Freeconomy Blog
Tue
04 Nov
Getting ready for ‘Buy Nothing Year’...
| 5 comments |
This year’s ‘Buy Nothing Day is fast approaching, a day I usually look forward to as a chance for us all to reflect on both the amount we consume, and the role that money plays in our lives. This year however it represents something totally different to me – it’s the day I propose to start my year without money, a social experiment where I will attempt to give and receive freely for one whole year, with a view to doing it long term. It’s just over three weeks away, so I’m both excited and a bit apprehensive to be honest.
A few blogs ago it came in for a bit of criticism, one person saying he thought that this was just a ‘grandiose’ publicity stunt that will help nothing and only serve to inflate my own ego. I usually don’t respond to comments but I think from this point onwards I will as I reckon such dialogue could help play a really important role in how the year evolves.
As regards that particular comment though, I think I need to respond as I feel it’s vitally important I explain exactly why I am actually doing the year. To be frank, I am just sick of reinforcing a societal system that is fundamentally flawed and ecologically destructive by its very nature. I am sick of supporting businesses, however indirectly, that profit from the plundering and destruction of countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and who execute peaceful protestors when they get in their way. I am just sick of having to have a bank account, even with an ethical bank, so that they can then simultaneously issue some human with a credit note and Mother Earth with the debit note. I am also just sick of having no real appreciation for what I consume, and from constantly buying more as some perfectly good stuff gets thrown away.
But most of all, I want to see what life is actually like living without money in western ‘civilisation’. I need to know whether or not the life that I believe to be most harmonious with Nature, and that has the least amount of blood and oil embodied in it, is a life I would want for my children. Not that I’m likely to have any given my current socio-economic status.
The same commentator implied I should just earn money and give it to a good cause. Which isn’t a bad thing, he is correct in some ways. However my stance is that it is our complete disconnection from what we consume that is the cause of most of the problems in the first place, for which ‘good causes’ have then to be set up in order to clean up the mess. Earning money through 90% of modern businesses and then giving it to charity is in reality no more ridiculous than Shell or Monsanto making a donation to Greenpeace. It would be best if they didn’t cause destruction in the first place.
I am also tired of throwing money at good causes as they struggle in vain to treat symptoms. I want to start getting to the root cause – our consumerist, wasteful, ‘disconnected from nature’ society, so that in time all those volunteers who work extremely hard for ‘good causes’ can eventually take some very well deserved time off. I 100% believe that until we rebuild our relationship with the earth and re-localise here in the West and North, that environmental destruction, poverty and extreme climate change are a foregone conclusion.
The reason I am going to document it and talk about it is not to inflate my own ego. If I wanted to do that I’d go work in the city and get myself a big car and some designer clothing – I used to wear nothing but! Trust me, a man with no money, no car, no paid job, who shits in a hole and washes under a tree, is not very appealing to pretty much all of the female population. I am quite possibly the worst lonely hearts ad ever.
I talk about it because I passionately believe that our use of money, a replacement for trust in our own overgrown communities, is at the heart of all the major issues in the world today – wars, factory farming, sweatshop labour, controlled poverty, animal testing – and that to not speak out about it, given how strongly I feel, would be totally irresponsible and pointless. Why not share the experience? Even if everyone thinks I have completely lost my mind, at least it may have made them question the role money plays in their own lives.
Preparations for it have been going quite well so far, with a few exceptions. I’m trying to go more money free each week in the build up, and will do a trial run the week before. I’ve now gone off-grid, with the exception of cooking, as I am having to add an extra baffle plate to my woodburner to make it cook food properly. It’s frustrating me as I am short of time and waste wood and want to kill the heating and cooking birds with the one stone.
Just on that, the Bristol Freeconomy Group group ran an energy efficiency workshop last week and I was interested to see how eco-friendly wood burning actually is. It turns out that it is actually a very eco-friendly thing to do, as apparently rotting wood releases ten times more methane than it does carbon if it’s burnt.
The solar freeloader I’m using to charge my phone with works OK, not brilliantly though as it empties quite quickly, but you can get enough sun everyday to keep it going, even in winter. My main solar panel is working great, it feeds an LED that easily meets my lighting needs, and it only cost £50, so it’s both economical and ecological.
Having said that, I am still not convinced about solar. Sure, it is much better than the grid as 70% of energy is unbelievably lost before it powers one appliance, but it still relies on an industrialised society for its production. Maybe I’ll evolve out of it eventually too, I hope so.
I also realise that it must seem ironic that I use a computer, a contraption that costs money, to relay my experiences of ‘no-money living’. It is what I call it my ‘transitional tool’ – if the world re-localised tomorrow and gave up their addiction to cash, I would happily stop blogging and never use it again and this website would have no further use - I really do want this website to become pointless in time. But since that’s not the case right yet, I want to use it to try and help people make their own transition to the climate changing, oil depleted and economically fragile future we face.
I think my main apprehension about it all is how it will affect me socially. I would love to go home to see my folks for Christmas and to see one of my best friends in Finland next year, but I am not sure how possible either will be. They are long cycle rides, I’d need to carry a shed load of food or hope to pick some up on the journey, and there is the small issue of the sea. But I suppose I am also just a victim of being a part of a society that has made seeing a friend in Finland be too easy for too long.
I will be getting my water from the mains as the river that runs nearby is slightly polluted. I hope to eventually find an alternative but for now I’ll have to accept the situation as it is.
For those of you who are interested in this experiment, once the year starts I will try to blog on a daily basis, or something close to that, but the blogs will be much shorter as I will most likely only get one charge up of the battery each day, if that. They’ll be an account of how it feels physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually to live without money, and an account of the lessons I learn along the way. Hopefully my experience, whether amazing or horrific, will be of some benefit to some of you.
So from now on though, as I say, I will respond to all comments. Criticisms welcome, no offence taken. If you do want to email me privately about something, you can email me on saoirse@justfortheloveofit.org
Comment on this Post:
Beth Tilston comments ...
Talk to Jo about hitching if you want to travel. If you get a lorry to take you across, you don't have to pay. Maybe you're not keen on the car travel, but it's a thought. Good luck my friend!
Mark Boyle comments ...
In response to Beth Tilston -
Thanks for that Beth. Yeah it is the car thats the prob (I've hitched a lot in the past) - I haven't fully decided yet. I think hitching is a great way to travel, its making use of a vehicle already going somewhere, but I think for the purpose of this experiment I won't as it is making use of stuff somebody had to buy. I also can't really speak out about peace yet benefit from the conquests of war.
I'll think about it though, it would sort out my travel problems no end!
johanna comments ...
This sounds like an incredible adventure -- good luck!
I also can't really speak out about peace yet benefit from the conquests of war.
Hm... but in a way, wouldn't you be doing that anyway? Say someone gives you some bananas -- why would they be likely to have bananas to give away? Because of an economy built on war & the degradation of people & environment in order to give those of us in northern climes year-round access to cheap bananas.
I suppose you could do a year w/o money while eating locally -- eep, what a challenge!
Mark Boyle comments ...
In response to Johanna -
Thanks for your reply. That is what I plan to do - the only food I will be eating that isn't local will be waste food. And yes, eeekk!
But hey even local organic food has got some petroleum attached to it, and yes the waste food only got to the bin using the conquests of oil also, so I'm not claiming to be 100% oil free.
I think the important thing is to use as little as possible. That will be different for me than a mother or father of 4 kids. Only each of us know what our minimum is. But it is important we always question it and try to live as close to it as we can.
Jo comments ...
Hi Mark,
Long time no see! I'm really looking forward to hearing about how things go for you. As you know it's something I've always been keen to experiment with myself. Just remember, people will understand what you are doing and see you as a real person only if you show the hardships as well as the high-points.
By the way, have you ever heard of a German woman named Heidemarie Schwermer? She has been 12 years without money. It's hard to find much written about her in English but there is some around. She's a psychotherapist. Try googling her.
Jo xx
