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12-22-2003, 07:22 AM
| #1 (permalink) |
| Morty's Sac Adjuster Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 187
  | X-mas
Its official. Myself and a good number of people behind me declare that christmas really does suck, and should be cancelled with all the stress, hypocrisy, and gluttonous spending it represents. We are not scrooges, nor are we schmucks. In fact, we are people who are very kind, generous and giving throughout the year, and find the christmas idea of giving as contrived as the acting on a late night infomercial. The fact is, we are all tired of it: the crowds, the traffic, and the line-ups. We no longer choose to wonder aimlessly down the crowded isles of department stores, picking out gifts with as much thought as pocket calculators; devices that know only one thing: that they should by something for somebody, because that's what they are supposed to do at this time of year. Nero once said: as long as you keep the masses happy with bread and circuses, you can control them. Like $13 movies and $5 Pepsi's, Christmas is a circus in itself. Its a sham, a way of feeding the pockets of the wealthy by encouraging the desperate masses to be generous and open their wallets and spend more and more of the money they don't have. The sense of power and control that consumers feel when they use their bank or credit cards lasts about as long as it takes Visa to send them a bill when its all over. And any hopes of getting out of the financial shackles they've grown into dissipates into yet another year of interest payments, and any hopes of North America's average savings rate to rise above 0% vanishes into the next 12 good ol' days of christmas. Look at it this way: at Christmas, do the companies you work for, the same companies that invest millions of dollars every year into TV commercials that convince you to spend your savings on presents, do they show you any generosity by giving you a week off - not even a paid week off - to be with your families? What about their contribution to the Christmas spirit? Most of the people I know had to be back on the 26th. Every year, christmas becomes less and less an act of giving and more and more a payoff for not seeing your loved ones enough. The fact is, christmas has little to do with religion, and it has little to do with giving: A) It's neither mentioned in the Bible, nor is it for certain when the three wise guys made their way across the desert to find the baby Jesus. The christmas tree is just a mishmash of beliefs from China, Egypt, Germany, and the lights are representative of an ancient ritual where victims were burned alive as an offering to convince a sun god to warm things up a little. B) Santa Claus, the old Santa Claus, not the contemporary Santa Claus invented by Coca-Cola, but the original one known as Saint Nicholas, was a simple Bishop living in Turkey who once a year - NOT DECEMBER 25th - would stuff candies and trinkets into the little shoes of children. He did this because he, and the children were poor. Then, it was a humble act of giving. Now, in today's North America, it's not about giving, it's about spending. It was an idea bread from poverty, and was never meant to be a novelty of luxury. C) The original idea of Christmas has about as little to do with a developed country like ours, as Buddhism - another idea bread from poverty - has to do with BMW driving yuppies in Kitsilano, Vancouver. And so, it is for these reasons, that many others and myself believe that Christmas should be cancelled and replaced with daily acts of giving. Instead of one day of spending, people everywhere could enjoy showing their appreciation for one another in the some of the following ways: 1. Don't tailgate. Its annoying. 2. Start a conversation with a complete stranger, every day. 3. Never send group emails, like this one. 4. Volunteer once a week. 5. Look people in the eye and say "please" and "thank you." 6. Don't be a snobby, ignorant bigot. 7. When some one wants to change lanes in front of you, don't speed up and try to block them. 8. Don't complain or brag repeatedly about your problems, they are meant to be solved, not worn as a badge. 9. And when you complain about your problems, don't snub the advice you receive. When people give advice, they are giving a bit of themselves. 10. RAK: Random Acts of Kindness. Do one nice thing for someone, every day. 11. Don't swear. In conclusion, we believe that by following some of these examples everyday, instead sheepishly heeding the corporate call to the cleaners every Christmas, we could make life better for everyone ever day. |
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12-22-2003, 08:45 PM
| #6 (permalink) |
| Your Twisted Leader  Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 7,725
  | looks like
Looks like that yahoo image is protected by htaccess. Meaning, YOU (Will) probably can see the image since its in your PCs cache, but the rest of us can't. I've got the same protection on everything inside MTW. |
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