Breaking Capitalism

"We keep saying 'slowing down the sale' is the answer, but it is a really privileged view. Brown people can't slow down."

Words spoken by a Bangladeshi team member of the ethical move. TEM is the movement for ethical marketing founded in my anger at the burden of overconsumption resting on the shoulders of 'conscious consumers' while businesses keep selling in ways that make us unconscious.

So we went about slowing down the sale, giving consumers more space and time to think before they buy – so we can break the cycle of consumerism.

Naturally, her words hit like a ton of bricks.

We thought we had found the solution, but it came from privilege – the opposite of what we were trying to do. We needed to rethink ...everything. Not just try to abolish psychological tactics, but reimagine what it means to break the system. To be anti-capitalist. To decolonize marketing.

Without our discussion that day, we would have kept on believing that if we all do a little, it'll happen.

But it is not the thing we do, it's how we do it.

We can each never use psychological tactics again and we'd not break the system, because it only has its hooks in the individual. It lives in the collective.

Capitalism needs you to think you're alone so you don't recognize the truth: It has never been about the individual. Decolonization is communal.

So if you ever find yourself thinking "how can I make a difference?", remember: that's what you're supposed to think.

It is better for the status quo if we each believe that the weight is to heavy.

Instead, ask your friends: what have we noticed, what have we learned, what has changed our perspective, whose stories are not being told?

I promise the conversation that follows will give you actionable steps. And you will have broken a little bit of the system – because you did it together.