phew...i tried to talk to my sister today about paying for glitter at a huge chain (or anything, really) is dumb.
she kept asking: if everyone stole, wouldn’t they shut down the store and then the people who worked there would be worse off? she said she could get on board with liberating bread/food (the necessaries) but not glitter since i make well enough money to buy glitter.
(of course, this isn’t quite the point...nobody should be paying $5 for glitter, unless they want to.) she was into the idea of gift economies, freestores, how dumb it is that all of the excess of clothes/craft supplies/etc. in peoples’ basements can’t somehow be put back into a free exchange system...but the idea of liberating glitter “made her stomach turn.”
any tips on sharing the pleasure of freeshopping? connecting these liberal-altruistic principles to a sense of injustice/outrage/subversion? or even just talking about “liberation” and getting past the stigma/fear/shame...? (do you see it as a way of coping in a shitty capitalist world and/or a strike against the chain itself?)
i imagine this is something many of you have talked/worked through in your own thinking or with others...any advice or zine/reading recs i could pass along, by comment or email, would be much much appreciated.
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i may feel ust the opposite as em. quality items, like rudis organic bread or whatever i prefer to buy, because i do believe that with my wallet is the only ways this society hears me, and i want to send the message that yes this is important and i want HPP to keep stocking this stuff. shit like glitter? made by slaves overseas with the money accruing in some asshole megaconglomerate CEO's pocket? steal that shit.
ReplyDeletehowever, those $4 bars of chocolate at HPP are just too adamn expensive. sorry. wow i cant wait to steal one of those and eat it.with the cocoa nibs, or maybe the hazelnut.
i agree with eliza. although i often fail to adhere to this principle, i like to think that it more valuable to pay for and support the companies with practices that you admire. hence, fair-trade, organic, local -- count me in. on the other hand, i think it actually a service to society to steal from companies and mega-chain store corporations that threaten our livelihood and the planet at large -- i.e. walmart, etc etc
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