SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE YOUR XMAS SHOPPING SPREE:

[zarathustra]

According to the IMF in 2007 83% on all manufactured goods were consumed by the richest 20% of the world's population - that's us. A large percentage of this consumption is in the form of Christmas gifts. We export the ecological and social justice costs of those goods to the developing world, mostly China, and then tell them they must reduce their emissions, clean up their environment and treat their citizens with respect and dignity.

Another example of this is the current conflict and genocide in the Congo. You won't read about it in the popular press but this war is about access to scarce minerals like cobalt, germanium and gold that are exported to China and used in the manufacture of mobile phones, game consoles and other electronic goods primarily for rich westerners.

When we recognize that buying today's fashionable toy, accessory or home ware item will not only create harm to others at a distance but may give us only temporary happiness, the decision becomes clear to us.

To give a gift of compassion, something home made or a locally produced food item or conserve is to meet a human need for nourishment of body and soul. Maybe this is the source of real lasting joy and fulfilment - for the giver and receiver.

This seems like an ethic we should strive to live by, but it's not easy. Children quickly become conditioned by society and the media to expect novelty things for Christmas and we are conditioned to believe we shouldn't disappoint them. It's a tough one. Maybe the best thing we can do is to examine what it is we want versus what we really need and to trust our hearts in the moment of conscious choice when we buy into - or out of unsustainable consumption. In this way, we can be the change we want to see in our children.

Could it be that the true gift of Christmas is not what comes from the department store but what comes from our hearts in the sharing of good food and good company?

z



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[Dan Rowden]

The true gift of Xmas is that it isn't compulsory.

[DivineIntercourse]

lol

[brokenhead]

The true gift of Xmas is that it isn't compulsory.

You got that right.

During the year, one barely has the time and money to get what one needs; at Christmas time, one must somehow find the time and money to buy other people things that they don't need.

Christmas is for children.

[Dan Rowden]

Yes, it is for children, of all ages. Finding the money to buy people what they don't need is known as: debt.

[Animus]

Christmas is hell.

Every year I have the opportunity of visiting my father and mother-in-law up north. I take the opportunity but I don't invest anything in Christmas. I don't buy anyone anything and I don't care for any of the other rituals. I tend to take the opportunity to bring up the history of Christmas and the suffering Christmas giving ultimately brings.

However, people still feel the need to buy me gifts and quite often I accept them though I don't see it the same way. Part of the problem is that if I don't accept them the person who bought the gifts for me feels cheated in some way. If I do accept them they think they are helping me in some way. That I don't buy them anything implies to them I can't afford it and need all I can get. This is the apparent dynamic that goes on around Christmas time, when in reality I just think its stupid.

Case in point, my mother told me she sent me a FutureShop gift card for Christmas. I told her that there are no FutureShops in my general area, they are on the other side of the city. Telling her this resulted in her stating "Oh, so its completely useless to you?" "Why don't you get on a bus and go across the city?". Yea I can do that, but I didn't actually need to until I got this FutureShop card with sentiment attached to it. Fact is I still have a FutureShop gift card my Sister sent me a year ago. It is nearing its expiration date, if not expired already, so its just a big waste of time and money to send me these things. Screw it, just keep the money, don't give me anything or attempt to give me anything.

My father has said to me, in the event I don't give him anything, "well that's typical of you" "someday you will figure it out". Figure what out? That I'm supposed to spend money buying things people don't need for a few minutes of "warm fuzzies"? Sounds like a perfect marketting stratagy.

[Shahrazad]

brokenhead,

During the year, one barely has the time and money to get what one needs; at Christmas time, one must somehow find the time and money to buy other people things that they don't need.

Very well put. This is not the only reason why I hate Christmas, but it is one of the important ones. Another reason is that the extreme traffic makes it impossible for me to get anywhere, for a full month.

Amazing that in this thread, several people have the same I attitude I have towards Christmas, whereas in real life, I don't remember having found any.

[DHodges]

Amazing that in this thread, several people have the same I attitude I have towards Christmas, whereas in real life, I don't remember having found any.

I think a lot more people feel that way than would say so out loud.

Scrooge etc.

[Unidian]

The true gift of Xmas is that it isn't compulsory.

It isn't?

[Dan Rowden]

The true gift of Xmas is that it isn't compulsory.

It isn't?

It is?

[Unidian]

It's pretty much compulsory when you have family.

[Dan Rowden]

Only if you give a shit what they think. One can exploit the "holiday" social fact and catch up with family without getting involved in all the banality that is Xmas.

I mean, if there anything more wretched than a non-Xian with a xmas tree in their living room?

[Animus]

We should go back to the old Siberian tradition of sitting around on Christmas and getting high on mushrooms. I would still pass, but at least those partaking in Christmas tradition would be tolerable.

[Diebert van Rhijn]

I mean, if there anything more wretched than a non-Xian with a xmas tree in their living room?

A former Buddhist with a decorated Bodhi Tree?

An over-aged Tolkien fan hanging solar powered Silmarils in his World Tree?

[Unidian]

I'm going for uber-wretched this year.

Christmas is a sacrifice I make for others.

That said, I do refuse to participate in any of the commercialism.

[vicdan]

When we recognize that buying today's fashionable toy, accessory or home ware item will not only create harm to others at a distance but may give us only temporary happiness, the decision becomes clear to us.

To give a gift of compassion, something home made or a locally produced food item or conserve is to meet a human need for nourishment of body and soul. Maybe this is the source of real lasting joy and fulfilment - for the giver and receiver.

But not for the third-world worker.

Sure, let's not buy a game console. The Chinese factory worker is much better off going back to his destitute farm than working a much better paying factory job in one of the free-market zones. You, a wealthy (by world standards) westerner, know better than he does what is good for him. he thinks making game consoles for a moderately adequate is better than starving at a farm, but you know what his real needs are. Clean bracing farm air, and the character-building life of abject poverty, is what his life lacks.

Let them eat cake, eh? Idiot.

No, you don't have to buy crap to feed the third-world workers. You don't have to do much of anything, really. However, this moralistic, selfishly myopic BS -- oh, the poor pollution-plagued third-worlders, let's do them all a favor and deprive them of their polluting jobs! -- is the height of hypocrisy. Don't piss on my shoes and tell me it's raining, OK?

[mystex]

Could it be that the true gift of Christmas is not what comes from the department store but what comes from our hearts in the sharing of good food and good company?

Does that include the truth?

[Jason]

Could it be that the true gift of Christmas is not what comes from the department store but what comes from our hearts in the sharing of good food and good company?

Sounds fine in theory, but I don't find the company to be good. I mostly don't give a shit what your kid did at school or what happened to you at work etc. If I told you what I really wanted to say, what would actually be worth saying, you'd disown me and maybe even physically attack me. Charades bore me and kill my spirit, I'm sick of pretending to be normal and ok, and I'm sick of you pretending to be normal and ok. I'm too weak, or perhaps too clever, to put myself through either the lies or the truth, so instead I'm avoiding both and not going to the Christmas family gathering. That about sums up Christmas for me.

[Leyla Shen]

Ah, yes. It's THAT time of year again and, since it's the same every year, I have decided to give you your Aussie made present early. Merry Christmas!

[vicdan]

Sounds fine in theory, but I don't find the company to be good.

I suspect the problem lies with you, not with the company.

I mostly don't give a shit what your kid did at school or what happened to you at work etc.

The operative words being "don't give a shit".

I always find myself wishing for more intellectual discussions, but that is not opposed to finding people interesting, worth listening to and understanding. It's called "empathy", dude.

If I told you what I really wanted to say, what would actually be worth saying, you'd disown me and maybe even physically attack me. Charades bore me and kill my spirit, I'm sick of pretending to be normal and ok, and I'm sick of you pretending to be normal and ok.

Yeah, if it's a charade, that's a problem. Perhaps you, being as brilliantly blaze and as suffused with ennui as you are, could find your way to being 'normal and 'OK' instead of pretending it. Or maybe you could continue to hide your inadequacy behind the juvenile mask of alienation. I suspect you will choose the latter. I bet you were about to say how nobody understands you!

I'm too weak, or perhaps too clever, to put myself through either the lies or the truth, so instead I'm avoiding both and not going to the Christmas family gathering.

Try changing. Reality is a fascinating place, even if all your family cares about is kids and work. Instead of figuring out ways in which you are incompatible with the world, try to embrace reality. As it is, you are simply whining.

[brokenhead]

Could it be that the true gift of Christmas is not what comes from the department store but what comes from our hearts in the sharing of good food and good company?

Sounds fine in theory, but I don't find the company to be good. I mostly don't give a shit what your kid did at school or what happened to you at work etc. If I told you what I really wanted to say, what would actually be worth saying, you'd disown me and maybe even physically attack me. Charades bore me and kill my spirit, I'm sick of pretending to be normal and ok, and I'm sick of you pretending to be normal and ok. I'm too weak, or perhaps too clever, to put myself through either the lies or the truth, so instead I'm avoiding both and not going to the Christmas family gathering. That about sums up Christmas for me.

You OK there, Jason? Listen, just spike the eggnog and keep the glass full.

[Tomas]

.

It doesn't really matter to me, we're all (when I fade away) gotta go sometime. May as well go out in style - pine box for me, buried next to a badger pit near where I was raised from birth, in North Dakota. At least the badgers will have a sumptuous banquet. Gonna be like a 'grab bag' (pinata) for those darling little critters. Not gonna be embalmed, the girlfriend is suggesting I will not even get a pine box, she says it's a sheet of re-cycled cardboard, for me!

Oh well, who cares?

PS - Never cared for Santa Claus (satan's claws)
.

[Jason]

I mostly don't give a shit what your kid did at school or what happened to you at work etc.

The operative words being "don't give a shit".

I always find myself wishing for more intellectual discussions, but that is not opposed to finding people interesting, worth listening to and understanding.

I agree, in general, and up to a point. But I have seen and heard these same people many times before, the event lasts for hours, and leaving early or seeking relief in a quiet uninhabited area is difficult. I can only endure a cacophony of voices repeating variants of "How about this weather?" so many times and for so long. I'm exposed to this type of mentality almost every day, I already have plenty of experience and knowledge of it.

It's called "empathy", dude.

Lack of interest doesn't necessarily signal lack of empathy, but I do have some unfortunate anxieties which may make it hard for me to connect with these people in a satisfying way.

If I told you what I really wanted to say, what would actually be worth saying, you'd disown me and maybe even physically attack me. Charades bore me and kill my spirit, I'm sick of pretending to be normal and ok, and I'm sick of you pretending to be normal and ok.

Yeah, if it's a charade, that's a problem. Perhaps you, being as brilliantly blaze and as suffused with ennui as you are, could find your way to being 'normal and 'OK' instead of pretending it.

I don't consider being normal and ok, in this sense, to be something that should be aspired to. I have higher and healthier aspirations.

Or maybe you could continue to hide your inadequacy behind the juvenile mask of alienation. I suspect you will choose the latter.

I do have many inadequacies, I do routinely hide behind a mask, and much of it could be accurately described as juvenile, but I'm sincerely trying to move forward and develop and improve upon both myself and the human condition.

I'm too weak, or perhaps too clever, to put myself through either the lies or the truth, so instead I'm avoiding both and not going to the Christmas family gathering.

Try changing. Reality is a fascinating place, even if all your family cares about is kids and work. Instead of figuring out ways in which you are incompatible with the world, try to embrace reality.

I see sickness, lies and unconsciousness, and no genuine desire or attempt to do anything to address them but instead active ongoing attempts to add even more momentum to this status quo. Christmas has a tendency to epitomize all this and I'm not interested in embracing or tacitly supporting it.

As it is, you are simply whining.

I'm being honest and I'm attempting progress. From what I've seen you don't seem to possess the necessary tools to recognize or understand these types of issues. "The Human Evasion" and possibly "Civilization and Its Discontents" might provide you with some insight, although I suspect your psychological characteristics may render any real appreciation of the situation impossible.

[Jason]

You OK there, Jason?

In a lot of ways no.

Listen, just spike the eggnog and keep the glass full.

Humour isn't gonna fix things, but I appreciate the attempt. Don't worry, I haven't really been "OK" for years, it's nothing new, I'm not about to jump off a ledge if that's what you're thinking.

[vicdan]

I do have many inadequacies, I do routinely hide behind a mask, and much of it could be accurately described as juvenile, but I'm sincerely trying to move forward and develop and improve upon both myself and the human condition.

Well, good for you. I hope you succeed.

I see sickness, lies and unconsciousness

Then engage those people, draw them out. It's not hard.

I'm being honest and I'm attempting progress. From what I've seen you don't seem to possess the necessary tools to recognize or understand these types of issues.

You mean because I don't go around whining about how shallow and inadequate the world is?..

You just proved my point.

I suspect your psychological characteristics may render any real appreciation of the situation impossible.

Yeah, my lack of whining and of any sense of intellectual or spiritual aggrievement.

You remind me of some existentialists who spend an awful lot of time bemoaning the terrible absurdity of human condition, and complaining about how they are condemned to be free. Pathetic. Yes, Universe is meaningless, there is no purpose, and you are, indeed, free whether you want it or not. Embrace the existential void, refuse to hide behind the skirts of your cultural upbringing -- or keep wallowing in the decaying pit of your enculturation; it's your choice.

You are FREE, dude! You have the freedom to become what you will -- you just have to decide what, and strive for it, instead of whining.