Nov 15, 2010

What is the Carnivalesque Rebellion?

By Adbusters / adbusters.org
What is the Carnivalesque Rebellion?

The Carnivalesque Rebellion is about to begin. From November 22nd to the 28th, culture jammers of all kinds – from artists to churchgoers, anarchists to carpenters – will disregard the illegitimate laws of consumer society. For seven nights, they will honor instead the dictates of their hearts and the demands of their conscience. Overwhelmed by a myriad of insurrections and unexpected acts of resistance, consumer capitalism will grind to a halt.

With little time remaining before these events, what is needed now is not a treatise on the injustice of consumerism. It is true that 36 million humans starve to death each year, that there is an island of plastic the size of Texas floating in the ocean, and that one in four Americans have a mental illness. But these facts roll across our consciousness; they do not impel us to remake society. Whether we have become desensitized to the severity of our plight or our minds simply cannot fathom the direness of our situation, the fact remains that today what we need is the opposite of information.

The success of our insurrection will not depend on quantity of the crowd nor extent of the media coverage. In some cities the rebellion may be invisible and in others its impact downplayed. None of that matters. The Carnivalesque Rebellion will be victorious when we stop waiting for the majority, the mainstream, or the consumer class to give us permission to rebel. The revolution against consumerism will come when we trust our intuition and find within ourselves the permission to act.

The Carnivalesque Rebellion is, above all else, a chance to rise above cynicism, skepticism, and ironic detachment. It is an invitation to don the prankster’s mask, to regain the sense of magical possibility, and to finally start living.

Meet up with fellow activists and download posters and campaign materials at www.adbusters.org/bnd.

Activism   Consumerism   Globalization
Rate this article 
Globalization
Conversation Starters for Teachers & Students
New Videos
Trending Videos
Anonymous Issues DIRE WARNING To MAGA | The Kyle Kulinski Show
11 min - Anonymous has released a new video warning about the growing threats posed by Trump, JD Vance, and Elon Musk. They outline how economic policies, mass firings, and regulatory rollbacks are...
Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980)
780 min - Astronomer Carl Sagan's landmark 13-part science series takes you on an awe-inspiring cosmic journey to the edge of the Universe and back aboard the spaceship of the imagination.The series was...
How Oil Propaganda Sneaks Into TV Shows | Climate Town
32 min - Not everything fictional characters say is true.Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ClimateTown 
How Peter Thiel Got Rich | Second Thought (2022)
12 min - Billionaire Peter Thiel won big in the midterms, buying himself a Senate seat in Ohio. So what does Thiel want? Unfettered corporate power and the destruction of government institutions. This...
HyperNormalisation (2016)
161 min - We live in a time of great uncertainty and confusion. Events keep happening that seem inexplicable and out of control. Donald Trump, Brexit, the War in Syria, the endless migrant crisis, random...
The Unholy Alliance Between MAGA and Big Tech
9 min - Trump’s second term marks the full evolution from Reagan-era capitalism to corporate authoritarianism, fueled by alliances with tech oligarchs like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. This video...
How a Land High in the Western Himalayas Can Help Us Understand The Crisis of The Modern World
9 min - This is a clip from The Economics of Happiness. Watch it here (skip to the 10-minute mark to pick up where this clip ends) It's a brilliant film that was easy to put at the top of our list of the...
Trending Articles
Rediscovering Our Sacred Wholeness
Activist Philosophy & Reflection
Subscribe for $5/mo to Watch over 50 Patron-Exclusive Films
Subscribe $5/mo View All Patron Films

 

Your support keeps us ad-free and financially independent

Our 10,000+ video & article library is 99% free, ad-free, and entirely community-funded thanks to our patron subscribers!


Want to donate extra? You can subscribe and donate an extra $5/mo or more.