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%.
Jason Miller is a recovering US American middle class suburbanite who strives to remain intellectually free. He is Cyrano's Journal Online's associate editor (http://www.bestcyrano.org/) and publishes Thomas Paine's Corner within Cyrano's at http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/.
