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Join The Church of Stop Shopping Now!!!
Byrnzie
Posts: 21,037
http://www.revbilly.com/about_us/
Statement of Belief :: Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir believe that Consumerism is overwhelming our lives. The corporations want us to have experiences only through their products. Our neighborhoods, "commons" places like stoops and parks and streets and libraries, are disappearing into the corporatized world of big boxes and chain stores. But if we "back away from the product" - even a little bit, well then we Put The Odd Back In God! The supermodels fly away and we're left with our original sensuality. So we are singing and preaching for local economies and real - not mediated through products -- experience. We like independent shops where you know the person behind the counter or at least - you like them enough to share a story.We ask that local activists who are defending themselves against supermalls, nuke plants, gentrification -- call us and we'll come and put on our "Fabulous Worship!" Remember children... Love is a Gift Economy! -- The Rev
Statement of Belief :: Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir believe that Consumerism is overwhelming our lives. The corporations want us to have experiences only through their products. Our neighborhoods, "commons" places like stoops and parks and streets and libraries, are disappearing into the corporatized world of big boxes and chain stores. But if we "back away from the product" - even a little bit, well then we Put The Odd Back In God! The supermodels fly away and we're left with our original sensuality. So we are singing and preaching for local economies and real - not mediated through products -- experience. We like independent shops where you know the person behind the counter or at least - you like them enough to share a story.We ask that local activists who are defending themselves against supermalls, nuke plants, gentrification -- call us and we'll come and put on our "Fabulous Worship!" Remember children... Love is a Gift Economy! -- The Rev
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well i like the idea ... and it's good to see "the gospel" motivating spiritual leaders towards a positive light in this country ...
... however ... i think the unfortunate reality is that money DOES talk ... and regardless of what money consumers save instead of spend ... the crux of the problem lies in LOCAL POLITICS, ZONING REGULATIONS and the INFLUENCE OF CORPORATE MONEY\POTENTIAL TAX DOLLARS ON LOCAL BOARDS OF SUPERVISORS ...
look i won't claim to be big on local politics, and neither are MOST americans.
That IS the problem... you can hardly get "the people" to REALLY focus on NATIONAL issues and elections ... much less get them involved in the often more corrupt & complicated REAL issues of LOCAL politics.
Look, i live in Northern Virginia ... WAY outside of Washington, DC ... in what used to not even be considered "suburb" ... hell, ten years ago this county had THOUSANDS of dairy farms ... today there are NONE ... the last one left a few years back ...
the point is THE PEOPLE HAVE LOST CONTROL OF RAMPANT\UNCHECKED GROWTH ... the PRESSURE of POTENTIAL TAX DOLLARS (brought in by "big box" retail) is most often TOO MUCH for LOCAL COMMUNITIES TO RESIST!
I don't see an honest, viable solution to the problem outside of the tough battle of getting real people involved in the construction of their very real own back yards ...
ONCE THE STORES ARE THERE, IT IS ALL BUT TOO LATE. :(
If I opened it now would you not understand?
Alternatively...
Shop Lift!
One of the simplest most powerful Actions. It helps in this Action if the participants are world diverse. It’s a quicker one -- you can hit a number of stores in succession. And it resembles Bump and Grind – because it is Body Theater again -- you want a big tight crowd in the store for this one.
File into the Devil’s chain store that you have chosen. Now on the signal from the Action Manager, lift everything up high over your heads. All the chairs, ashtrays, napkins, gum machines – everything in the store that isn’t nailed down is hovering up there, held aloft. Now your prayer-leader makes a statement about the origins of these objects. The prayer is a direct-address to the people who made these things. Close your eyes with the store’s assets and inventory suspended above you, give the prayer its powerful send-off. We call this a Push Prayer. “We know that you have made these products. We feel that you have touched, you have created these things that surround us…”
If these are Wal Mart clothes, have a Chinese-American member of the church call out in Cantonese or Mandarin to the workers on the other end of the labor loop. What an honest feeling to get this message going in the language of the workers as well as the consumers. Make a request that “somehow the division between consumers and workers be ended, so that we can talk directly to each another. So that we can talk to you.
“There is a silence in this thing I have up here in my hand, a vision is locked in this, a witnessing. We upset the product from its presentation, take it back a step toward you. The journey of these products keeps us a part, the false ‘Free Market’ keeps us apart, and we are both powerless and we are both poor because we are kept apart. We believe that you hear us in the sweatshops and that we hear you calling from your toxic fields and when the distance in this product is finally crushed that we will touch.
you are nuts.
i like it.
but can not condone.
:rolleyes:
If I opened it now would you not understand?