Big paper- Synthesis

What are other people’s perspectives of the American way of life?
To answer this question I interviewed several people, several strangers I picked randomly off the street, and a few people that I know personally. In order to put a perspective on the information and avoid nebulous speculation, I formed two groups in which these people fit, sadly it seems that in reality people are very polarized in what they find as important about the AWOL. There are those who look at the AWOL as a bigger picture and those who personalized the AWOL ( Live with the illusion of the American Way of life).
One of the first people I interviewed was a 50 or 60 year old, white, doorman. He seemed quite enamored with the American way of life, saying that it was essentially the ability to do whatever one wants. I don't recall ever hearing of an aspiring doorman. Unless this man was the one exception and he really did dream of becoming a doorman as a child, his characterization of the AWOL exhibits a lack of large-scale thought. He also seemed fixated on the practical aspects of the AWOL in comparison to the larger picture. He seemed far more invested in his own personal wellbeing than that of the country he so readily supported.
Another person that I interviewed, a middle aged, Hispanic, working class man, with paint-covered clothing, who followed suit with the doorman. In his opinion the AWOL is “working hard and being happy with your kids.” A very simple answer indeed, one can assume that this man has children (obviously) so he is most likely talking about his way of life. He continued on by saying, “I’m just thankful I got a job,” and the only bad aspect of America is that “it’s too expensive.” While cost is indeed an issue, there are certainly far more evident problems with our country. He was more concerned with his own economic affairs than the greater picture. Wealth certainly does allow one the leisure to speculate larger issues. When one is struggling just to get by as this man made it seem he was, time is spent on work instead of fervently trying to understand why things are the way they are.
On the other side of this societal rift, there are those who seemed to administer more thought to the subject. When asked “What is the AWOL?” a young, white, male answered mockingly, “A house on one acre, with a trophy wife and two kids.” He almost perfectly characterized the dream of the Hispanic man that I interviewed. His answer is also removed, he isn’t talking about himself, and is instead accurately looking at the greater picture. He continued by saying that “We can’t do what we really want. Nobody cares about your hopes and your dreams, you have to submit to society to get anywhere and go against your dreams in the process.” Becoming a doorman is a perfect example of this, even though that man said that one can do whatever they want, he submitted to the will of society because the painful truth is that the freedom that so many identify with America can only be achieved by working. The Hispanic man that I interviewed was “happy” just have a job while society taunts him with expensive nick nacks. Does American society really look out for these people, or does it just sucker people in with various distractions? This young mans answer to this question is far more thought out, his outlook actually applies to other people, whereas the other two men’s thoughts on the AWOL were almost convoluted and weren’t applicable to the overwhelming majority or even themselves.
Lastly, I interviewed my own mother, a 51 year old, white, middle class, woman who also spoke broadly about the AWOL. She said, “Some people think we are entitled to a certain standard of living even at the cost of others, meaning other nations, and others feel that we aren’t justified in maintaining this state of entitlement.” She talked about other nations outside of the U.S., beyond herself, because the U.S. is not separate from world affairs as many would like to think. The effects of our actions and our government’s actions do affect people, and looking at America in such a simple selfish way can adversely affect us. She also acknowledges the fault that separates these two groups, and not just her own American experience.
The fact is that America is bigger than just you and I. It is more important than being able to succeed and buy a new I pod. Our dreams are overlooked in a society characterized by its capitalistic opportunities for success. By thinking of your neighbors, your co-workers, different social classes, and different countries, we are destined for a more genuinely constructive collective wellbeing. Be it a factor of intelligence, ignorance, education, or limited experience, personal priority in contrast to the collective value is glaringly unbeneficial.
When I first began writing this paper I had a very limited understanding of capitalism. Having studied it's basic framework I feel that I can adequately explain and critique it. To start off our study on Capitalism we read "I Pencil," the story of how a pencil is made and created. From what I could tell, it was about mankind's ignorance to all of the microcosms that make up the crap that we buy. I wrote: The background of products is carelessly overlooked by mankind, and if this persists, before long, our society will fall apart. There are “innumerable antecedents” that we know far to little about to be able to make a decision to buy a product. Nothing can be overlooked for each element in a products production is as significant as another. There is no-one in charge who actually knows where heir product, in its entirety, came from, and neither do the consumers who buy them so we do not have any right to use them. If one was aware of the origin of the products they so relish, then they would see why not to use them. Remove government obstacles and have faith that free people will make the right decisions.
At a glance I noticed the land labor and capital in this brief soliloquy. After reading it a second time, I noticed that it was condemning more than just capitalism, but government as well. This absence of any master-mind, any all knowing director of this process of product creation, show that no-one, not the owners, not the labor, not the consumer, knows of every collaborating element that leads to the creation of a product. If anyone was aware of all the blood, sweat tears, and corruption that goes into making a product they would certainly not buy it. Thinking about it further, I noticed that government creates obstacles that require us to use these products that we know nothing about. Fro example indecent exposure laws require us to wear clothing, and work and school force people to commute(cars, bicycles)> Having all these ideas thrown at me I saw that the pencil was describing anarchy, or total lack of government and market.
I believe that I may have lost sight of the true intention of the article which was supposedly to promote capitalism, but this was just my initial interpretation. Regardless of the actual intent of the author this helped to foster a negative outlook on capitalism. But I did not yet fully understand the system and all of my analysis was simply blind criticism. After briefly researching Capitalism I found there to be certain virtues in it's structure. Capitalism promotes economic growth and gives people the incentive to work harder. This pursuit of success can bring around technological innovations. Capitalism is largely controlled by market forces, where the government is hypothetically less involved. It can also strengthen foreign relations through company controlled trading through the free market. It also lacks a centralized system of coordination so ideally everyone living in a capitalist society everyone works together and is not controlled by some higher power. Governmental manipulation of capitalism can result in market distortions such as shortages and surplus’, thus it is a system controlled largely by the citizens themselves, which I find to be virtuous.
Of course, this is only in an ideal situation; most systems are set up with the hope that they will thrive, but often discount the necessary human element. People aren't robots, at least not by nature, but the system always manipulates people and their outlook on the world. Since there is no one archetypal man there are bound to be variations that will lead to it's downfall.
The traditional definition of capitalism is: An economic system based on private property and the profit motive in which goods and services are produced distributed and consumed through markets. Capitalism promotes economic growth and gives people the incentive to work harder. This pursuit of success can bring around technological innovations. Capitalism is largely controlled by market forces, where the government is hypothetically less involved. It can also strengthen foreign relations through company controlled trading through the free market. It also lacks a centralized system of coordination so ideally everyone living in a capitalist society works together and is not controlled by some higher power. Governmental manipulation of capitalism can result in market distortions such as shortages and surplus', thus it is a system controlled largely by the citizens themselves.
For example, if the government initialized price control in a time of price gouging, the companies would be charged more to reduce the risk of large business owners taking advantage of their customers in a time of distress. It sounds all peachy and good, but in doing this the company will import less of their product which would cause a shortage in that type of product. Lets say the government placed price control on water filtration and bottling companies. The results could be disastrous.
In an odd situation a company could use a product shortage to their advantage. Take for instance, the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo intentionally sent out fewer Wii consoles than they knew people would buy, thus, making the public aware of the shortage. "If the Wii's are selling that quickly then they must be good." In doing this they made people want to buy it more. One could say that people always want what they cannot have. This is not necessarily bad, but in a way it is manipulative
However, government intervention of capitalism has it's own benefits. In a capitalist system where there is no regulation, companies can take advantage of their customers and abuse their power. In the case of the Lehman brothers, some of the individuals owning the company Had the government intervened and disallowed them absolute control of the company, it is more likely that this huge economic crisis would not have happened. By forming companies that more closely resemble the check and balance system that runs the American government, one could deprive people like the Lehman brothers of such power.
The defining aspects of capitalism are the land, labor, and capital. The land is the most important aspect of capitalism, for it provides companies the raw materials to make anything. The labor is obvious, it is all of the work that goes into the creation and distribution of a product. Lastly, Capital is what one uses to transfer the raw materials into the product, and the money or tools to make profit. (ex: a factory, money, etc…). The second most basic aspect of understanding capitalism is supply and demand. Supply is the availability of a commodity at all prices, and demand is the amount purchased of a commodity at all prices. The point at which the lines intersect is the equilibrium price, a situation in which prices are stable. If America were to encounter a shortage of some sort, the supply would reduce, and the demand would stay the same, but the product would be much less available. If there were a surplus, there would be an excess of a product and the demand still would not change. However if demand increases then a company may be forced to increase their supply or increase their prices to make more profit for less. This seldom happens with companies that sell commodities (a product that is perfectly substitutable) because they do not have the same demand as monopolies (companies that supply the only available of certain type of product. Ex: Electricity, Mac's, etc…).Commodities are forced to compete with each other, often resulting in a decrease in price which would provide the company with less profit. Monopolies on the other hand are able charge whatever price they want because they have no competition.
In a capitalist society we are all turning gears in this clockwork mess, and without equal contribution of each element, society would fall apart. This system does not start anywhere in particular, but begins due to a mutual agreement amongst peoples of one nation to organize society as such. As if guided by an invisible hand we follow through with the principal of capitalism out of self interest. It is here that the gears of the clock start turning, and the capitalist system begins. Workers sell their land labor and capital to the factor market where the factors of production are sold to the businesses. Those businesses sell the goods and services that we have generated to the product market where it is finally bought by the workers who initially created it. We as the workers are equally important to the cycle as the businesses for without workers, who would sell the land labor and capital. Not only are we part of the product creation, but part of the cycle of wealth. The product market buys goods and services from the businesses resulting in profit which is then spent on paying for more factors of production generated by the factor market. The factor market receives it's land labor and capital from the workers which supplies the workers with income so they can buy from the product market.
Seeing that one of the main factors of capitalism is the profit motive, people desperately try to make more and more money. Companies will do just about anything to make more money, even, in a majority of situations, use cheap foreign labor so that they spend less on the actual creation of the product while drastically overcharging the consumer so that they can make more profit. The fact is, Americans are expensive labor whereas a little Chinese boy charges far less for the same quantity of work.
The companies themselves have their own cycle through which they gain greater wealth. They start with their initial profit, which they save so that they can later invest in capital (advertisement, product upgrades) which produces greater profit. The company saves that up which creates even greater wealth. Because many large companies use cheap foreign labor it boosts their overall profit.
Thank goodness that cheap labor isn't our only connection with foreign nations. Buying products from other countries can actually reduce price. We buy most of our fruit from foreign countries, not because the labor is cheaper, but because other countries have environments that are more suitable for certain fruits. If fruit trade was cut between foreign countries then many fruits would be far more far more expensive. Seeing that our environment does not suit the agricultural needs of all types of fruits, it would be far more difficult and expensive to farm foreign plants. That is the reason why organic fruit is so expensive. The only way that a piece of fruit could survive a trip across the ocean is with pesticides and other preservatives. By buying from other countries we save ourselves money, but increase our reliance on other countries to do things for us. This is the origin of American arrogance; we can supposedly afford to pay others to do things for us while we just sit back and do nothing. Our country is the big cheese, the big fat capitalist that sits back while others do all of his work for him even though they could very well survive without him.
The system is very flawed and inherently evil; the constant development of the system practically forces people into becoming cut-throat, money grubbing, zombies that will do anything to get what they want. It obviously needs changes. But of course, behind such a powerful system people are bound to set up boundaries to ensure that it will thrive. Thanks to people like Ben Franklin, John Adams, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock, it is now nearly impossible to make any radical change to the system without having a general strike. We could decide to change our system of government at any time, but since Capitalism is a vacuum that sucks all of humanity into it most Americans would not willingly give consent to change the system.

As I watched Obama's inauguration I had very mixed feelings about the whole spectacle. At first I felt that the inauguration itself was a huge sham; inaugurations in general seem somewhat silly. It's nothing but some over publicized spectacle meant to boost public moral and rally the troops, which serves it's purpose, but romanticizes the whole act. Even though the inauguration doesn't need to be a public matter, people like to see it; in a way it validates the voter's effort to support him throughout the long and arduous campaign. I guess its just too phony for me, but then again, who am I to determine whats important?
While watching the inauguration I gazed around the room looking at the people who had all flocked to see him speak. Very few actually looked at the screen; most of them were talking, playing around, cuddling, or sleeping. There was one sight in particular that stuck with me: I saw one student from my grade, a huge Obama fan, who had pulled up a chair right in front of the tv, clad in a HOPE shirt from Obama's campaign, fall asleep the second the big speech began. It speaks for our generation; (from what I can tell) we are a bunch of kids, obsessed with the image of change and HOPE that Obama speaks of, only we don't understand or care enough about what he is acutally saying to even stay awake long enough to hear him speak.
I have yet to hear a single intelligent or well thought out comment on Obama and his rhetoric from anyone my age, yet every time I make a single crack at him or any of his policies people rush to his defense. I, like most children my age, know nothing of his policies nor the greater impact they will have on society. We know only his image and how it makes us feel good about him being president which is dangerous. Obama could very well be just another solicitor trying to sell us something and we wouldn't know it. This I feel is a very negative trait and it speaks for more than just our political perspective. It shows how receptive and easily manipulated we are by the elite. All we know is that he represents change and hope the same way we know that we are "lovin'" McDonalds.

Capitalism and the Primordial nature of man, and Capitalism Vs. Socialism

I remember hearing of a group of infants who had been left alone in the woods by their evil mother who felt she was unfit to care for them. Surprisingly enough the children survived thanks to a pack of wolves that cared for them as their own (how very cliché). When they were found years later by some people, aside from their physical appearance, they weren’t what most would call human. They were wolves at heart, for that was all they knew.
One could say the same for any other person; we only know what we are taught, and from that we create our greater meaning, so the claim that capitalism is “the manifest form of human nature” is not at all true. It would be more appropriate to say that man is destined to be alienated because what we are at the root of it all, is a blank slate. But of course there is a degree at which de-alienation becomes a paradox, since we have technically been alienated from our true selves for most of our lives, the de-alienated self that we revert to is alienated, unless of course we become comatose beings that indulge in nothing but the most basic, proprioceptive sensations.
Is this not what the stereotypical man does; does the average American not thrive on the most base of human sensations? I personally believe that your average person does little else than perform the most basic acts necessary to satisfy their most primal of needs. In our society, with the dawn of technology, we have transcended the need to use our brains as tools in survival. Our brains can now perform higher levels of thought that previously held a vestigial purpose; a crude attachment to the material world is what I define as being disembodied. To take advantage of the higher functions of our brain and transcend the physical plane that once firmly bound us to this world is my definition of de-alienation.
De-alienated people, are no longer just surviving, they find meaning in other things. The vast majority of Americans still cling to these basic functions, deriving all worldly meaning from acting them out. We now compete in similarly different ways; we commodify our existence and change ourselves accordingly to the beliefs of society. Just like a pack of wolves people have an inherent need to fit in and be part of a group, a reminiscence of our primal days. But still capitalism isn’t even a manifestation of the primordial nature of man. Capitalism is a system that takes advantage of and nurtures these primal urges, pushing man further and further away from his newly achieved ability to think and find higher meaning/importance in the world around him.
We learned early on that the capitalists and big corporations didn’t get to where they are today by working hard or being kind and considerate of those around them. At the roots of every tree lye the rotting shells of the tiny seeds that sucked the soil dry of it’s natural resources. Only through primitive accumulation of capital did they get to be the filthy rich people that they are today. They abused natural resources and enslaved people, selling their primitive collateral for capital that they could then use to make even more money, soughing the seeds of materialism and class difference in our young culture. People, in hopes of emulating their wealthy slave owners of ancestors, strive to become wealthy while living the myth, passed down to us generation by generation, that with enough hard work and sacrifice, we too can become affluent. Yet this is the same attitude that the capitalists want us to have because without it they couldn’t as easily exploit us.


Another thought:
While I do agree with Marx’s ideas I think that there is no absolute, black or white to it all. Capitalism is an evil system based on consumerism, the accumulation of capital, the exploitation of the prolitariate, and human greed. I believe that it is doomed to fail. Why it hasn’t happened yet is because people have found comfort in the mind dulling redundancy of the material world and they are unwilling to give it up despite how evil and stupid it may be to continue living in it. It’s just like smoking, no matter how many times people hear it’s bad for them they continue doing it. Like tobacco, the material world and the work-spend-get bored cycle is addictive and equally unsustainable: smoking will kill you and you will eventually be unsatisfied by the shit you buy.
But aren’t all systems, like Capitalism, doomed to fail? Marx’s concept of base and superstructure stated that the basic structure of the economy determines how everything in that society will go. In a capitalist society based on competition and accumulation of capital everyone is bound to be competitive and cut-throat, with the exception of the few individuals that will supposedly bring on the apocolypse of Capitalism. Marx’s dialectic would have shown Capitalism 50 years ago to be the thesis, or the idyllic version of the structure. Then, because Capitalism is essentially a free-for-all where everyone tries to take as much as possible, the anti-thesis will develop and there will be a small but still significant disapproval of the system itself. Lastly, after the people can no longer deal with the booms and crashes there will be the aufhebung/ revolution that will start a new world order with a different framework, but still one that maintains ideas of the old system of Capitalism.
This is what seems questionable to me: if a new system, let’s say socialism, is started, there are bound to be a few people who disagree with it or are ambivalent about it. Those people are still around even after the downfall of Capitalism, then regardless of the economic system they are bound to have some influence on the economy or other people. If you have such a presence in a socialist society it doesn’t seem unthinkable that it could easily revert back to Capitalism.
One reason I doubt Socialism is that there has yet to be an effective one. This is not to say that I think Capitalism is better, because I don’t, but Socialism seems to be an unrealistic ideal. I’m no expert on government, but there have been far more intellectual people who have attempted to create socialist systems and in trying to create equality the system becomes a dictatorship. Were we all las tabulas rasas or like minded individuals, socialism would make more sense. But since we are all slightly different people with different opinions it remains idealistic system to me.
Another argument against Capitalism is that it stifles creativity and intelligence. Just think about it for a second, in a system that promotes equality, what room is there for originality and difference. Let’s say an exceptionally bright or creative individual is born into such a society, should they be treated like every other kid? At that point the line would have been set so low, thanks retardation, that kids as bright as this one would not be in a nurturing enough environment. What if the society as a whole decided to kill off retarded kids or other children with low comprehension to maintain a high but equal standard of education? I don’t know what to think about either of those scenarios; while I do value education and intellect I believe that an unequal society creates imbalances that result in a power shift.
But what’s so wrong about equality; I think that is the fundamental question that separates Capitalists and Socialists. If we make all equal like the socialists would suggest then society as we know it would be made up of a bunch of un-motivated and poorly educated people. As I stated earlier we are nothing but what we are taught to be. You could be the brightest child in the world, but if your raised by wolves you’re going to act like a wolf. If we maintain the system of Capitalism we will remain in a rigor based society with major differences in class. From this point of view Capitalism wins because I still value education and intellect. That’s probably just my Capitalistic ego talking, but because I am so torn between what I want and what I think would benefit humanity as a whole I can’t rightfully express any clear position on what to do about it.
Of course, these are just generalizations; I am trying to learn more and more about these systems as I go along. I know that most socialists wouldn't force stupidity on bright children, especially since alienation and thoughtless receptivity are things that many socialists claim to be wrong with Capitalism. If anything, they would probably give their kids better educations to make them less accepting of the media. Socialist elements do work in other countries; take Sweden for example, it's socio democratic system with socialized medicine. Many visitors of the country have asked, where are all the homeless people, where are all the lunatics, the killers. Sweden is rumored to have a strong foundation of family values carried generation to generation. They have substantially less homeless people than we do because people have more days paid vacation than there are days in a year, this is not to say that they have an unemployment problem as a result. The people are willing to work in order to maintain their way of life. But even Sweden has it's flaws. Despite it's many positive attributes, Sweden was also one of the first countries to develop a eugenics program in hopes of sterilizing the mentally ill. In 1998 it was reported that the Swedish government had lobotomized about 4500 people, in some cases, without the consent of their families (David Dieteman PhD, Sweden and the myth of Benevolent Socialism). This, to me, seems just as fascist, if not more so, than U.S. government.
One commonality between several Socialist countries is the position of race in the development of their government. Cuba, for example, became what it is today through slavery just like the U.S.. Even the benevolent Sweden took part in the slave trade during the 17th century. If slavery and corruption is at the roots of an economy, the apples that fall from the tree are bound to be corrupt.
I decided to do a little research on Anarcho-syndicalism and found it to be more or less a people run version of capitalism. Anarcho-Primitivism, another form of Anarchism, is based on de-industrialization; anarcho primitivists would argue that hunter gatherers have traded based on need and not trade value, which to them sets the grounds for a less materialist more community oriented society.

Blah

This may seem somewhat off topic, but it plagues my every thought and action...

I'll keep it succinct, I don't much like reading unnecessarily wordy pieces. I read someone elses AWOL blog and the brilliant simplicity of it impressed me. 

I am writing a paper on absurdism and the philosophies of Albert Camus. My writing of this essay has been a love hate experience; I have reasoned my way into an absurd hole. Despite Camus' optimistic spin on the absolute meaninglessness and indifference of the universe, I find being lucidly indifferent to it rather difficult. I find myself siding with the cynical Samuel Beckett. One can either live blissfully ignorant to our absurd universe, accept it and live life, finding a metaphysical honor in doing so, or become overwhelmingly depressed at the futility of ones actions. 

While watching a TV special on the Prophecies of Nostradamus our imminent demise seemed even closer to home. I am an Athiest, there are no pearly gates or eternal flames for me. My body, my mind, my soul, all that I value in life will die in an absolute sense. 

My point being that if being a materialistic, gluttonous, universally shallow human being makes one happy why not live that way. Being aware of all of the contradictions, superficialities, and ignorance in our society amounts to nothing.  

I hope that this does not depress anyone, but just think about it. I'll post my essay as soon as it is finished.

Flogger

I posted this for a few friends earlier this week. If it resonates with you, do something about it!
There is a point to this so bear with me...

I was reading the newspaper this morning and I saw something truly horrific. 250 killed in Palestine, children starving and dying of aids in Africa, people torn from their homes, mother brutally kills her adorable daughter...disgusting. All over the world truly horrific things are happening; people killing others in religious/political wars, parents snuffing out their own children, a depressed teen killed innocent people in a mall shooting. With all of the death and horror in this world how can we be so removed? We as a people (all people, not just Americans) have grown so desensitized to violence that we peer right past the 250 killed recently in Palestine and go on living. Seeing as I only can only speak from an American perspective, I can only say that here we live lavishly, like filthy spoiled kings who prefer convenience above all else. I find it difficult to live this way, so non-chalantly, when there is so much death and destruction present.
I am supposed to be writing an analysis on christmas (I like to call it Gift-mas or Eul) Even facebook is infringing upon my right to be an athiest, the spell check on face book is forcing me to capitalize "christmas," making it more monumental than it is, by putting an obnoxious little red line beneath it. Ha. Anyway, I actually found it difficult to enjoy christmas this year, my mother gave me gifts despite me telling her to give it to starving children in Africa. Thankfully we are sending $300 to an organization that can help educate them about sex and feed them (Sex-Fed). Here is my analysis of Gift-mas: The materialism permeates even the best of us, my mother, an un-materialistic person felt the need to get me gifts. This recently initiated tradition of giving gifts has become an obligation in our culture, hell, even non-christians get people gifts. Everyone here is fully aware of all of the atrocities that go on around the world and yet people are still seduced into spoiling each other with superficial items that somehow validate their appreciation for one another.
Now I won't continue ranting and raving about how shitty America is and how callous we have become so I'll just cut to the chase. Fuck New Years resolutions, as a life resolution I feel responsible to try and promote positive change in any way I can, so I have something to ask all of you. Please, help me, this world needs caring conscious people to get past all of the superficialities that plague it. Just do what you can, I don't expect people to change the world, just do what you can to make the world a more beautiful place. Be better than your average oblivious consumer whore of an American. Change should be more than just a bullshit campaign slogan, make it happen.

Christmas Analysis

On December 25th of every year, people around the world celebrate the birth of the lord Jesus Christ with decorated evergreen trees, candy filled over
-sized stockings, and of course, gifts. It is a time of giving, a time of love and goodwill towards fellow man, and don’t forget jolly old Santa Clause with his big white beard, red fluffy suit, dangerously large paunch, and enormous sack of gifts. To emulate this pudgy, jovial man people stuff their faces with calorie-dense foods and fritter away their yearly salaries on plastic shit mostly made in China. Yes, I’m talking about Christmas, the one time of the year where it’s considered ok to buy, eat, and drink (ironically) to excess.
Ideally, Christmas is a winter wonderland filled with joy and happiness and morbidly obese men squeezing their way down chimneys with bags filled with colorfully wrapped gifts for Jack and Sally. But, as one could expect, this is hardly the reality most face come December 25th. For me, the Christmas season brought nothing of the sort. Several days before Christmas I accompanied my father on a trip to Macy’s in hopes of finding evidence to use in this analysis. It was a very white Christmas at Macy’s. I got what I expected, people crowded together cursing under their breath at how crowded it was, lines of exhausted white people stretched throughout the store, each one tapping their feet, waiting to purchase Christmas gifts. Workers uselessly stationed at random places throughout the building giving samples of cologne and only increasing the general intensity of the store. When the people on line finally reached their destination, the look on their faces was priceless, or worth as much as they were spending. In short, the place was an absolute mob-scene, Macy’s as the scene and the consumers as the mob.
Macy’s is overwhelming if you don’t know what to look for or where to go, thankfully there were large red signs advertising the great sales in honor of the Christmas season. A pair of Levis that initially cost $200.00 were marked down to $150.00, $1000.00 dollar fur coats were half off… Kindness and generosity were in the air and they reeked of the sweat, perfume, and flatulence of the customers.
When we escaped from Macy’s we emerged into not a winter wonderland, but a freezing wasteland. Garbage lay in the black snow and people stumbled through it, nuzzling their despondent faces into their chests for warmth. The damn carolers didn’t help when they mockingly sang “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” and “Jingle Bells.”
On Christmas day my family relaxed at home, breaking our past tradition of visiting my dad’s family in New Hampshire. There we typically wake up early, look through our stockings, assist my grandma to church, then stampede back home to open our gifts. This year we relaxed, we didn’t really worry about gifts, but since my parents are still Christian my mom bought me three shirts, a pair of pants, and a few books. As a gift to me my parents donated $300.00 to an organization helping to feed starving children in Africa. Then we went to Bryant Park and enjoyed the remainder of the day just walking around and talking, a pretty humble Christmas in comparison to the hyped up shopping sprees and binge eating frenzies.
But Christmas is more than just a consumer holiday… right? Christmas supposedly celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, after all, the root of the word “Christmas” is Christ. The actual origins of Christmas are not as glorious and true to the story as one would hope. Before Christianity became popular, many people would celebrate the pagan holiday of Yule on the 25th of December. However, Christians, hoping to snuff out holiday competition, planted Christmas on the same day as Yule and made everyone become Christian. It’s funny that people would celebrate the birth of their lord and savior on a day that he wasn’t even born, no less the same day as a pagan holiday. Christians also managed to steal the tradition of the evergreen tree as a symbol of life and birth, from the pagans. For a group of people that criticized the pagans as much as they did, the Christians had no problem stealing their traditions and symbols.
In our culture, the Christmas evergreen tree is supposed to symbolize fertility of land in the midst of winter; I don’t know where the snow came from seeing as Jesus was born in the middle east. This stolen symbol of life has been butchered like so many other meaningful symbols by American society. Ironically, to celebrate life and birth we kill a tree and watch it die, it’s once lush pine needles lying shriveled and dessicated on the living room floor.
Even the act of giving has lost all meaning. Back when China didn’t mass produce everything Americans bought, people actually made their own gifts. A father may have spent all year carving his son a toy boat or building him a sled that they would then play together on. Now parents buy their kids stuff from Toys R’ Us or GameStop and leave them to do whatever they will with it. “A cellphone, DESIGNED BY TEAM MOBILE, built by child labor in China, with help from the diamond war in Africa…Love, Mom.” What kind of culture have we become that we buy useless, superficial shit, fully aware that child labor is used by the big corporations to reap big profit, to get there? As an alternative, some people cut out the middle-man entirely and just give their kids money, if that counts for anything.
If parents are nice enough they lie to their kids about a morbidly obese white man in a velvety red suit who sneaks down the chimney…wait, that sounds horrifying! We all know and love him as Santa Claus. In Germany, people used to praise a real man named Saint Nicholas or, as they called him, Saint Nicklaus, a benefactor of children. Saint Nick differed from Santa in that he was not fat, he did not wear that silly suit, he was German, and he did not exactly give gifts to children. He was a benefactor of children and a religious symbol to children and adults alike. But once again Americans had to steal and destroy a beautiful and meaningful old tradition. Santa Clause was used as an advertising ploy for Coca Cola; they technically built Santa Claus. But no longer is Santa a symbol of generosity and good will, Coke turned him into a fat American man who teaches the glory of consumerism and helps them to sell their calorie-dense cocain-enriched beverage to children. They also robbed him of any clear religious association; they took away the “Saint” and put “Santa,” which is Spanish for saint, and also a clever trick because around the time Santa was created there were very few Spanish speaking people in the US. Coke turned him into a commercial icon, and a perfect excuse for kids to beg for gifts.
So what is the Christmas that we now know? Is it a consumerist holiday fueled by corporate-instilled greed, or is it a religious holiday, or is it both, or is it simply a day off where all of America can kick back and walk to the park with their families? I am not one to tell people how to live their lives, but with all the convoluted and immoral things that make Christmas what it is in America, I don’t see how people can bring themselves to perpetuate the bullshit and all of the fallacies that form it’s foundation. People need to revive the tradition of Saint Nicklaus before we are crushed beneath the weight of Santa Claus.