That’s why, if you have read the many books, blogs, articles, and opinion pieces written about the unsustainability of our way of life, you have certainly run across this bit of “what-you-can-do-about-it” advice:  Stop buying.

It is a logical conclusion and a powerful strategy. Production and consumption are a millstone continually grinding away at what remains of a life worth living. So, if enough consumers were to go on a buying strike in unison—well, let’s just say it might put a wrench in the works and bring a few Important People to the bargaining table for once.

But, we have yet to follow that excellent advice in any meaningful way. Sure, consumer spending is down from the bubbly highs we reached in 2006, but generally not by design, not as an act of collective non-cooperation. We simply don’t have as much money as we did then.

So far, our potent capacity to deflect the course of humanity toward catastrophe goes untapped. Though we complain bitterly about income inequality, class warfare, and corporate insanity—in the end we keep writing the checks that pay for it all. Every month. On time. With interest. We keep taking their trinkets to the check out lines like the addicts that we are.

That’s because the words “stop buying” barely scratch the surface of what is actually required of us. It is like saying to an alcoholic, “Just stay away from bars”—when he drives by twenty of them on the way home from work each day. No, to challenge the mad machine world we’ve built—and we must challenge it—we have to dig deep.

We have to stop wanting.

This is a radical thought that marketers spend billions of dollars every year to keep you from thinking—to keep you from knowing you even can think it.

Many people will cry foul about now. “Stop wanting? We are human beings. You might as well tell us to stop breathing.“ Very well, let’s rephrase: Stop wanting things that are not real. Better still—train yourself to want something new and better.

A few years ago I happened to be in a mall at Christmastime—not my first choice or my natural habitat. But I’ll admit, the food court smelled good. The clothes on mannequins in every window were appealing. The music was uplifting, the 25-foot tree was beautiful. Most everyone (not working) was happy to be there, pleasantly high on the experience.

Suddenly I realized where the buzz was coming from—it emanated from a shared feeling of power. Our culture defines that kind of power like this: the ability to walk into the mall at Christmas and leave again with anything you want. “Purchasing power”, is the phrase we use.

Here is the alternative source of power I saw clearly that day: the ability to walk into a mall at any time and not want what they are selling. To not be fooled by the marketing sleight of hand that conceals what the spectacle of consumption actually costs the earth and people who are far less empowered.

You see, what they are selling is not clothes, or shoes, or phones, or furniture. They are selling the “right” to think of ourselves as special—as powerful. They are selling an illusion that blinds us to the truth: we are addicts, and the whole world is paying for our habit. That price may be the death of us all.

The first essential step to recovery is to resurrect and strengthen our will to choose which kind of power we value and will invest in. Do we want the counterfeit kind that keeps us dependent on systems that are inherently cruel and destructive? Or will we choose the power we all are born with to be more, to be better—to be free?

This is the question of our time. How each of us answers it may very well hold the key to our survival. Because once we decide to align with authentic power—power that instills and rewards honor, integrity, self-sacrifice, and courage—then we’ll be ready to stand and fight.

6 Comments on "Two Kinds of Power"

J-Gav on Mon, 11th Nov 2013 1:10 pm 



Unfortunately, generalized alignment with that second type of power, the “authentic” one, still seems to be a ways off.

action on Mon, 11th Nov 2013 1:12 pm 



From Fight Club – “The things you own, end up owning you.”

Possessions don’t provide fulfillment, true fulfillment comes from state of mind. It all just looks like a bunch of junk to me now, I don’t care how much you spent on your clothes or car, still looks like junk to me. All these brand names and designs, that’s right, junk, created form the sweat of the poor and unfortunate. The fewer things I own, the more free I feel, and the less cluttered my soul and mind is.

BillT on Mon, 11th Nov 2013 1:14 pm 



99% of what is found in Malls is NOT necessary. The Mall itself is not necessary. Prior to 1968, credit cards did not exist. Nor did malls.

The first malls were built like town streets with shops exposed to the outside. Then they were built facing each other. Then they were roofed over. I remember the first roofed mall in the nearby city. It had about 20 stores.

Before 1968, if you wanted something, you had to save (save: to put aside as a store or reserve) the money to buy it, then you went to the store and sometimes had to order it and wait for it to be delivered in a week or two. Loans were only for homes and cars. Not consumer goods. And certainly not on a piece of plastic shackled to your leg that you pay some bankster 12% to 29% per year for the privileged of being his slave.

J-Gav on Mon, 11th Nov 2013 5:52 pm 



I’ll confess to being possibly over-attached to a couple of my material possessions – namely, my computer and my reflex camera. The rest? Couldn’t give a flyer about a watch, TV, cellphone, car, designer clothes, shoes, etc. Grew up in a “waste not- want not” home so my consumer footprint is pretty reasonable … Still, I’m sure doing without the computer or camera would no doubt be hard for a while unless I had a garden/orchard/piece of woodland to compensate … So, yeah, I’m addicted too.

GregT on Mon, 11th Nov 2013 8:11 pm 



Lot’s of stuff will be needed in the future. Like hand tools, canning supplies, firearms, fishing rods and tackle, and how to books.

Now would be a very good time to stock up on the necessities, instead of useless consumer garbage. Buy the best that you can afford, and take care of it. This could very well be the opportunity of lifetimes.

BillT on Tue, 12th Nov 2013 1:16 am 



GregT, part of my ‘savings’ is in the closet in a large new tool box. It contains a full set of new, well made, hand tools that will be necessary in a world without electric.

Another part is in my new library of how-to books that cover everything from permaculture to construction to medicine, to butchering and preserving meats.

Those are the things of real value and, yes, buy the best you can afford and take care of them. Tools and books will last lifetimes if used properly. Most electric tools will last a few uses/years and then burn out, never to be used again. They are not designed to last or to be repaired, only ‘consumed’.

But don’t value them more than your life. You are only free when you can walk away from everything and not look back.