed to be under the hegemony of materialism.
No wonder it was difficult for the CNN anchor to understand what the BND organizer was saying. So is the case with a majority of people in the North America. Many people that do understand the consequences of consumerism do not always do anything substantial to resist it because often they themselves are deep into materialism, in one way or another. Some of these people may hate Bill Gates and Donald Trump, but at the same time they want to become rich and famous like these two.
The particular form and hegemony of materialism that I am concerned about here developed within the particular historical experience of modernity in the West. Although the origins of this materialism is in the West, it is now being spread all over the world through the process of economic and cultural globalization. Materialism today is seeking to consolidate its hegemony all over the world. Even though my focus is on the materialistic tendencies in the West, I do not mean to imply that these tendencies do not exist in other countries. No they do exist, albeit with varying degress and forms. An important question here though is that why do people that do not directly benefit from materialism, the have-nots in the West and elsewhere, still support it, or, do not actively resist it? I will look into this question in some future post.
Now, I wonder about those certain classes in the US and elsewhere that champion the cause of poverty and social justice but are not willing to sacrifice their own materialistic lifestyle. They keep benefitting from the same unjust socio-economic disparities that they want to reform or change. I wonder if these people can really cure human suffering. Because the way materialism surrounds us, the way it has penetrated into our lives, the way it has become the norm, I feel that only by bringing radical changes to our lifestyle, to our consumption habits, to our materialistic ambitions and ideals can we truly make any substantial difference. Movements like the BND can be very useful in drawing attention toward the larger phenomenon of materialism. But a narrow focus on 'consumerism' cannot be an end in itself. That is, the movement cannot just focus on over-consumption, on the excesses, on merely encouraging restraint to certain classes and certain countries. That won't do much in my opinion. Movements like the BND need to target the broader hegemony of materialism and seek a qualitative change (not just quantitative abstinence) within ourselves and our societies.
Liberating the Hearts, Minds, and Bodies
An effective solution would first need to diagnose the causes and dynamics of the problem. Further, given the seductive and enormous power of materialism, the solution, the social movement would need to have a force more powerful than materialism. We need a powerful system of thought and social organization that could take people out of their indulgence in materialism. The solution needs to be comprehensive so it could liberate people's hearts, minds, and bodies from the confines of materialism. Confines that are shaped by nafsani khwahishaat (low desires of hearts), fikri ghulami (mental slavery of minds), and system kii zangerain (chains of the structure/system around our bodies). We need to diagnose and address materialism on all of these three connected but independent causal levels.
It should be obvious to the regular readers of this blog that I have Islam here in mind as that solution. I truly believe that it addresses this problem on all the three levels, and it is a force powerful enough to overcome materialism. Because it appeals to the very core of human nature (materialistic and spiritual), and exhorts both understanding and practice, ilm aur amal, starting from changing one's own nafs (self) to cause changes in the larger society. I wish to devote my next few posts to define and discuss the various facets/levels of materialism and their consequences, as well as to look at Islam as the alternative. Those who know me know that I am highly indebted to my Ustadh AMZ's research work on this topic and for that matter on all other topics and thoughts that I share on this blog.
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