The Don't Buy List: Resolutions, Bimbos, & Sheet Masks For Babies
Plus, Sephora points as social currency.
Hello, dewy dust bunnies, and welcome to another edition of the The Don’t Buy List — the first of 2022!
The hot new thing this year is rejecting New Year’s Resolutions. The Atlantic said “resolutions are not the vibe.” Mic asked us to “stop forcing resolutions in January.” The latest newsletter from The Goods suggested “cancel[ing] New Year’s resolutions” completely. “Why, after all, should we strive for betterment?” it read.
Reader, I fell to my knees and aimed a guttural scream at the heavens.
The problem with New Year’s Resolutions is not striving for betterment! The problem is how we’ve traditionally defined “betterment.” Somewhere along the way, our inherently human capacity to evolve and expand and learn and grow and love and care and create was redirected toward the ultimately unfulfilling accruement of capital, and the powers that be called that “better.”
The economy convinced us “betterment” was productivity, efficiency, achievement, money.
Cosmetic companies convinced us “betterment” was younger, clearer, smoother, shinier.
Weight loss brands convinced us “betterment” was smaller, thinner, sculpted, starved.
Of course we should reject these definitions — but have we been so brainwashed by capitalism that we can’t imagine a different definition, one that serves us instead of institutions? Are we banishing “better” altogether now? That feels like a cop-out.
I don’t think we need to look younger or be thinner. I don’t think we need to make partner by 30 or monetize our hobbies. I also don’t think we’re perfect as we are, or somehow beyond betterment. I mean, look at the world around us! This world of climate crisis, consumerism, and Covid Year Three is not the product of perfect people. It’s the product of a lot of people who need a lot of work. Inner work. Deeper work. Spiritual work. Healing work. Ancestral work. Rebellious work. Not capitalist productivity work.
We desperately need to decondition, deprogram, divest from toxic systems! To earnestly engage rather than ironically detach! To slow down, connect, listen! To break cycles! To practice solidarity! To live in community! To lead with love! To find beauty beyond the beauty industry! And yes, to find some goddamn resolve.
Critics have noted that the timing of New Year’s Resolutions is pointless, arbitrary, just something someone made up one day… but, like, so is money, and we live and die by that. Calendar-based ritual is as ancient as human existence! It’s in our blood. It’s in our bones.
So make the resolution. Set the intention. Redefine better. Then go be that.
