[3498] in Depressing_Thoughts
Re: It's started again...
bjaspan@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (bjaspan@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Fri Dec 11 16:02:24 1992
The difference, Richard, is that there are few revisionist Pagans,
hypersensitive Jews, or capitalistic pigs whose Holy Days absolutely
pervade every aspect of life for every person in this country for
months at a time (*) and are overgeneralized into "Holiday Sentiments"
that supposedly but not really describe the December viewpoints of all
those groups. (Well, maybe capitalistic pigs fit that description,
too.)
It is slightly annoying that MIT has a Christmas tree in front of the
student center; that comes under "absolutely pervading." It is *much*
more annoying that it is called a "Non-denomenational holiday shrub"
(or at least it used to be); that comes under "overgeneralization".
I do not blame devout Christians for what the market has done to their
holiday. In fact, it seems reasonable to state that the "Christmas"
that we are all complaining about is not a Holy Day at all, it is a
market entity, and there is another "Christmas" that is observed by
some religous people that just happens to fall on the same day. Seen
this way, perhaps it makes sense to declare Christmas a secular
Monday holiday (not that this will ever happen, of course); the real
Christians will ignore any such declaration and go right on observing
their own Christmas while the rest of the world leaves them alone.
(*) I first heard Christmas music and saw Christmas decorations this
year a few days *BEFORE HALLOWEEN*.
