The Worlds Biggest Boycott

When the revolution happened, it was strange because it did not happen with guns or bombs. There were no molotov cocktails thrown and no bankers were hung from lampposts.

Basically, people stopped throwing away all their money on things they didn't really need.

Instead of getting into their cars and driving everywhere and spending money on the petrol to fuel them; they walked everywhere or rode bicycles. The streets were filled with bicycles and the carol of their bells and the petrol companies were forced to take notice.

Instead of watching TV or going to see the next big hollywood blockbuster, people just read books, books that they swapped with each other rather than buying new ones and, collectively, the turning pages of those books was deafening like the wings of birds released into the sky; then the TV companies and film companies were forced to take notice.

Instead of buying music they picked up instruments and played and those who couldn't play instruments sang; each person sang the words that were within their heart and whether they sang in tune or sang off key the voices of those singing multitudes was heard all around the world.

Instead of buying the latest fashion from a highstreet shop, they made their own clothes; they made their own make up too and in so doing rediscovered their primate ingenuity and reawoke the creativity that had been lying dormant in them for so long and the colours of the beautiful clothes they made were like a flock of myriad different butterflies let loose from their butterfly cages. Like a carnival parade of anarchists they filled the streets.

I'm not saying that they turned their back completely on capitalism; they still needed it for some things but what they did was realise they didn't need it quite as much as they had thought they did.

Oh ofcourse, there were casualties; economic casualties; people lost their jobs as companies, rather than do the right thing, punished their workers making them redundant.

But eventually, when consumers stopped oiling the wheels of the machine that was grinding them down; the machine that had been blackmailing the whole world into submission was forced to pay and though they did not make the machine grind to a halt; because the machine needed them as much as they needed it, the machine had no choice but to listen and change.