on the ‘Net

First off, one might think that the anti-consumerism information and essays available on the web are a bit too late. Chances are, people are logging on from their home computers to check out the latest diatribe on critical mass. So we know they’ve (you and I as well, of course, unless you’re accessing this from a school or library computer) have already spent a whack of money on a big plastic box that will be worth less than nothing in an average of five years (and that is a generous lifespan). Not to mention the thousands of dollars we have already pitched to uber-corporations like Bill Gates (uh-I mean Microsoft - and therefore MSNBC by association), or maybe Apple-MacIntosh if you’re more into independent stuff.

But that’s all right, right? No sense preaching to the converted and stapling "Buy Nothing Day" (visit Adbusters for more) brochures to second-hand bicycles parked outside the Sally Ann. The people these web sites aim to attack are those who haven’t yet realized that our entire world will soon be wholly-owned (or a subsidiary of) seven major corporations. Often these are called M.N.C.’s - Multi-National-Corporations- but I prefer ubercorporations. The Media Watchdog uses the term media oligopoly to describe the hold uber-corporations (in this case those involved in the media, ie. Time Warner or Disney) have on the entire media system.

The medium of the Internet has given further impetus--human financial greed most likely being the primary motive--in the emergence of a global communications cartel. Due to the way business and home use of the Internet has exploded, the amount of money that yards and yards of fibre optic cable may generate is increasing exponentially. The MSNBCorporation is the global communications cartel of the moment. There are also the everyday media giants, gobbling smaller and independent companies in their path: Time-Warner, Disney, TCI, Bertelsmann, GE, Viacom and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. Obviously, it’s only a matter of time before these corporations become one--and who’s helping kick in some of the rent? Whoever out there is logging onto an IBM (and compatible) or even a Mac, using non-pirated software and paying a hugely-inflated monthly subscription fee to AOL or something of the like.

So, are sites like Adbusters or Critical Mass indeed preaching to the unconvertable? Is it too late for the guy next to you with the designer suit (stitched up by kids under six in a factory in China - but that’s another page) and the Powerbook to develop a consumer consciousness? I’d be quick to say that yes, it’s too late. It’s probably too late for any card-carrying Adbuster’s subscriber to change the world and end the reign of Gates with simply a modem, a laptop and a really good typing voice and to change the consumptive world as we know it.

What is possible is that places like Critical Inquiry and The Anti-Consumerism Campaign can provide the average web-user with information and suggestions to live slightly better, less consumerist lives. You can learn about how to shop at local stores (if you can afford five bucks for a can of soup) and recycle your old Atari components into extra memory for your PC. (All right, the last one was a joke).

Many of the problems that sustain the North American "consumer lifestyle"--that reinforce the grip of the MNC’s--aren’t addressed by websites available on the Internet. Much of the average person’s attraction to MNC-owned companies is the economy of it all. Look locally (although I know on the Internet you’re supposed to look globally, but humour me here) at how many people have stopped buying groceries at small local stores to instead make the pilgrimage to Costco (Wait! It’s Price-Costco now - gotta watch those mergers!) to buy gigantic amounts of food and abundant plastic shrink-wrap at discount prices. It’s cheaper for me to buy three loaves of bread at Costco and throw one of them away than it is to go to the locally-owned corner store and pick up the same thing in its singular incarnation. And today’s economy being the way it is, it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to afford bakery prices any time soon. So if we keep downsizing and streamlining and firing people because a robot can do their job cheaper and without demanding child care, we’ve got this amazing opportunity for uber-corp’s to blast in and take over towns--even cities--with their anti-customer-service-pro-quantity big box stores that sell cheap goods made by people in even worse financial situations than our own, offering only products produced by subsidiaries of their corporation. It’s happening now. This ain’t an "in the future thing."

We’ve really been driven into a corner now, people, and we have to use our smelly cattle brains to figure a way to deke out of this one. Let’s say there are three levels of avoidance lifestyles available:

The Cause-Promoter - You will publish web sites (or at least read sites) with reams of anti-Gates and anti-consumer culture propaganda. You will live on-line as a nature-warrior, expounding on the benefits of composting in your garden and encouraging the use of organic ‘pest-discouragers’ (but really you don’t even own a watering pail). You will subscribe to Adbusters and read only the mock-ads (really, what else is in there?). You drive a newer car. (see Radical Analysis of a car ad).
Mid-Roader - You recycle bottles, because it’s good and they’re worth five cents per. You have a garden in your backyard, but all that’s in it is some wilting garlic and some pot you tried to grow outside last season. You shop secondhand, and at the organic food store because the guy/girl who works weekends is really cute. You drive an old Toyota, because its cute.
The Minority - You actually, seriously think one person can make a difference. You have a garden, and tend to it seriously. Of course, you have no time to hold a steady job while growing food and volunteering at the recycling depot, so you’re on Welfare. You walk, or bike places, you borrow books from the library and don't own a TV. You harbor a deep desire for a really thick steak and a fast car - but don’t mention it to anyone.

I’m sorry if I’ve left variations out, or offended someone - but I write based on my own experiences and in the full knowledge that I myself am a big fat hypocrite. But that’s really OK, and I try to avoid products made by MNC’s, or eating at McDonald’s (they don’t really cater to vegetarians), did trade in my gas guzzling truck for a much kinder car, and do maintain a rotting compost bucket under my sink that attracts flies in the summer and my hungry dog in the winter.

There’s so many aspects and angles of big ‘C’ Consumerism, the subject is almost unapproachable. If the garbage our throw-away society is accumulating doesn’t get you, then the MNC that bought the factory you worked at then moved it to Mexico will (and you were all excited because you thought it meant you’d finally live near a beach). There are a lot of angles, and not a lot of leverage for the average person like you or me. Perhaps this is just the way the world is - this is the way it’s going to be now. Perhaps just being cognizant of the facts is enough for now. The hundredth monkey theory may be a true theory and ultimately save us all from Microsoft and our rapidly expanding Visa bill. Then again, maybe not.

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