Not Buying It
Page 25
By the time Paul and I reach Bruce and Sara, the darkness is gathering. The black background of the LED screens has dropped away and the two figures have stepped into space. In trousers and boots, Sara lopes, assured and sexy. Bruce, slender as Sara and a bit more tentative, perhaps a little fey, matches her gait. Paul and I watch them, mesmerized. Are they lovers, friends, strangers? Both empty and alarmingly real-looking, they can accommodate any fantasy.
Like us, Bruce and Sara walk and walk. They carry no wallets, wear no logos. They are not buying or selling anything, cannot be bought. Here in downtown Manhattan, crossroads of commerce and government, shopping and cost-cutting, opulence and homelessness, this man and woman on the street appear both purposeful and casual, at work and at play. Theflâneur, wrote Walter Benjamin, “takes the concept of marketability itself for a stroll.”
It is time to go home and cook dinner. As we turn back toward Brooklyn, Paul lifts a hand and waves to the two light-wave public citizens who have walked beside us through our year without shopping. What do they need? Not much (a little funding and their screens cleaned now and then). What do they desire? Anything. Everything. They stride into the imaginary, open to all.
Acknowledgments
All gratitude and no blame is extended to Janice Irvine, Ann Snitow, Prudence Crowther, Paul Cillo, Alison Bechdel, Joy Harris, Leslie Meredith, Edith Lewis, Tom Pitoniak, and Tina Peckham.
Index
Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq
Accursed Share, The(Bataille)
Acid rain
Acquisition-related disorders
ActForChange
Adbusters Media Foundation
Advertising
Affluent Society, The(Galbraith)
Affluenza
AIG
Airplane travel
Air pollution
Alain Mikli
Alcott family
Alford, Ron
America Coming Together
American Library Association
American Museum of Natural History
American Psychological Association
Ames
Amtrak
Andrews, Cecile
Anthropologie
Antidepressants
Antiterrorism entrepreneurs
Antiwar protests
Applebee’s
Apple Computer logo
Arendt, Hannah
Art
Asian tsunami
Aspirational gap
Atkins, Douglas
Atlanta Ballet
Austerlitz(Sebald)
Automobiles
BAE Systems
Baldwin, James
Bangladesh
Bankruptcy
Barnes & Noble
Barr, Nicholas
Bataille, Georges
Beecher, Henry Ward
Beer making
Benjamin, Walter
Bentham, Jeremy
BG
Birds
Black Friday
Black markets
Blake, William
Bloomberg, Michael
Body Shop
Books
Boredom
Bozeman, Montana
Braudel, Fernand
Brewster, Mary Kim
Brooklyn Public Library
Bubble tea
Burros, Marian
Bush, George W.
Buy Nothing Day
BzzAgent
Camus, Albert
Car Guys
Carnegie Mellon
Cass, Alden M.
Catalyst Strategies Group
Catholicism
Cato
Celexa
Cell phone service
Center for American Progress
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Century
Cheney, Dick
Child labor
Chinatown, New York
Christmas decorations
Circle of Simplicity, The(Andrews)
Classical economics
Cleaning supplies
Clothing
Common Cause
Competitive consumption
Compulsivity
Concerned Women for America
Congressional Quarterly,
Conspicuous consumption
Consumer psychology
Container Store
Costa, Piero
Courts, Lynda
CQ Homeland Security,
Credit
Cross, Susan
Currency supply
Czaplinski, Richard
Czech Republic
D’Addario, Barbara
Daly, Herman E.
Dandridge, Dorothy
Datamonitor
Dean, Howard
Debt
Debtors Anonymous
Decluttering
Denmark
Depression
Descartes, René
Dialogues(Plato)
Different Drummer, New York
Dilts, Gary
Disaster Masters, Inc.
Disney Corporation
Disposaphobia
Doctors Without Borders
Dominguez, Joe
Douglas, Mary
Downshifters
DSL
Dubro, Alec
Duesenberry, James
Earth Council
EasyDECON
eBay
Ecological footprinting
Electromagnetic emissions
Elgin, Duane
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Emulation
Engle, Jonah
Eno, Brian
Entertainment
Envirofoam Technologies
Environmentalism
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Envy
European Union countries
Evans, Mary
Fahrenheit 9/11(movie)
Federal Aviation Authority (FAA)
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Feminist movement
Fertilizers
Fetishes
Fifties generation
First Amendment to the Constitution
Fiske, Neil
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
“Fixing Nemo” (Skloot)
Flaubert, Gustave
Focus on the Family
Food stamps
Food supplies
Forest Laboratories
Fossil-fuel burning
Fraenkel, Peter
Frank, Robert
Freud, Sigmund
Friends of the Mad River
Frontline,
Fulton Street, New York
Galbraith, John Kenneth
Gasoline consumption
Gates, Bill
General Foods
General Motors
Generosity
Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)
Gibson, Mel
Gift, The(Hyde)
“Gift, The” (Mauss)
Gifts
Gissing, George
Giuliani, Rudolph
Global Garbage
Global warming
Gorelick, Steve
Government jobs
Graaf, John de
Great Depression
Greed
Greenhouse gases
Green Mountain Club
Gross domestic product (GDP)
Gross national product (GNP)
Hacker, Andrew
Hazardous-waste collection
Health, Department of
Helms, Jesse
Hendrix, Jimi
Hewlett-Packard
Hoarding
Hold Everything
Holt, Douglas B.
Home Depot
Homeland Security, Department of
Home renovation
Houellebecq, Michel
Household storage
Howard, Sandy Buck
Hussein, Saddam
Hyde, Lew
is
Hyperconsumption
Impulsivity
Interest rates
Internet access
Intimacy, fear of
Iraq War
Isherwood, Baron
Jefferson, Thomas
John, Sean
Jones, Suzanna
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry,
Justice, Department of
Katchor, Brian
Keillor, Garrison
Kelly, Raymond W.
Kentucky Fried Chicken
Kerry, John
Ketchup Advisory Board
Keynes, John Maynard
Kmart
Krispy Kreme
Kruger, Barbara
Lafargue, Paul
Landfills
Land’s End
Lasn, Kalle
Leach, Robin
Learned helplessness
Lehrer, Brian
Libraries
Lincoln, Abraham
Liquor supplies
Livingston, New York
Luttmer, Erzo F.P.
Luxury fever
Madame Bovary(Flaubert)
Madonna
Magical thinking
Mai-Mai, New York
Malinowski, Bronislaw
Malthus, Thomas
Maniates, Michael
Mapplethorpe, Robert
March for Women’s Lives
Market choice
Market niches
Martha Stewart Living,
Marx, Karl
MaryJanesFarmmagazine
Materialism
Matrix
Mauss, Marcel
May, Toni
McCarthy, Joe
McDonald’s
McKibben, Bill
Meat consumption
Medicaid
Medications
Merkel, Jim
“Metropolis and Mental Life, The” (Simmel)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Microsoft
Mill, John Stuart
Moore, Michael
Moral Right
Motor Vehicles Bureau
MoveOn
Muir, John
Muir Trail, California
Mukerji, Chandra
Murdoch, Rupert
Murray, Bill
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museums
Narcissism
National Labor Committee for Labor and Human Rights
Nature, return to
Naylor, Thomas H.
Neoclassical economists
Nestle, Marian
New Grub Street(Gissing)
New Yorker,
New York Library
New Yorkmagazine
New York Post,
New York Public Interest Research Group
New York Times,
New York Times Magazine,
NEXGEN Tactical & Law Enforcement Supply Inc.
Nichols, Bob
Nineteenth century
No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays(Willis)
Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression(Solomon)
Northern Sun: Products for Progressives
Northrop Grumman
Obesity
Office supplies
Oil consumption
Opie, Julian
Organic Livingmagazine
Organic Professionals (“Oppies”)
Organic Stylemagazine
Outsourcing
Overconsumption
Overspent American, The(Schor)
Overworked American, The(Schor)
Ownership Society
Oz, Amos
Ozone layer
Paley, Grace
Paper use
Paris Commune of 1870–71
Paris Opera Ballet
Particules Elémentaires, Les(Houellebecq)
People for the American Way
Pepsi
Peretz, I. M.
Perfectionism
Pesticides
Pet care
Pet food
Pharmaceutical industry
Phillips, Adam
Photosmart R707 digital camera and 375 printer
Plato
Plentymagazine
Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, Brooklyn
Pokémon Center
Population
Postal service
Postmodern marketplace
Potlatch
Presidential campaign and election (2004)
Princen, Thomas
Privatization
Property values
Protestant ethic
Proust, Marcel
Psychology and Consumer Culture: The Struggle for a Good Life in a Materialistic World(American Psychological Association)
Public services
Radical Simplicity
Radical Simplicity(Merkel)
Rasmussen Report
Ratner, Bruce
Reagan, Ronald
RealSimplemagazine
Recycling
Redefining Progress
Religion
Republican National Convention, New York (2004)
Resident Evil 2: Apocalypse(movie)
Restaurants
“Right to Be Lazy, The” (Lafargue)
Ring-Out
Rinker, Karl
Roberts, Kevin
Robin, Vicki
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
Rove, Karl
Rudnick, Paul
Russ & Daughters
Russert, Tim
Sartell, Charles
Scarcity, culture of
Schine, Cathleen
Schlegel, Friedrich
Schor, Juliet
Sears
Sebald, W. G.
Self-gifting
Self-storage units
September 11, 2001
Sexuality, in media
Shame
Shaw, Karen
She Is Me(Schine)
Shepard, Beverly
Shepard, David
Shepard, Wendell
Shoes
Sierra Club
Silverstein, Michael
Simmel, Georg
Simple Living Network
Simpson, Jessica
Sixties generation
Skloot, Rebecca
SmartWool socks
Smith, Adam
Smithsonian Institution
Social harmony
Social Security
Socrates
Solar energy
Solid-waste disposal
Solomon, Andrew
Spaving
Spirituality
Spiwak, Steve
StacksandStacks.com
Starbucks
Status buying
Steady-state economy
Stein, Ben
Stevens, Mick
Surowiecki, James
Sustainable living
SUVs
Take Back Your Time Day
Talen, Bill (Reverend Billy)
Target Stores
Taste cultures
Taxes
TechNews,
Tele-Communications Act of
Telecommunications tower, Hardwick, Vermont
Terrorbusters, Inc.
Thompson, Craig J.
Thoreau, Henry
3m Corporation
Time Warner
Tocqueville, Alexis de
Touching the Void(movie)
Tourneau
Toys ‘R’ Us
Trading Up: The New American Luxury(Silverstein and Fiske)
Transactional utility
Transcendentalism
Travel
Trout Unlimited
Tweed Courthouse, New York
UNICEF
United Water
University of Michigan
Utilitarianism
Utopianism
Valhalla(Rudnick)
Veblen, Thorstein
Vegetarian Babymagazi
ne
Veleta, Richard
Vermont Earth Institute
Vietnam War
Virgin megastore
Voluntary Simplicity (VS) movement
Walden(Thoreau)
Walker, Rob
Walljasper, Jay
Wal-Mart
Wann, David
War Resisters League
Washington, Johnny
Water pollution
Wealth
Weapons
Welfare state
Welker, John
Whales
Williams, Rosalind
Willis, Ellen
Window-shopping
Wolcott, Vermont
Working Assets
Workshop on Consumption and Environment
World Bank
World of Goods, The(Douglas and Isherwood)
World Resources Institute
World War II
Wright, Steven
Your Money or Your Life(Dominguez and Robin)
Zero Work
Zweig, Martha
About the Author
For over twenty-five years, journalist and author Judith Levine has explored the ways history, culture, and politics are expressed in intimate life. She is the author ofDo You Remember Me?: A Father, a Daughter, and a Search for the Self; My Enemy, My Love: Women, Masculinity, and the Dilemmas of Gender; andHarmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex, which won the 2002Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Levine has contributed articles to dozens of national publications, includingHarper’s, theVillage Voice, O, andSalon and writes a column called “Poli Psy,” about emotions in politics, for the Vermont weeklySeven Days. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and Hardwick, Vermont.