Last night, I watched “What Would Jesus Buy“, a documentary by Morgan Spurlock that is generally about over-consumption and more specifically about Rev. Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. Rev. Billy is an activist/ preacher* who, with his choir, go and delivers a very simple message to people at malls across the country: Stop shopping. Frequently, this message gets him arrested (well, that or all the trespassing).
As to the general point, I think it’s a very good one. People spend WAY to much money on Christmas, have long confused “expensive” with “affection” when it comes to gifts, and companies exploit this confusion to sell lots of stuff that people don’t really need. Now, I’m not to terribly sure about the strategy of going to the Mall of America, or Disneyland, or any other major shopping hub and telling people to not shop is terribly effective, nor is going door to door caroling with anti-consumerism songs; but damned if it isn’t HILARIOUS. But, I think I think my group** is kind of a “choir” audience (as in, preaching to the choir): for the longest time, I’ve been trying to make gifts instead of buy them, and I don’t have the cash (nor the desire to go further into debt) to be shopping junkies; PE and Silky HATE shopping, and Hubby has requested that no one buy him anything this year, but to donate to March of Dimes.***
There were a lot of really poignant moments in this movie, as well. There is a scene, when Rev. Billy is lying on a hotel bed with his wife wondering if he was doing any good at all that I’m sure every activist must of felt from time to time. Spurlock really knows his stuff: his cut pictures were hilarious, but not distracting, and it had the right combination of facts, entertainment, and intimacy. Spurlock is like the anti-Moore: he knows to stay the heck out of the movie. The only criticism I have is that it jumps all over the place a lot: sometimes it’s showing Minnesota, then what looked like New Mexico, and then back to the MOA, and it also meandered around without having a true direction.
*I think the preaching part is sincere, but I’m not actually sure.
**PE, Silky, Hubby and I
***If anyone really wants to get me something for Christmas this year, March of Dimes, Amnesty International, and Planned Parenthood, are my favorite organizations.
Lisa, I thought this article was a hoot. I don’t know who Rev. Billy is but he sounds colorful. As a young woman I used to love going shopping. I literally shopped till I dropped. Not necessarily buying much…I didn’t have a lot of money then but just because I liked looking around stores and thinking about what I would buy if I had the money. Now that I’m older I think of shopping as something of a chore. The thrill is gone and the ironic part is now I have plenty of extra money that I could spend. Somehow buying up every little glittery thing Madison Avenue advertises just doesn’t appeal very much. I’ve often wondered if other women didn’t experience this change in attitude about shopping, too.
Anyway, I’ve never really understood the whole “shopping as a teenage activity”. It’s always been more of a chore than a hobby for me, and consumerism never really struck me as all that exciting.
Ha, we are the many-headed Punkass hydra.
I’m used to being demanded to explain “why I chose a middle finger, how mature is that for a blog banner!” heh.
My apologies Antigone. The article’s merits don’t change because I stupidly didn’t read the author’s name correctly. I enjoyed your article and I hope that helps make up for my gaffe.
yea! Great stuff!