Christmas, that heathen festivity so dear to the heart of true believers

You don’t have to do much investigation to realize that Christmas and Santa Claus and all of the rest have their roots in heathen northern Europe, at least the part about that jolly white beared fellow with a bag of presents on his back.  The photograph shows the 1881 Thomas Nast version of that robust legendary fellow who is supposed to climb down chimneys, spread good cheer and leave lot's of colorful packages in his wake. Later on with the help of Clarke Moore the image was modernized. But the essence, based on pagan rites, has come to have little indeed to do with Christian belief. In fact it is rather linked to capitalistic economics and the consumer society.

Aren’t we told time and again that in order to guarantee progress we have to buy and buy? Who cares whether those things we buy are of any particular value. If you don’t buy the economy will collapse, we are told. If the giant corporations and financial tycoons can’t get things going--after monumental acts of financial monkey business--the government should bail them out...and you and I will have to pay the bill. Besides, Christmas is a fine time to get rid of that excess supply that makes the economy run like an old mule at the end of the year, isn’t it?

Trouble is that at times like these, when money is short and jobs are dwindling, you’ve got to think twice before buying like you used to at year end...and maybe you might also think a lot of other things about today’s world.