I am enjoying the conversation that is going on in the comments box,it is good and has me full of thought.
Although most of us do not consider ourselves consumers we still do consume goods. Goods of choice that fit our own criteria.
Seed, animal feed, sewing notions,yarn,canning things,books and the supplies we all need that we ourselves can not produce that enable us to make and create.
Many choose to seek out the small local crafts people,farmers and ethical businesses in our own communities.It is a way to start a change in our world,our economies and the minds of others. We are already doing this,talking about it,voting for changes, leading by example,slowly we are making a difference. The people of the United States spoke up and there is now a four season garden at the White House.Eyes are opening.
So why could there not be my dream magazine? Sure the magazines sitting on the stores racks are about being a consumer and the companies who advertise within the pages support this way of thinking. But if a publisher looked around they would find plenty of smaller producers of goods out there to advertise.The small guys who are over looked and need the money more than those big box stores do.The companies we still shop with.Would it be so bad to see an advertisement for canning jars?
I am daring to dream here. I tend to go against the grain when some one says "Oh,no that could not be,happen,could not work or some such thing." Hrafinstaad is a dream no one thought possible yet here we are doing it.I won't live my life in a box,thinking outside of the box is what keeps me going and dreaming.
So with the hopes of continuing the discussion I pose this question: If there was my dream magazine what kinds of advertisements would you support? What products or companies would fit into the non-consumer life style? HA! I am daring you to think outside of the box folks by pairing advertising and non consumerism.
Rois
P.S I know I know buying a magazine goes against the non consumer's thoughts but put up with me for a moment.Personally I feel a good magazine with lots of worth while information is like buying a book.And like a good book I keep them.
I am in agreement with you about the non-consumer/magazine as "junk food" concept. The only magazine that I buy regularly and/or subscribe to is Threads, which is a sewing magazine. Their content is entirely about techniques, with a dash of "inspirations". I do not throw them away. Ever. I have an entire bookshelf of them, going back to the first issue, I consider them a reference library.
ReplyDeleteThe signal to noise ratio in their magazine is excellent, though I do not use all the information, since some of the types of sewing they write about I am not interested in. Indeed, that is why I don't have other magazines here, My home is too small and life is too short to have a lot of un-useful eye-junk-food around.
As far as advertisments, I'd be interesed in seeing ones for practical and affordable! tools and supplies. Not the kind of things advertised in the "green and organic" magazines currently, which seem like luxury goods to me.
Things like unusual but useful tools such as carried by Lee Valley, small scale livestock items, house-fixing supplies and equipment, (heck, a magazine about how to fix and repair things that doesn't assume that you have an entire wood shop at your disposal would be great)
Another possible concept is something that Sunset Magazine has done for years, their magazine is actually published in regional variations depending on where in the Western states you live, the content is slightly different.
But the real issue which would get me to buy a magazine would be if the content was useful enough for it to be something I will want to give house-storage-room to rather than a disposable waste of the trees that made it