To understand Buy Nothing Day, consider its celebrants. Reverend Billy's evangelical Church of Stop Shopping interventions have defended neighborhoods from corporate predators since 1997, while Greene Dragon’s revel-u-tion festively reincarnates founding American progressives like the Sons of Liberty.
This Buy Nothing Day, which always falls the day after Thanksgiving, the two groups will launch a Reformation in Times Square against Corporate Tyranny.
Reverend Billy lookalikes will simultaneously exorcise cash registers throughout the neighborhood, and at 1pm the Church and Greene Dragon will post 9 Theses Against Corporate Rule on the threshold of the Times Square McDonalds, a neon cathedral of perpetual consumption.
The idea of Buy Nothing Day is to spend 24 hours without purchasing anything. In the absence of shopping, alternative ways to spend the Holidays emerge, like extending the Thanksgiving family visit rather than rushing to strip malls at 5am. Freed from obligatory shopping, we find room for reading and self-develpment, or taking to the street and spreading ideas like participatory culture, environmental conservation, and gift-economies.
Civilizations have practiced Buy Nothing holidays for thousands of years. "The first thing the ancient Hebrews decided to do when they escaped from slavery," notes Douglas Rushkoff (of Frontline's "Merchants of Cool" and "The Persuaders"), "was to give themselves one day off per week - because they knew if they didn't regularly disconnect from the workaday reality, they'd become slave to it." Buy Nothing Day continues that tradition of breaking from consumerism to re-activate alternative modes of living.
Reverend Billy, aka Bill Talen, will continue the spiritual vanguard of Buying Nothing with his 9 Theses. Greene Dragon’s exuberence and whirlwind of costumes contrasts the staid retail environment with a truly celebratory culture. Both look forward to this high holy day on the progressive calendar.