2008 Woodie Awards
Overspent, commercial Christmas
The Pen is Mightier
Evan Barker
Issue date: 12/6/07 Section: Opinions
It wasn't yet November, but the red ribbons flew. An innocent trip to Hobby Lobby for a Halloween costume prop affirmed a long -held suspicion that soon, Christmastime will be all the time.
A bizarre juxtaposition of Jesus, ghosts, turkeys and Frosty the Snowman festooned stores, and the leaves hadn't even fallen.
It wasn't always this way. There was a time when December was a time for solemn celebration, and not the much-anticipated salvation of our retail economy.
Every year, Christmas creeps earlier. A simple Google search yields scads of advertisements for Christmas sales, many held in late September.
Regardless of one's religious convictions, or lack thereof, this blatant commercialization of spiritual festivals is troubling. It overlaps America's love affair with gratuitous consumption.
It's hard to separate the joy of gift giving - or receiving - from this holiday, but this joy comes at the detriment of consumers and the religious holidays for which the season exists.
Children grow up with the expectation that Christmas equals gift-giving. However, the concept of gift-receiving is far easier for kids to understand. They grow accustomed to lavish gifts and conspicuous consumption - those whose families can afford it. This works well to support our commercial machine, but it does so at the expense of the common good.
This harms all of us. The advertising machine that drives our gratuitous consumerism creates an expectation: that spending money is the pinnacle of virtue. Of course, for the less fortunate, December often differs little from other months, except for the painful differentiation of 'have' versus 'have-not.'
We break our banks and our backs to scrape up money to buy gifts for everyone, even those for whom we would prefer not to.
The spending, in particular, has gotten out of control. It's a sad time when the actions of a single day of retail sales either float or sink the stock market. The miracle of the holiday season is subjugated to the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Instead of concentrating on the joy and importance of millennia-old miracles, or reflecting on the coming year, this season often causes more stress than any other.
This year, MTSU's exam week falls during Hannukah. Jewish faculty and students will spend the most important eight days of their year frantic to finish their semester. So it goes.
We obsess over gaudy decorations and party planning, lending very little time to good works. Imagine the Clark W. Griswolds of the world who could have spent those nine hours volunteering to help the homeless, or spending time with their kids.
We waste vast amounts of electricity lining our sidewalks with plastic candy canes and faux candles, while people shiver in homes without heat, or no homes at all.
Worse still, there are those who take advantage of the holiday season to stir needless acrimony decrying the "War Against Christmas."
The far-right wastes a season's worth of goodwill attacking the perceived enemies of the holiday season, instead of winning converts to the cause. The far-left uses superfluous litigation to sanitize the holidays from the public sphere.
It's time for a reality check. If you celebrate the religious holidays in December, then devote yourself to the quiet contemplation that they require.
Evan Barker is a senior viola performance major and can be reached at ehb2d@mtsu.edu.
A bizarre juxtaposition of Jesus, ghosts, turkeys and Frosty the Snowman festooned stores, and the leaves hadn't even fallen.
It wasn't always this way. There was a time when December was a time for solemn celebration, and not the much-anticipated salvation of our retail economy.
Every year, Christmas creeps earlier. A simple Google search yields scads of advertisements for Christmas sales, many held in late September.
Regardless of one's religious convictions, or lack thereof, this blatant commercialization of spiritual festivals is troubling. It overlaps America's love affair with gratuitous consumption.
It's hard to separate the joy of gift giving - or receiving - from this holiday, but this joy comes at the detriment of consumers and the religious holidays for which the season exists.
Children grow up with the expectation that Christmas equals gift-giving. However, the concept of gift-receiving is far easier for kids to understand. They grow accustomed to lavish gifts and conspicuous consumption - those whose families can afford it. This works well to support our commercial machine, but it does so at the expense of the common good.
This harms all of us. The advertising machine that drives our gratuitous consumerism creates an expectation: that spending money is the pinnacle of virtue. Of course, for the less fortunate, December often differs little from other months, except for the painful differentiation of 'have' versus 'have-not.'
We break our banks and our backs to scrape up money to buy gifts for everyone, even those for whom we would prefer not to.
The spending, in particular, has gotten out of control. It's a sad time when the actions of a single day of retail sales either float or sink the stock market. The miracle of the holiday season is subjugated to the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Instead of concentrating on the joy and importance of millennia-old miracles, or reflecting on the coming year, this season often causes more stress than any other.
This year, MTSU's exam week falls during Hannukah. Jewish faculty and students will spend the most important eight days of their year frantic to finish their semester. So it goes.
We obsess over gaudy decorations and party planning, lending very little time to good works. Imagine the Clark W. Griswolds of the world who could have spent those nine hours volunteering to help the homeless, or spending time with their kids.
We waste vast amounts of electricity lining our sidewalks with plastic candy canes and faux candles, while people shiver in homes without heat, or no homes at all.
Worse still, there are those who take advantage of the holiday season to stir needless acrimony decrying the "War Against Christmas."
The far-right wastes a season's worth of goodwill attacking the perceived enemies of the holiday season, instead of winning converts to the cause. The far-left uses superfluous litigation to sanitize the holidays from the public sphere.
It's time for a reality check. If you celebrate the religious holidays in December, then devote yourself to the quiet contemplation that they require.
Evan Barker is a senior viola performance major and can be reached at ehb2d@mtsu.edu.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Carl A. Patton
Carl A. Patton, Psyche Z Publishing
posted 2/04/08 @ 9:13 AM CST
IS CHRISTMAS A ECONOMIC HOLOCAUST?
(The Confrontation of Truth and Knowledge Page
In the name of God, Master of the universe, Ruler of the earth. (Continued…)
Post a Comment