« The Cops "I Can't Stay Focused... | Poor, poor Georgia peaches »
Not to mention that not buying any gas one day a month would have exactly ZERO effect on total gas sales, since everyone who participates will just fill up the day before or the day after.
Boycotts are stupid and don't work.
To follow on Bill's point, lettuce gets her with oil, and the fertilizer that was put on it is made with oil. Solar panels are moved by oil. So are coffee beans. Newsprint. Bags of pot. Shoes. Computer mice. Toothpaste. The water for your shower. The lumber for your sandwich boards.
That's about the dumbest thing I've ever seen, for the reasons already enumerated.
Maybe instead of making excuses you could give up driving your car one day a month. Would that be so difficult?
What I like about it is the snarky second side that predicts the usual "I would if I could..." response. And the bold spray-paint design technique.
Maybe you could come up with a less simplistic point of view that actually made a difference instead of just a sandwich board?
It is snarky, I'll give it credit for that. I have nothing against snarkiness.
adbuster's buy nothing day is also known as black friday
"No driving. No buying gas." Sounds pretty simple to me. Effective too. It reminds me of the feeling of moral superiority I feel when I bike past a line of cars on Westlake on a sunny day like today.
I mean it, you should give it a try. One day. No driving, no buying gas.
Yes, it sounds simple, because it is simple-minded. Just like feeling morally superior to people you know absolutely nothing about.
i gave up a car a year ago as an experiment and am now about to buy one cuz' public transit in this city blows.
I agree this is stupid. Obviously we can't move goods without oil. And that isn't the problem, really. The problem is driving.
Guess What: Try biking it. I used to bitch about transit here (well, I still do sometimes) but then I got a bike and it's great. It is so much better than a car in so many ways.
I've commuted year-round in Boston (yes, in snow) and Oakland, but I won't do it here. It's not safe. I'm not as young as I once was, and the streets and drivers here are an oblivious menace.
Correction: "commuted BY BICYCLE". Sheesh.
I know they're sitting in traffic and burning gas to go nowhere, while I'm enjoying myself and moving fast. That's more than enough to feel superior.
FNARF -- I'm not sure the drivers here are any more of a menace than those anywhere else (especially Boston!). But if you think the drivers are menace, why would you want to drive? People in cars get killed a lot too!
I like it. American exceptionalism and amoral consumerism find common cause in the everyday cant of individualism.
Meanwhile in Sweden:
instead, buy $0.01 of gas with your credit card as often as possible. that's the only thing that will actually cost the oil companies money.
glad to get the conversation rolling, but I'm not so sure that not buying gas or driving one day would be purely empty symbolism.
sure, FNARF, you'll have to fill up the day before or the day after, but you won't be consuming that one day's worth of gas you'd usually consume by driving, so that would be meaningful if enough people did it.
love the one-cent charge card plan, though. and i hate to rub it in, but i live in Chicago and take public transportation in bad weather, ride my bicycle the other six months of the year. haven't owned a car in 25 years. spend that money on baseball tickets, books, art, theatre and travel.
eventually, you will stop driving. and flying. and getting your produce from mexico. and buying records.
the sign's cute and well designed, and riding your bike is rad.
the monthly symbolic gesture is empty if it doesn't go hand in hand with a daily lifestyle of curbed consumption. and all our individual efforts are empty unless they're accompanied by a global shift in consciousness regarding fossil fuels.
Oh, darn the luck. That's the day I'm scheduled to tilt at the pink windmills.
I love that American can-do let's get it done "why bother it won't make a difference anyways" optimism that's pervading this thread.
What's wrong with shooting for the stars (no oil products) and settling for the moon (halving oil consumption) ?
Sure, giving up all oil right away is somewhat unfeasible but that's doesn't mean you can't start cutting back.
Don't forget that petroleum is used to make plastic and makeup, among other household products. We would never completely detach ourselves from petroleum unless we found new ways to make just about everything we use.
one word: Teleporting. Problem fixed!
Nice site...look now
Nice site...look now
Nice site...look now
Look now
catalogood
catalogood
acyclovir-vg0a.blogspot.com
worldpharmacy
worldpharmacy
amiloride-5ity.blogspot.com
worldpharmacy
Best in the best
Look now
Look now
Look now
Comments Closed
In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 45 days old).
Boycotting all things oil would mean not buying ANYTHING, since pretty much everything you buy is shipped to the place you buy it via a gas-using vehicle. Isn't there some anti-consumerist day every year where people aren't supposed to buy anything all day long?