CHRISTMAS ON THE ROAD

Becky and I are headed back to Houston tomorrow to spend Christmas with our families, so the Yule comes a few days early at Real Art this year, given that I'm not going to be blogging while I'm gone. I've put together something of a grab bag of links dealing more or less with what Christmas might mean to a progressive like me. But before getting to that, go have a chat with the ghost of Real Art Christmas past, here and here; it'll be just like flipping through the family photo album! Also, if you haven't already, go check out my post on the Real Jesus, which explains why I like him so much even though I'm no longer a Christian.

Now, on to the Christmas links!

First, some excerpts on the recent corporate news media firestorm about the supposed left-wing movement to stamp out my favorite holiday. Washington Monthly blogger Kevin Drum wonders what the deal is, especially considering the fact that there is no movement to do away with Christmas at all. Courtesy of Eschaton:

SEASON'S MEMINGS

A few days ago Bill O'Reilly was yammering on about how he was sticking up for Christmas but nobody else was. Why doesn't Peter Jennings stick for Christmas, he asked, why doesn't Dan Rather stick up for Christmas....and....and....well, that's about it. I didn't have any idea what he was talking about, so I shrugged my shoulders and went about my business.

But now a week has passed, and I think I get it. It's all about "Merry Christmas," isn't it? I've now read at least a dozen assorted articles and op-eds about the horror — the horror! — of "Happy Holidays" being used as a seasonal greeting instead of "Merry Christmas."

And

I guess I'm used to the bizarre persecution complex of the American Christian right. No, what I want to know is this: how do they spread these memes so damn fast? I mean, liberals are just barely starting to get a smidgen of attention for the proposition that Social Security isn't really in serious trouble — a meme that has the advantage of actually being true — while the "Happy Holidays" vs. "Merry Christmas" meme has exploded onto front pages around the country (and the world!) in a matter of days.

Click here for the rest.

I should have known that stinky butthole O'Reilly was behind this. Amazing isn't it? The conservatives are in control of everything now but they still feel the need to manufacture crises in order to perpetuate their politically advantagous "victim" identity-narrative. What's more amazing is that this entire fiction is based on the fact that a few Americans are now saying "happy holidays" instead of "merry Christmas." Hell, I'm not even a Christian, and I love saying "merry Christmas." This is really an annoying bunch of crap, as this next article from Salon, again courtesy of Eschaton, illustrates:

The Grinch who saved Christmas

For most people, Christmas may be a time of peace and joy, but for Bill O'Reilly it's another chance to wage an us-vs.-them cultural war. O'Reilly and Fox News, along with a cadre of hard-charging right-wing talkers, have declared war on the anti-Christmas crowd, that dangerous mix of radical secularists and school board do-gooders determined to "bring about their own Godless version of this nation," as Rev. Jerry Falwell wrote in a column published Monday on the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com.

The thorny issue of striking the proper balance between America's predominant Christian population and the country's historic separation of church and state returns every holiday season like unwanted fruitcake. But as ABC News recently noted, "This year, people in red, or Republican America -- particularly Christian conservatives -- are in an unprecedented uproar."

Fresh off Republican wins in November, O'Reilly and company have ratcheted up the rhetoric. Mixing a kernel of truth with a grab bag of unconfirmed anecdotes, as well as some outright falsehoods, and then repeating the dire warnings, they've helped manufacture the impression that a tidal wave of anti-Christian activity, fueled by Democrats, is threatening to drive Christmas underground in America.

"All over the country, Christmas is taking flak," O'Reilly recently announced, as he complained about "the anti-Christmas jihad" that's gripping the nation. "If they could, secularists would cancel Christmas as a holiday. That's how much they fear the exposition of the philosophy of Jesus." During his syndicated radio show O'Reilly intoned darkly, "The small minority that is trying to impose its will on the majority is so vicious, so dishonest -- and has to be dealt with."

Click here for the rest (and be ready to sit through a brief ad--Salon's just trying to pay the bills I guess).

Both creepy and loony at the same time, that's what I love about Bill O'Reilly's weird world. Of course, if O'Reilly was a real Christian American, he wouldn't be celebrating Christmas at all, as this brief essay from the History Channel (again thanks to Eschaton) shows:


An Outlaw Christmas

The pilgrims, English separatists that came to America in 1620, were even more orthodox in their Puritan beliefs than Cromwell. As a result, Christmas was not a holiday in early America. From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in Boston. Anyone exhibiting the Christmas spirit was fined five shillings. By contrast, in the Jamestown settlement, Captain John Smith reported that Christmas was enjoyed by all and passed without incident.

After the American Revolution, English customs fell out of favor, including Christmas.

Click here for the rest.

Needless to say, I'm kidding about how real Christians shouldn't celebrate Christmas: that's about as silly as suggesting that Christmas is under attack because a few people are saying "happy holidays." The great irony about all this is that Christmas, or rather what it represents, is indeed under attack, but you won't hear guys like O'Reilly or Falwell talking about it. Why? Christmas is under attack by something those guys love, consumerism and free market fundamentalism. From ZNet:

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

Even to this day, most people find it difficult or impossible to reconcile these beliefs. I don’t know of any parent who would deliberately teach their children that sharing and being kind to others was bad, and that being greedy and selfish was good. Despite over one hundred years of indoctrination, most of us still believe the self-centered, the greedy and the proud can never be trusted and should be avoided. It is inconceivable that these characteristics can form the basis of true friendship, let alone love.

Yet, despite our continued misgivings, we continue to hold the market as our central institution because the idea of self-sacrifice—the gift of Christmas—has been stolen. As a result, we are now tied to the market for our material needs, even our very existence, forcing many of us to live a double life. In private and family life, we try to live by the ideals of love and altruism, but in our external dealings, we are forced to live by the law of the market which is self-interest.

Living a double life makes it hard to bring up children in any consistent way. The children hear their parents teach one set of rules, but see them and the heroes of society behaving in exactly the opposite way. And when the heroes of society are the greedy, the vain and the proud; the job of the parents becomes almost impossible.

Living a double life is hard, if not impossible, because as humans we need to live by a consistent set of beliefs. Eventually we gravitate to one set of beliefs, and because our most basic need for survival is linked to the market, we start to adopt the rules of the market as our own, sometimes imperceptibly. This is why selfishness is now the distinguishing characteristic of Western society. This is the reason our society is becoming a society of the lonely, the divorced and the depressed.

Click here for the rest.

In other words, capitalism makes the baby Jesus cry. This is a contradiction running smack dab down the middle of conservative Christianity, which explains why people like O'Reilly seem to be going a bit crazy at the moment: Christmas means peace and goodwill, but capitalism means war and ripping people off. You can't have it both ways, and in trying to do so, conservative Christians are forced into increasingly bizarre positions, for instance, fabricating this whole Christmas-under-attack by "happy holidays" story.

And that's right, capitalism means war. Without getting into a major treatise, suffice it to say that virtually every military action in the history of the US, including the Revolution, was about economic interest. Today, by and large, most American military interventions are very much about keeping the world safe for business. Iraq, with its massive oil deposits, is an obvious example. Others, such as Afghanistan, are not so obvious: nonetheless, even when the business angle is not so clear, there is always a major economic factor overshadowing all American wars--smiting the Afghans was very much about illustrating to the world that people better do what we say, and generally this is understood to be in terms of business and trade; the whole natural gas pipeline deal that the US was unable to negotiate with the Taliban is now a moot point because we own Afghanistan. And let's not forget the entire Cold War, which was very much about capitalism and business.

As a society that embraces capitalism, we are a society that embraces war. So I think I'll finish up this Christmas edition of Real Art by posting the lyrics to one of my favorite Christmas songs:

Happy Christmas (War Is Over)
by John Lennon and Yoko Ono

(Happy christmas, kyoko.
Happy christmas, julian.)

So this is christmas and what have you done?
Another year over, a new one just begun.

And so this is christmas, i hope you have fun,
The near and the dear one, the old and the young.

A very merry christmas and a happy new year,
Let's hope it's a good one without any fear.

And so this is christmas for weak and for strong,
(war is over if you want it,)
For the rich and the poor ones, the road is so long.
(war is over now.)

And so happy christmas for black and for whites,
(war is over if you want it,)
For the yellow and red ones, let's stop all the fight.
(war is over now.)

A very merry christmas and a happy new year,
Let's hope it's a good one without any fear.

And so this is christmas and what have we done?
(war is over if you want it,)
Another year over, a new one just begun.
(war is over now.)

And so this is christmas, we hope you have fun,
(war is over if you want it,)
The near and the dear one, the old and the young.
(war is over now.)

A very merry christmas and a happy new year,
Let's hope it's a good one without any fear.

War is over
If you want it,
War is over now.

Happy christmas!

Here's a link to an mp3 download of a cool cover of the song by a band called the Cranes.

And that just about does it. Merry Christmas from Real Art!


Santa sits on the toilet as joyous elves look on

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