More government regulation is not the answer. At best, government regulation mitigates some of the worse problems. Mostly government regulation gives the false impression that something is being done about corporate malfeasance. If you are an anti-capitalist like some of us, putting a band aid or a muzzle on a corporation is simply not enough.
Personal consumer choices are indeed important. The personal is political. One of the large failures of the Left is their inability to understand this. I blame this on the culture of traditional leftism, which thinks that subscribing to the right political line is more important than actually practicing what you preach. This myopic hypocrisy reminds me of Lutherans, so that's why I'm an anarchist. Anarchists are more focused on the process of social change, so we correctly understand that if you aren't practicing what you preach, you ain't exactly setting any kind of example for the social change you are preaching. The traditional left is known for its foot-dragging on praxis, such as the long held opposition to gay rights (see the RCP) or the old idea that women's rights could wait until after the revolution. The radical feminist movement of the 1970s was in part a response to this abdication of praxis.
I agree with Carrol and Woj that a broader, confrontational social movement is needed in addition to politicizing individual lifestyle choices. Without that mass movement, we get Whole Foods and Utne Reader.
The politics of everyday life recuperated into organic produce and pages of body lotion ads. See my essay "Why Vegetarianism Won't Save the Planet."
At the same time, leftists who don't practice what they preach are hypocritical fools at best, armchair academics living in nice college towns at worst. These are the people who go listen to Amy Goodman talk and Iris Dement perform, but can't lift a finger to help out local independent media or even visit a small struggling bookstore. Hey! We have the correct line! Let's march around in circles and feel self-righteous that we know that the war is a joke, but let's not spend any effort to build an alternative. Gotta run to Whole Foods to buy some cheese for that soiree tonight where we are going to deconstruct post-feminist Kantian literary theory. Or whatever academic nonsense is fashionable at the moment.
Boycotts do have their limitations, but boycotts do work. The problem with boycotts is that the people who should follow them are just not into practicing what they preach. When you have a significant number of leftists who stop supporting food co-ops and easily march over to Whole Foods, you don't exactly have a movement of principled people who are ready to make a daily commitment to living their ideas.
Corporations do pay attention to boycotts. They spend large sums of money keeping tabs on activism and consumer opinion. Small campaigns can have a significant impact--see the article Infoshop News published today on the Coalition of Imokaleee Workers.
What's wrong with boycotting a small business? Small businesses can be worse than corporations.
Chuck
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