Call
Me Ebenezer, But Christmas
As We Know It Needs To Go.....
By Jason Miller
19 December, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Bursting forth
with renewed intensity, the “War on Christmas” is back in
2006.
So just what does this alleged
war against an impalpable enemy entail?
Have “Islamofascists”
captured and decapitated Santa Claus?
Did a US-made IDF “smart
bomb” strike Bethlehem and obliterate baby Jesus as he lay in
the manger?
Did the Grinch go global
with his nefarious thievery?
Actually, the answer can
be found amongst the corporate media’s nearly countless obfuscations
and deceits.
Divisive, sophistic arguments
crafted by “sage” pundits and readily accepted by genuflecting
readers admonish that secular forces are determined to eradicate Christmas
and its celebrants’ joy with the zeal of a restaurateur exterminating
cockroaches. What an ingenious way to divert attention from the ongoing
genocide in Iraq and the gutting of our Constitution!
Christmas may not truly be
under siege, but our corporate overlords have certainly discovered myriad
ways to wield it as a psychological weapon and to administer it as an
“opiate of the masses”.
While Christmas may only
come once a year, the pernicious effects of the Consumerism it manifests
to such a high degree are virtually omnipresent in a society premised
on acquisitiveness. Consumerism is the tap root of the sprawling and
gnarled tree of predatory Capitalism. Like an aberrant black walnut
tree of gargantuan proportion, American Capitalism(1) exudes toxins
that stunt or eradicate nearly every living thing attempting to grow
within the circumference of its expansive root system.
As recently as 2004, major
US retailers raked in a staggering $216.3 billion in November and December
as each US consumer spent an average of $835.00 on holiday gifts(2).
Making the minimum monthly
payment on just $1200.00 worth of credit card debt at an interest rate
of 18% would take a mere 22 years to repay(3). Welcome to debt slavery!
What of Santa Claus and Rudolph?
Despite Global Climate Change decimating their home at the North Pole,
they are merrily leading Consumerism’s charge toward humanitarian
and ecological disaster. If Santa’s scheme is to retire to a palatial
estate in Miami, he can forget that. As the polar ice cap melts, most
of Florida will be inundated.
While visions of sugar plums
are dancing through the heads of many US Americans, Santa’s real
elves wallow in abject misery. 57% of the toys sold in the United States
are imported from China, with Wal-Mart leading the way. In December
of 2001 the National Labor Committee issued a report entitled Toys of
Misery which profiled the working conditions in Chinese factories that
produced Harry Potter and Barbie toys. Working 16 hours a day and seven
days a week, young Chinese women received as little as 17 cents per
hour to perform repetitive operations over 3,000 times per day. They
languished in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees while breathing noxious
fumes in improperly ventilated buildings(4).
Unfortunately for Chinese
laborers, more recent reports indicate little improvement in their situation(5,6,7).
Evidence compiled just last month demonstrates that suppliers for Wal-Mart,
Hasbro, and Disney are still egregiously exploiting employees in Chinese
toy factories. Even Dickens would have been shocked at the plight of
these wretched souls.
Meanwhile many US Americans
are adhering to their indoctrination by acquiring as many material possessions
they possibly can. Oblivious to the human or environmental cost, they
shop with the fervor of Christian zealots converting the “heathen
aboriginals” of Turtle Island.
Global Issues (www.globalissues.org)
has compiled some startling and appalling information concerning the
diseased phenomenon of Consumerism:
“Inequalities in consumption
are stark. Globally, the 20% of the world’s people in the highest-income
countries account for 86% of total private consumption expenditures
— the poorest 20% a minuscule 1.3%.
More specifically, the richest
fifth:
Consume 45% of all meat and
fish, the poorest fifth 5%
Consume 58% of total energy, the poorest fifth less than 4%
Have 74% of all telephone lines, the poorest fifth 1.5%
Consume 84% of all paper, the poorest fifth 1.1%
Own 87% of the world’s vehicle fleet, the poorest fifth less than
1%” Global Issues also highlighted some of our grossly misplaced
priorities. While in just one year the United States spent $8 billion
on cosmetics and the world devoted $780 billion to wars and the military.
Global expenditures on basic education totaled a scant $6 billion. That
same year the world appropriated a miserly $9 billion to provide people
with clean drinking water.
Bear in mind that Global
Issues derived these numbers from a United Nations report issued in
1998. However, World Bank data from 2003 reflected little improvement
in the glaring disparities of consumption or in our shamefully misplaced
priorities.
Anchoring Consumerism as
it does, it is patently absurd to believe for a moment that Christmas
is the least bit threatened. Consumerism is essential to those stalking
the corridors of power in the United States. They need the “Season
to be Jolly” to obscure the crimes they have committed (including
offenses for which men were sentenced to hang at Nuremberg) and to ensure
that the hoi polloi remains obedient.
No, Consumerism, and hence Christmas, are quite safe. They are essential
components of the power structure spawning and protecting beasts like
Bush and Cheney.
In his 1999 book, Global
Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, Richard Robbins observed:
[T]he consumer revolution
of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was caused in large
part by a crisis in production; new technologies had resulted in production
of more goods, but there were not enough people to buy them. Since production
is such an essential part of the culture of capitalism, society quickly
adapted to the crisis by convincing people to buy things, by altering
basic institutions and even generating a new ideology of pleasure. The
economic crisis of the late nineteenth century was solved, but at considerable
expense to the environment in the additional waste that was created
and resources that were consumed.
With respect to advertising,
the deeply compelling psychological mechanism through which American
Capitalists entice the masses to buy more and more of what they don’t
need, Robbins explained:
The goal of the advertisers
was to aggressively shape consumer desires and create value in commodities
by imbuing them with the power to transform the consumer into a more
desirable person. ... In 1880, only $30 million was invested in advertising
in the United States; by 1910, new businesses, such as oil, food, electricity
and rubber, were spending $600 million, or 4 percent of the national
income, on advertising. Today that figure has climbed to well over $120
billion in the United States and to over $250 billion worldwide.
And the Corporatocracy has
received a tremendous bang for its advertising buck, as evidenced by
more statistics provided by Global Issues:
World consumption has expanded
at an unprecedented pace over the 20th century, with private and public
consumption expenditures reaching $24 trillion in 1998, twice the level
of 1975 and six times that of 1950. In 1900 real consumption expenditure
was barely $1.5 trillion.
Given the horrendous fallout
from America’s extraordinarily avaricious behavior, perhaps a
“War on Christmas”, and hence Consumerism, wouldn’t
be such a calamity after all. But rather than launching a belligerent
attack so typical of the United States, what we really need is a non-violent
spiritual struggle to establish a meaningful observance of the birth
of Christ.
Some view Jesus Christ as
a god, some a man, and others a myth. Yet regardless of which concept
one embraces, the moral teachings attributed to Christ rank at or near
the peak of humanity’s ethical evolution. Devoting a day to commemorate
him certainly makes sense when one considers some of the other historical
figures whom we celebrate.
While it is impossible to
be 100% certain, it is extremely unlikely that Christ would find much
virtue in the perversion that Christmas has become. I suspect he would
demand answers to at least four questions:
1. Why is so much emphasis
placed on materialism on a day honoring an individual who devoted himself
to the poor and down-trodden?
2. What are we teaching our
children by showering them with virtually everything they want (and
then some) while 10 million people starve to death each day?
3. Why do we further enslave
ourselves to amoral corporations by taking on mountains of debt to buy
more of their products for which we have no real need, thus contributing
to their ongoing rape of humanity and the Earth?
4. Why do we devote only
one of 365 days to “peace on Earth and good will toward men”?
How would one respond to
such challenges?
I have been addressing them
head on for the last several years and have no intention of ceasing
to toil. For me it has been a slow, steady, and humbling progression.
Little by little I have been divesting myself from complicity in the
multitude of crimes against humanity perpetrated by those atop the pyramid
of American Capitalism.
Striving each day to remain
free from the addictive, deleterious, and exploitative products of the
alcohol, tobacco, soft drink, and pornography industries, I practice
a number of the principles of the Twelve Step program along with an
eclectic set of moral values I have cobbled together over the course
of my spiritual journey, including many of those espoused and modeled
by Christ.
Of course I fall down at
times, but I am quick to get back up, take responsibility, and make
amends. It goes without saying that as a human being I can embody but
a percentage of my ideals. Yet I have found that the more vigorously
I apply myself, the greater that percentage becomes. Obviously there
is a point of diminishing returns in terms of exerting effort. Once
I reach that leveling point, I lower my intensity.
Over the last few months,
I have stepped up my recycling efforts significantly.
Embracing a somewhat ascetic
lifestyle, it is a rare occasion when I buy something simply because
I want it.
I have boycotted Wal-Mart
for over two years now, paying substantially more for groceries and
other necessities than when I shopped there regularly.
I generally shun corporate
chains and frequent stores owned by small entrepreneurs or local companies
as often as possible.
Rather than taking a second
job that would help fuel the engine of rapacious Capitalism, I do volunteer
work with homeless shelters. Besides giving my spare time and energy
to help the domestic victims of America’s ruthless socioeconomic
system, I also donate what little money I can afford and buy my clothes
from a thrift store that subsidizes the City Union Mission, Kansas City’s
largest organization servicing homeless human beings.
This Christmas, I have asked
friends and family members who typically give me gifts to do so in the
form of money so that I can give even more to the deeply impoverished.
I have also chosen to incur no debt in purchasing gifts.
During the 2006 holiday season,
I am purging yet another ugly aspect of Consumerism from my being. My
effort will involve defying years of inculcation by a society that puts
a substantial premium on money, violence and crushing the competition.
For as long as I can remember,
I have been an avid supporter of the Kansas City Chiefs, an NFL football
team. Yet as a strident domestic critic of American Capitalism and as
a person dedicated to a path of spiritual development, I have determined
that my time, emotional energy, and intellectual efforts are wasted
when I devote them to supporting corporate entities which generate billions
of dollars for a handful of wealthy elites or their pampered employees
who receive millions of dollars to play a game.
Reflecting on the extent
of domestic and world poverty, I have come to view my relatively modest
collection of Chiefs apparel and memorabilia as sinfully large. Besides
selling these items and contributing the proceeds to worthy causes,
I will make a conscious transition from rabid NFL fan to casual observer.
Like the gradual yet steady
forces of erosion, appreciable numbers of individuals pursuing moral
paths can significantly mitigate the damage rendered by Consumerism.
And it is possible for one to pursue such a course without dropping
off the grid, self-destructing, or going to the extreme of someone like
Diogenes.
So in the spirit of my proposed
alternative to “Christmas as we know it”, here’s hoping
that Santa and Rudolph do retire to Florida.
Before it’s too late….
Bah, Humbug!
Jason Miller
is a wage slave of the American Empire who has freed himself intellectually
and spiritually. He writes prolifically, his essays have appeared widely
on the Internet, and he volunteers at homeless shelters. He welcomes
constructive correspondence at [email protected]
or via his blog, Thomas Paine's Corner, at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/
End Notes and Suggested Reading:
(1) American Capitalism is
a malignancy that permeates our economic, social, and political systems
and institutions. This untreated cancer ravaging the body of civilization
is spreading like an unchecked conflagration in a munitions factory.
Feudalism didn’t die; it simply evolved. Corporatism, Consumerism,
wage slavery, debt slavery, free trade agreements, deregulation, and
privatization condemn most of the global population to varying degrees
of slavery, serfdom or indentured servitude.
(2) http://ask.yahoo.com/20051214.html
(3) http://myvesta.org/pubs/html/post_holiday_headaches.htm
(4) http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/
magazine/buyers/79/toysreport.pdf
(5) http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/rs/profile.cfm?id=263
(6) http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/rs/profile.cfm?id=263
(7) http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/toys-m25.shtml
(8) http://www.verdant.net/society.htm
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