Are We Addicted to Too Much of Everything?

What’s the Latest Development?

If you haven’t finished your Christmas shopping yet, please don’t. That is the appeal made by Kalle Lasn, creator of the Adbusters magazine published in Vancouver, British Columbia. Lasn has made a late career out of opposing America’s consumerist habits, recently calling for a “Buy Nothing Christmas” and asking people to make a conscious effort to turn their televisions off for an entire week each year. “Addictions have broadened,” he says. Adbusters attacks sellers for their attractive advertisements by using the same iconic images to mock their ads.

What’s the Big Idea?

One of Adbusters’ main accomplishments of late was calling for an occupation of Wall Street, naming its effort “Occupy Wallstreet.” The name caught on and works, tangentially, to curb America’s runaway spending habits symbolized by a collapse of credit. “Of course, retailers will be facing a Dark Age if people really stop shopping. And because consumer spending accounts for roughly 70 percent of United States gross domestic product, an abrupt shift to nonconsumption would drive the already faltering economy to its knees.” Lasn insists that a new lifestyle is necessary even though he might not know exactly what it looks like. 

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