Unplugging
from the Empire:
30 Immediate-Impact Action Items
The following are suggestions for withdrawing your support from giant institutions with whose actions and ideologies you disagree. (See a brief personal reflection at the end).
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Move your money from a big (bailed out) bank to a more deserving local bank or credit union (to find a local one, http://moveyourmoney.info/). Impact: keeping your $ away from corrupt mega-banks who misuse it to widen inequality.
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Wean yourself away from big chain stores that eat land, culture, and small communities. If you buy things online, buy from small sellers (make yourself a list). Impact: no more of your money claimed by Wal-Mart, Costco, RiteAid, Target, Best Buy, Walgrens, Home Depot, and the like.
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Buy food from farmer’s markets, CSAs, co-ops, and local family grocers (http://www.localharvest.org/). Check food labels: the more chemicals you see, the more poorly regulated chemical industry products you support. Less of your $ flows to big petroleum (Shell, Exxon-Mobil, and the others); less $ paid to Safeway, Albertsons, Stater Bros, and other monopolistic supermarkets; more $ to locals who grow healthy food and care for the land.
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Buy glassware instead of plastic; don't use plastic bags or buy bottled water. Carry your own shopping bags or ask for paper. Impacts: less $ to big petroleum; less plastic bobbing around in the world's oceans; less $ for companies bottling tap water; less BPA exposure.
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Stop buying factory-farmed meat and eggs, soft drinks, and fast food (especially KFC, McDonald’s, and Carl’s Junior). This will deprive fast food empires of your personal funding and ad dollars for making children obese; also, fewer health problems and expenses; less $ for animal-torturing factory farms; a bite taken out of corn syrup empires like ADM and Cargill. Eat real food, not chemicals or misery (http://www.eatwild.com/products/).
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Consider walking away from your underwater mortgage. The experts say you can achieve a credit rating above 660 again in two years. Deal only with realtors who live their values. No more of your $ supporting real estate companies like Countrywide.
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Use local or public transportation whenever you can (http://www.local.com/, http://www.publictransportation.org/). Buy gasoline from independent stations whenever possible, perpetually boycotting Exxon-Mobile, Chevron/Texaco, Shell, Valero, and BP. Use car sharing and carpools, and keep your eye on the upcoming plug-in electric cars. Impacts include falling petroleum profits and cleaner skies and seas.
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Keep your money out of the hands of unethical investment speculators—especially petroleum stock traders. Check out http://www.ethicalinvesting.com/ and http://www.socialinvest.org/. Find out about local currency (http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/local_currencies/articles.html) and microcredit (http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/share_microcredit.html).
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Don’t buy anything you don’t really need. Buy only what you plan to use for a long time. For a list of ethical shopping choices: http://www.ethicalshopping.com/. Look up and patronize local clothiers, dressmakers, and seamstresses. Instead of buying new stuff, share with friends and neighbors (http://www.neighborgoods.net/).
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Pay down all your credit cards and keep them that way, getting rid of the ones you don’t need. If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. Put a dent in companies that levy escalating credit interest rates to keep you hooked. (To compare credit card APRs: http://www.lowcards.com/CreditCardIndex.aspx).
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Know your consumer rights: http://consumerist.com/topics/, http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/consumer-protection/, http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/. Refuse to be ripped off or bullied.
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Turn off cable TV, and with it the news and media that spew trivia, distraction, misinformation, and hatred. Pick up news and custom TV shows and films online from torrents and other sources (http://www.hulu.com) that cable doesn’t offer. You’ll enjoy distorted knowledge of what’s happening in the world and provide an incentive for cable companies to broadcast more edifying and worthwhile programs. While you're at it, don't spend money on Hollywood productions until they stop glorifying violence (while enabling rapists to evade prosecution).
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Don’t buy books from Three Rivers Press, Threshold Editions, HarperCollins, Broadway Books, Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster), or Harper Paperbacks until they stop selling books by “authors” like Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity. If you must have a book by one of these publishers, borrow it or order from a library. Consider buying an e-book reader to save paper and shipping.
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Go solar to the extent you can afford it, and take advantage of tax break offers. Even small panels and appliances help. Consider installing a wind turbine as well. Make sure your home is well-insulated (http://www.simplyinsulate.com/).
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Use water-conservation practices like gray water systems (http://www.graywater.net/).
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Use ethical phone carriers (e.g., http://www.credomobile.com) instead of privacy-violating companies like AT&T, Sprint/Nextel, MCI, BellSouth, and Verizon; check http://www.allconnect.com/, http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/home.aspx and http://www.ethical-company-organisation.org/. Use Skype (http://www.skype.com): free calls to other Skype users via your computer; also Truphone (http://www.truphone.com/) and Vonage (http://www.vonage.com).
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Computing: Buy green electronics (http://www.epeat.net/). Use a local Internet service provider (http://www.theispguide.com/, http://www.internetservicelist.com/isp/a.asp, http://www.ecoisp.com/index.asp) instead of one of the big telecoms (especially Comcast, politician-buying target of numerous user complaints). Use free and open-source software (http://www.fsf.org/, http://www.openoffice.org, and http://www.mozilla.org/).
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Participate in the Transition Town movement (http://www.transitiontowns.org/) and stay up on post-carbon developments (http://www.postcarbon.org/). Network with people who share your interests, goals, and values.
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Instead of working somewhere you don’t feel good about, find several paying “gigs” you enjoy.
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Move closer to your work if possible, and away from well-documented sources of toxic pollution like freeways, mines, factories, high-smog regions, and oil refineries.
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Use ecotherapy methods like spending time outside, gardening, being around animals, conservation volunteer work, and time-stress management to stay healthy and connected: http://www.ecotherapyheals.com.
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Know the basics of first aid and basic medical care: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/FirstAidIndex/FirstAidIndex. You shouldn’t need much if you’re eating real food, exercising regularly, and spending enough time outdoors.
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“Reskilling” refers to relearning handy skills held by previous generations (http://reskilling.meetup.com/) and being a do-it-yourselfer (http://www.refdesk.com/doitself.html, and http://doit101.com/).
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Withdraw from religious institutions that support regressive agendas like sexism, racism, overpopulation, warfare, true-believer triumphalism, hypocrisy, patriarchy, or homophobia.
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Don’t support politicians funded by big petroleum or other questionable industries or lobbyists (http://www.followthemoney.org/ and http://www.opensecrets.org/), or politicians who peddle regressive agendas (haven't we learned anything from Manzanar?) or who rewrite history. Get involved in organizing, beautifying, and policing your own neighborhood.
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Stay informed by using reputable and alternative news sources—there are many free ones online— instead of relying on corporate-controlled news. For instance, http://www.democracynow.org/, http://www.opendemocracy.net/, http://www.grist.org/, and http://www.guardian.co.uk/.
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Keep emergency kits handy in case of disasters, natural or otherwise, that you might have to face without government assistance. Keep extra food and water on hand as well.
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Reinhabit the place where you live by getting to know its ecology, climate, cultures, prehistory, native flora and fauna, and unique features that make up its spirit or soul. Learn where your water and electricity and gas come from and where your trash goes. In addition to recycling, try composting.
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Save seeds to prevent companies like Monsanto from patenting them all and undermining the world’s biodiversity: http://www.seedsavers.org/.
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For good food, networking, and resource swapping, start or participate in a community garden (http://www.communitygarden.org/learn/starting-a-community-garden.php).
Personal Reflection on How It Feels
to Unplug:
"I have done the things recommended here. For example, I have no outstanding credit card debt, have paid off my car, use my bike or public transportation when I can, buy food at farmer’s markets (and grow some of my own in the local community garden). I bank at a local credit union, use local high-speed Internet service (without cable), and rely on OpenOffice.org software, Thunderbird, and Firefox rather than on Microsoft products. I carry a cell phone serviced by a company that does not spy on me and that donates part of its revenues to various worthy social causes—and I use a headset to keep the phone away from my brain. Because I recycle and eat real food, my trash comes to about a gallon a month at most, and usually less.
"Because I don’t watch TV except for the occasional online clip or show, I have more time for exercise and other pleasures, including travel, being with friends, music, and reading. Almost all of my books come from the library and from interlibrary loan. I don’t subscribe to a newspaper because I read the news every day online from a simple web page I created that lists believable news sources.
"I rent rather than own just now and buy locally when possible and only when I really need something (I just received a thick, durable sweater from a family member who sews). I never go into malls. I maintain several sources of income, including a small business, instead of indulging in the dangerous fantasy of a 'secure' occupation that will never go away. I also greatly enjoy what I do for a living, having taken the time to reflect deeply on what gives me joy rather than forcing myself into a profession that bores or abuses me.
"I am sometimes asked, 'Wouldn't it wreck the economy if everyone lived the way you do?' No; if anything it would instill a new spirit of competition where monopolization now rules. Let my former bank, Wells Fargo, which used its government bailout money to buy Watchovia, compete with my credit union for my business--after convincing me they've evolved beyond their Gold Rush opportunism. Let the big banks and ISPs and the rest show me how much more they can do for me and my community than the smaller outfits I deal with. Let them demonstrate with actual deeds and capital how they help restore the ecosphere of this planet. We can do better. We have.
"Another question I'm asked is, 'What if those who decide to unplug like this are too few to matter?' I never give that a thought. After all, I'm not a rebel or a revolutionary, nor do I feel qualified to tell other people what to buy or think or how to live. I'm just a citizen tired of funding growth machinery that operates without a governing conscience. All I can do is share my own experience and leave it to others to try it out or not. I'm satisfied that it works for me.
"For the most part I have refused to let 'shoulds' and 'practicalities' and other implanted common nonsense take my life off course or rob it of its richness, beauty, or fun. I take no psychotropic medication, am not in psychotherapy, am not addicted to anything, and am not at present a member of any monolithic religious institution. I have no inner emptiness to fill with fad diets or denial workshops on 'positive thinking.' And I am not one of millions of anxious Americans who take drugs at bedtime. I sleep soundly almost every night, in part because very little of my energy supports harmful monopolies and in part because I have a strong sense of purpose and no longer feel like a silent accomplice. As a result, I awaken every morning feeling happy to be alive."
