I have a habit of reading collections of short stories and then losing track of individual stories. Only to be frustrated when I remember a bit of a story and cannot find the story to reread it...

This reminds me of a story I read that was some futuristic human society where capitalism was king and consumerism was pretty much the religion. There was a big event where all the people would bring appliances, throw them into a big pile, and smash them to pieces as a mob. Then they were expected to go out and replace their old stuff with new stuff. It was a way to keep the economy functioning and people employed.

BUT.... there were a small group of dissidents that thought all of this was bullshit. One dissident group made a device that would pull some Akira type shit on a pile of mangled appliances and turn it into a giant monster that was supposed to go on a rampage...

At least this is what I think I remember of the story. One day, when I'm not so tired, I'll have to try to see if I can dig this story up again to figure out how far off the mark my memories are.