rebelpleb

“People, so the thought runs, ought to be discontented, and it is our job to multiply our wants and not simply to increase our enjoyment of the things we have already.” George Orwell, “Some Thoughts on the Common Toad” (1946) For the past twenty five years or more, I generally have not celebrated holidays, at least not in any traditional sense. There are a variety of reasons that I opted out of these festivities, some deeply personal. Mostly, I could not abide the existential emptiness of trying to connect with others or achieve happiness through consumerism. But more, in committing my life to the causes of ecological sustainability, environmental health, and justice, the maintenance of any modicum of integrity precluded my participation in the conspicuous consumption of resources and energy as well as the needless generation of excessive waste that all holidays entail. I found solidarity with those who had withdrawn before me, who promoted Buy Nothing Day in respo...

Remember that silly game we used to play with fortune cookies from Chinese restaurants? Maybe people still play it. It’s the one where you read your fortune and tack on “… in bed” to the end of the sentence – like, “You will soon meet a mysterious stranger … in bed.” The supplemental phrase usually fits fairly smoothly onto the given fortune, and generates a few chuckles from listeners. Here’s a new game in a similar vein, but this one doesn’t engender much laughter. First, take a look at the statements below. See if you can identify which are true versus which are false. We can’t end poverty… We can’t end homelessness … We can’t feed the hungry … We can’t have livable wages … We can’t have a universal basic income so all people have the basic necessities to live … We can’t end sweatshop labor … We can’t work less … We can’t produce less … We can’t consume less … We can’t have universal, single-payer healthca...