Cheer and loathing

[Online exclusive]



Adam Weissman

Adam Weissman despises the holidays, but not for the reasons you might think. 

As a cofounder of Freegan.info, a division of the Wetlands Preserve activist collective, the Brooklyn-born urban forager abhors the “inherent wastefulness” and “social and environmental injustices” wrought by the feel-good season.

“These are holidays driven by greed and profit, and the level of manipulation is really troubling,” he fumes. “Thanksgiving rings a bell and sends consumers into a frenzy: ‘Go crazy! Go shopping!’ People spend money they don’t have. In 2001, Rudy Giuliani told us that it was our patriotic duty to shop during the Christmas season. There is no low that won’t be stooped to when serving the corporate interest.”

To combat the consumerist deluge, Weissman has organized community buffets of grub pilfered from commercial Dumpsters, dropped a guerrilla banner (don’t buy into consumerism! spare the earth from overconsumption!) onto a Panasonic Christmas-countdown billboard and served food to homeless people slumped in front of Fifth Avenue furriers. 

Think you’re in the karmic clear ’cause you volunteer once a year at a soup kitchen? The Jew-turned-atheist balks at “seasonal” Samaritans, too: “It’s shallow and tokenistic. I mean, it’s great that one day a year we make sure the hungry are fed. But we have a year-round moral obligation to challenge a society that allows billionaires to exist while 25 million go hungry. If there’s one thing Jesus wasn’t fond of, it’s hypocrisy.”

SEE IT
Join the freegans for a Trash Trailblaze Wednesday 26 at 9pm at 82nd St and Broadway. Advanced foragers will be exploring what New Yorkers waste in the postholiday haze, and will offer useful tips for repurposing. Go to freegan.info for details.