So! Last time I posted, I was talking about the Climate Strike I was engaging in, with the anti-capitalist twist that I tried to spend as little money as possible during the strike, to protest capitalism itself as well. How’d that go?
It actually went pretty well! I was able to keep the money coming out of my pocket to paying for a couple of medical things for my pets and myself, and some parking costs related to that. Other than that, IIRC, there might have been some auto-pay things that went off in the background, but that was it. I packed and brought my lunch to work every day, working off the food I’d already purchased. I made dinner for my Sunday night RPG group so we didn’t need to order takeout. I tried to limit my driving, so I could make sure my tank of gas lasted the whole week.
It gave me a lot to chew on! I think the hardest thing on a just-me level was keeping myself entertained, because I threw on the arbitrary restriction of not using Netflix and Youtube during the strike. Which led to me getting a little stir-crazy in the evenings, because it turns out even though I don’t like watching a lot of TV, it’s a good way for me to keep myself entertained during dinner (which I’m usually eating alone, so conversation’s out), and for kind of greasing the wheels between dinner and then doing something else afterwards. I did end up doing a good bit of extra reading, sleeping a little more, and getting back into Animal Crossing: New Leaf. So there were upsides! (Someday, Antonio the Anteater will date me, his mayor. Someday!)
The other big struggle was engaging in social stuff. In the United States especially, there’s a distinct lack of free Third Places. This is made even moreso if it’s going to be dark or cold, because that rules out places like parks. One could go to the library, I guess? At any rate, I ended up needing to skip both of my writing groups, though I offered my place as an alternative for one of them. No one took me up on my offer, but maybe next time! A whatever-the-fuck-I-am can dream. It definitely put into sharp relief how often I meet up with people at coffee shops and the like. I’d like to figure out a better solution besides inviting people over to my apartment. Partially because Magnolia is the equivalent of the surface of Mars to most Seattlites (😢), and partially because it’s nice to have a relatively neutral place to meet. Especially when dating, because no matter how sweet someone is if the first time I meet them I’m at their house, one-on-one, I’m going to spend a significant amount of my brain cycles wondering if I’m going to get pressured into something I don’t want, turned into a lampshade, or both. So far the worst that’s happened is a lot of awkward sitting around while the other person smoked pot. But still!
So I think figuring out the social-stuff-without-money bit is going to be the biggest takeaway. That, and the fact that it’s a relatively low effort to reward ratio to make sure to bring your own meals to work and such, and that’s an easy way to not contribute to capitalism and save a lot of money on convenience food. Groundbreaking, I know.
Overall, I hope I had some small impact. And it definitely taught me that minimally engaging in capitalism is actually a lot easier than it’s made out to be, assuming you allow yourself room for necessities like medical care and food. You should give it a shot! I bet you’ll do great. 😀
