Want To Buy A Better World?

Shopping is not politics.

In his excellent June 11th article, the superlative writer and thinker Cory Doctorow highlights this fact eloquently. You should read his essay—it’s always worth your time.

One of the parts that stands out to me most is that line: "Shopping is not politics." Because this has been something I’ve been railing against for years.

There’s a prevailing idea that if enough people are self-sacrificing and virtuous in their mercantile lives, the world will improve. If you and I just stop shopping anywhere unethical, unethical things will just stop happening.

This is a strange market myth—at once utterly fallacious and yet incredibly alluring to many.

But as Doctorow says, "You can’t shop your way out of a monopoly."

At every level of our society, unethical practices exist, hoisted up by our obsession with market economics. You may pull back your spending, prioritizing only those sources with some measure of ethical trust. But even the diligent, all-local shopper who rides their bike to work is still participating in the larger system creating the problems affecting all of us—and the very fabric of the world in which we reside.

So what can we do? What can we do if it’s not enough to stop using plastic or always recycle? Most places in the world don’t actually recycle effectively—only 9% of global plastic waste has ever been recycled, according to a 2022 OECD report.

You can join a polity. Connect with others trying to make concentrated change in the system, rather than shifting blame onto yourself or those around you—individuals who all exist in a subservient, repressed class within our society.

Collective action. Point your weapons where they belong.

As Doctorow says, support activist groups like the [Electronic Frontier Foundation](https://www.eff.org)—a potent digital rights group fighting tooth and nail to keep the internet from falling utterly into the hands of the billionaire class.

Support other organizations like the ACLU, or join a union. Many unions struggle because their workers don’t even realize the union exists or understand how vital it is to their welfare—and the welfare of their community.

If you’re in tech, check out Tech Solidarity or Tech Workers Coalition. In the UK, get in touch with United Tech and Allied Workers.

Then, go ahead and get involved in party politics. One of the most important things you can do is dig into your local political scene and become as active as possible there. Since the 1970s, the forces of repression and decay have ridden high on the backs of small grassroots movements.

What happens at the local level transforms the cultural, social, and economic landscape.

But none of this happens in a vacuum. The first step is often the simplest: talk to your friends. Start the conversation in the places where it feels hardest to start. Normalize the idea that systemic change is not just possible but necessary. Share your frustrations, your hopes, and your plans. Listen to theirs. These discussions plant the seeds for collective action, and collective action is how we build power. The change starts there.