Episode 15b - The Holidays, Part 2: rejecting consumerism, vegan excuses and your crazy family

Standing up to the consumerism that is destroying everything valuable. Congratulations on surviving another holiday season filled with overt and subliminal messages that we are terrible people if we don't participate in the zombie shopocalypse. Buying nothing is the only option if we care about others. A full takedown of the insanity awaits you. Clips from GrowthBusters, Adbusters, the Angry Hippie's Podcast, and a recommendation to check out the Story of Stuff. First we review why you should never feel obligated to put up with your family and/or do things you're not comfortable with in the name of tradition or convenience. If that means refusing to participate in family holiday dinners, so be it. You must prioritize your own sanity and inner peace over pleasing others for superficial reasons.

Do you have thoughts on the holidays, consumerism or veganism? Of course you do! Share them with the world! Send your comments, questions and suggestions for show topics and/or guests to feedback@politicized.org, use the contact form or find me on Twitter @Unconventionist or my Facebook page. Subscribe in iTunes to be notified of new episodes. Support the show by sharing it widely, leaving reviews and getting in touch.

Episode 12: Relationship Culture, Capitalism, & Vegan Pedicabs

Minku Sharma, host of the Vegan Pedicab Podcast, joins me in Chicago to rant about our cultural obsession with romantic relationships, the stigma of being "single", and how our society gives privilege to traditional heterosexual couples. We also talk about bike culture, driving a pedicab, and why you should ignore everyone's expectations and set your own work rules. Minku mentioned a few great resources:

Laura Ahearn, Invitations to Love, on the move away from arranged marriages and the rise of romantic love in Nepal;

Eva Illouz, Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism, on the relationship industry: "Rather than being a haven from the marketplace, modern romantic love is a practice that is intimately complicit with the political economy of late capitalism."

The Chicago Teachers Union on their ongoing struggle against the privatization of our education system.

Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States, on inequality, violence and other history you weren't taught in school;

Studs Terkel, Working, profiles of people and their labor: "Work is violence" when you don't control it.

The video, How to be Alone is courtesy of fiilmaker Andrea Dorfman and poet/singer/songwriter Tanya Davis: "It's fine to be alone once you're embracing it."

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