Every year, I get more and more annoyed at the tendency for people at all points on the political spectrum to manufacture issues about which they can become angry (and about which they can rile their “base” into a frenzied pitch.) It must be part of the human condition (or at least the Western psyche, I’m not versed enough in the Eastern mind to know if it percolates there, also) to need to be outraged.
There is one manufactured issue that crops up every year, (and has, I find from my study, for over a century, with some variance in particulars) and that is the supposed “War on Christmas.” In the last several years, this banner has been hoisted mostly by a television commentator and pundit by the name of Bill O’Reilly, who is offended, OFFENDED, by the fact that some folks have decided to be more inclusive in their holiday greeting and say “Happy Holidays” instead of the more traditional “Merry Christmas.”
There is so much wrong with this stance that it’s difficult to know where to begin. At a store, the time of year is, by definition, a buying season, not a religious one. The more people you include in your greeting, ipso facto, the more people available who will shop. Also, most of the Christmas iconography (Crèches aside) are pagan, or at the very least secular, not Christian. It can be argued (and has, often, by many Christian scholars) that The Christ was actually born in the spring and that the day of Christmas was chosen to mollify locals in Northern Europe in the Great Conversion.
Okay. Enough logic and seriousness. Even I am susceptible to the need for outrage. (Damn it, why, Lord? Why?) In the spirit of anti-outrage, we have created something that, I think, finally brings the War on Christmas home.
Now. Let’s see if we can all become angry about something that really matters. Like wearing pants below your underwear to show off your boxers or combing your bangs straight up to show off your forehead.
Tags: Humor, Nonesense, Opinion, Outrage, Rant, Surreal Reality
My low-rider pants weren’t a fashion statement, I just forgot to wear a belt, that’s all. Sheesh!
Okay, so what’s the excuse with the hair???
As a very devout “born again atheist”, I have never partaken in what I kindly refer to as “the great christian orgasm”. I have never waged war on Christmans, I usually just ignore it. Sometimes I feel like an observer from another planet trying to figure out what is with this socialogical lunacy that entrances the human race at a certain time every year. As Spock would say: Fascinating, but irrelevant.
Another blog saying much the same thing without the humorous slant, written by an actual Christian type person:
http://blog.beliefnet.com/progressiverevival/2008/12/time-for-christians-to-wage-wa.html