Sans Fig Leaf
"A big eastern syndicate"
16 November, 2001
I do agree that there is an over-emphasis in most families on giving not just gifts, but vast quantities of large or expensive gifts. But I think that people who reduce their negative feelings about the holiday to derisive comments about commercialization are simply buying into a particular form politically correctness. I am using the PC label here in it's original meaning, that of a policy adopted because it supports a particular ideology, rather than on it's own merits.
One of the forms the commercialization charge takes is the old, "You should give more hand made gifts. That is a return to old traditions and shows that you really cared." Now, let's analyse this statement for just a moment.
Most of what we think of as Christmas traditions originate in the mid-19th Century, and even those were based on a false belief that they were a return to older (and therefore less corrupted by industrialization and capitolism) traditions. Most stories about anciet tree decorating and so forth were made up at this time. Occasionally built around a tiny nugget of out-of-context custom, but often with no basis in historical fact at all.
Very intelligent people wrote essays and editorials in the 1860s about how perpetuating the Christmas tree traditions, including the giving of gifts, was an anti-commercial act. They weren't smoking opium. Their arguments made just as much sense as the modern anti-commercial arguments.
But I digress from the next point, that handmade gifts mean that you care. Well, not really. People gave handmade gifts because that's what most people's work was back then: making stuff by hand. Even those who worked in factories were doing many crucial parts of the job with their own hands. Compare that to modern livlihoods. I produce technical documentation. Very few of my loved ones what or need a well-written procedure on how to install a voice server. It simply isn't a valid comparision.
The related point, that the time spent making the present somehow increases its value is equally specious. How do we earn money? By working. When I buy an item (manufactured far more nicely than I could ever make by hand), I'm paying for it with my own sweat. I do think that it's a valuable exercise to figure out how many hours of work it takes to pay for all those presents you feel compelled to buy at the holidays. If you aren't paid hourly, take your salary and divide it by the hours you work. The next time you feel bad because you didn't knit that sweater for Uncle Max yourself, just do the calculation, and remind yourself how much effort you did put into it.
Another accusation about the commercialization of Christmas is that all the advertising forces us to over-spend and to focus all our attention on buying gifts. That is such a lame dodge. Be honest. Is there any television commercial or newspaper advertisement out there that has forced you to buy a present for the brother-in-law you don't like? No, of course not.
Why do you buy presents for the brother-in-law you can't stand? Because your family tries to make you feel guilty if you don't. So whose fault is it? You could blame your family, but if you are a self-supporting adult I don't buy the argument. The blame (if there is any) lies with ourselves. Maybe we make the decision that keeping peace in the family is worth giving gifts to relatives we'd rather not, but that certainly isn't the fault of any advertising executive.
We put the expectation on ourselves that we have to give as much or more than we receive. We should take responsibility for it and deal with it. Affixing the blame on some vague group that has commercialized the holiday is simply avoidance.
Now, I'm not above using the buzzwords of commercialization to deal with that family peace thing. I long ago told my relatives that I have a limited budget for Christmas shopping, and that I stick to it. I have told them I don't expect presents from anyone, that I won't hold it against anyone who doesn't send me anything, and I hope they will do the same. It has gone over with varying degrees of success, but I've been up front and honest with them, so I feel no guilt for any bad feelings that they choose to have.
It isn't an eastern syndicate. It isn't the forces of advertising or commercialization. We do it to ourselves. And we can stop.
As the great cartoonist Walt Kelly once said through his character, Pogo, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
Well, art is art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water!
And east is east
and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce
they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now, uh... Now you tell
me
what you know.
--Groucho Marx