Meretricious! (...OR MERRY CHRISTMAS?)
Meretricious! (...OR MERRY CHRISTMAS?)
We are currently in the midst of the build-up to that frantic, frenzied, state of annual domestic angst euphemistically ascribed as being (in this politically correct society of ours) 'The Holidays, Formerly Known as the Christian Celebration of the Birth of Jesus Christ'. It appears an appropriate time to make a few observations on this archaic Christian tradition, that once upon a time truly was an occasion full of light-hearted merriment, religious reflection, and acts of selfless-giving.
As we enter the second millennium of Christian history, I feel it is quite obvious to anyone with the slightest vestige of reflective intelligence that the celebration of a Christian "Christmas" has now become simply another anachronistic and obsolescent commemorative event that ought appropriately to be cast up on the rubbish-heap of customs and traditions, long gone off the mark.
First of all, the national entity known as the United States is no longer an exclusively Christian enclave. With the millions of immigrants that have now swollen the population of this country to new levels, with the many attendant religious beliefs, faiths, creeds, etc., that have accompanied them, it is inappropriate--nay, arrogant!--to continue the fiction that the birth of a Christian 'savior' has any more overwhelming meaning and importance to all those bogeymen out there than any other primary/central religious belief of say, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, Wicca, or Native American origin. Yes, Christianity is the central faith of white, Anglo-Saxon people, and yes, the nation was founded principally by white, Anglo-Saxon invaders (read: squatters), but that was well over 200 years ago; the present nation of the United States has about as much in common with those times as present day income taxes have with the concept of 'fairly apportioned' levies on personal income.
If this wasn't enough to foster a complete reconsideration of the real importance of 'Christmas' to this nation, consider the fact that American consumerism is now the REAL national religion--not Christianity. In all fairness to this inescapable fact, there ought to be a yearly celebration of some sort of God of Consumption, since that is what this 'Christmas' custom has essentially become. While few Americans can now share a real sense of what true Christian thankfulness for their savior ought to be, a celebration that ALL Americans (both indigenous and recent arrivals) can eagerly participate in is our obsessive national consumption of materialistic 'things', that now (unbelievably!) generates approximately two-thirds of our economic GNP.
As PC doctrine increasingly sweeps the nation (spreading out from bellwether Kalifornika like some sort of pestiferous plague), we now have so many ethnic and religious group-specific partisan 'holiday' celebrations (Christmas, Chanukah, Winter Solstice, 'Kwanzaa', Eid Al Fitr, etc.) falling due at this time of year that attempting to celebrate anything as specific as a 'Christmas' becomes an exercise in somewhat confusing frustration, to say the least!
Further, at this time of year, the very nature of the problems consequent to matters of urban density, overutilisation of communications, excessive demands made on mailing systems, and above all the national admonishment to 'FOR GOD'S SAKE, GIVE SOMETHING TO SOMEONE!' all result in a potential near-nervous breakdown for all sentient beings before the whole merry mess has come to its burnt-out conclusion.
As a white, Anglo-Saxon person of Irish persuasion, I was brought up first as a Catholic and later as an Anglican. We celebrated Christmas in the traditional manner then, by going to Christmas services, helping the needy with donations of foodstuff, clothing, etc., and observing the custom of giving and getting simple (emphasis added) presents. That was wonderful, back in the late 40s, when it didn't even dawn on 99% of the nation's citizens that there might be other religions, beliefs, creeds, etc., in this country, other than Christianity. Today, however, maintaining the fiction that the celebration of a Christian Christmas is still an appropriate national event makes about as much sense as worshiping the American automobile (which of course, we all still do, also....).
Lest there be any doubt of the final redundancy of the celebration of the birth of a Christian 'savior', simply look about at the unending advertising bombardment the whole nation suffers through from commercial companies and corporations who want us to BUY-BUY-BUY! Really, there not only is no Christ left in Christmas, there has not really been any in the secular holidays that constitute the season for at least the past 50 years (where is the 'Christ' in Chrysler Concorde, or in Sony Playstation 2, for example?)!
Finally, and this is where the 'meat hits the metal' for me at least, the whole idea of there being a specific institutionalised period in which we are all supposed to be kind, selfless, and loving (simultaneously and without proscription) that is limited to about two weeks (the twelve days of Christmas?), really sticks in my craw. This is tantamount to making Christmas an official 'Peace, love, and good-will cease-fire' in a world that is otherwise and normally full of seething hatreds, burning religious, ethnic, political, and cultural animosities, and personal antipathies. HELLO?! Duh?....I think we are missing the point, here, folks. It is almost as if the observance of Christian Christmas serves to justify and otherwise sanctify the 353 days of the year in which we are all allowed to exercise our personal worst affect on everyone and everything else without regard for consequences! We end up with, in essence, A) a two week 'Goodness cease fire', that precedes B) the other 353 days that constitute the (unofficial) American 'Spiritual Killing Season'.
The point (and yes, there is one--this is not just mindless and passionate blather, despite your deep suspicions) is that the qualities of brotherly love, humane regard for one's fellows, dignity and respect to others, etc., are not properly mere seasonal manifestations; these feelings of brotherly love and peaceful intent do not have a specific half-life. Therefore, it has always been deeply insulting to me to have to be sanctimoniously reminded each year at about this time by self-appointed Christian spokespersons that I must be kindly disposed towards others and possessed of a 'giving spirit' at Christmastime. These are, of course, qualities of 'goodness' that should be maintained from one's birth to the last draw of breath--not seasonal aberrations of the otherwise essentially avaricious, hateful, spiteful, and selfish 'truer nature' of the human species.
So finally, don't bore me with all these exhortations to spread 'peace, joy, love, good will, and selflessness' throughout the world for the coming several weeks; I already attempt to do this on a daily basis (and it ain't easy, my friend, let me tell you!). Further, as with all customs and traditions that originated in small, localised areas and arose amidst small, localised partisan interest groups, once a celebratory custom such as 'Christmas' has been embraced and transmogrified by an insanely commercial aggregate-matrix (specifically, today's unholy marriage of science and technology with organised, rapaciously secular commercialism ), any possible REAL or genuine religious or spiritual meaning went out the window LONG ago. In short, aside from being so much happy horse-exhaust that now exists principally as a capitalistic motivator device to get you to spend ever more amounts of money on stupid material things you (nor anyone else) don't need, the quaint custom of 'Christmas' has long since outlived its usefulness and it is time to move along to other, possibly more relevant and certainly more interesting contemporary celebrations (George Costanza's 'FESTIVUS' on the TV sitcom Seinfeld comes to mind).
"MERRY CHRISTMAS?" I don't think so... If all this weren't bad enough, consider the fact that Christmas is one of the few celebrations in the world which encourages the wanton 'wasting' of millions of young fir trees as part of the whole sordid Christmas business. The fact that the display and decoration of a 'Christmas tree' is not even an intrinsic Christian custom, but rather the incorporation of an ancient pagan Druidic ritual totem into this most important Christian religious festival, fails to register with 99.9% of all the happy folks who go out and insist on collectively destroying mega-scores of beautiful living trees to mark this event. Again, it might be dismissed as a harmless custom when practiced by a small group of devotees; but when the practice is subscribed to by several hundreds of millions of people around the world, it is no longer a tenable or justifiable custom (and don't hand me that argument about these trees being specifically grown on 'tree farms' for their use as Christmas trees--the sanctioned destruction of any trees at all is an ecologically irresponsible, insupportable, and in the long term unviable act, no matter whose trees they are or whose birthday is being celebrated....).
And now, if you don't mind, I am going to dust off the huge plywood cutouts of the words "BAH" and "HUMBUG", presently stored in my garage, that are festooned with gaudy colored lights and cheap tinsel, and set them out on the front lawn....all part of my yearly efforts to impart the proper seasonal sentiment (sound of Bronx cheer in background....) to this occasion that we must all now endure for the next several weeks.....
Till next year! Cheers and END OF SERMON, Amen. (17 Dec 00)
