Inspired by David’s comments on the increasing American waist line, I want to take this opportunity to go on a little rant of my own.
I justify this rant in part because of the cultural interest factor. When I was teaching English in China, the topic that most interested students who wanted to learn about America was our holidays. And not without reason, since a nation’s holidays do help you take the pulse of a people. For example, China’s recent decision to re-emphasize traditional festivals at the expense of the Marxist May Day holiday speaks volumes about its government’s priorities, in particular, the desire of the government to reassert traditional values into the national discourse.
The American holiday I want to talk about is one you won’t find on any calendar. But, I would argue, it will tell you at least as much as any holiday you will spot on the official list about our national character. That day is Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the official start of the Christmas shopping season. (It is called Black Friday because it is the day that many stores begin to turn a profit for the year i.e., go into the black).
For the next month, America will be awash in an orgy of consumerism. No one will be able to turn on a television set, radio, or computer without being assaulted by advertising urging them to get in the spirit of the holiday by spending, nor walk into the stores without having their senses overwhelmed by a combination of sales displays and bad versions of White Christmas, nor drive or walk down one block without being reminded of all of the above. There is no place to hide.
Actually, the onslaught has already begun. I noticed it a week ago when, during my morning shopping trip, I was hounded at every location for donations by the Salvation Army, a well-intentioned charitable organization whose volunteers stand in front of stores during the holiday season ringing a bell and asking you to throw money into a red kettle.
Indeed, the American folksinger Louden Wainwright III hit the nail on the head in his song “Suddenly It’s Christmas”:
“Suddenly it’s Christmas
Right after Halloween
Forget about Thanksgiving
It’s just a buffet in between.”
That sounds about right. Two months of hell that tells you all you need to know about America today.
To begin, it’s a great illustration of the hypocrisy of Christian America. Of course, one can’t turn around in America without bumping into religious hypocrisy, especially of the right wing variety. At a recent Republican debate, one of the candidates—a Texas governor—was cheered when he boasted how many men he had put to death by the same crowd that had earlier expressed their respect for the sacredness of life in opposing abortion. But to celebrate the birth of someone (Jesus) who urged his followers to give all they have to the poor with a two month spending spree could only make sense to a group for whom logic and consistency no longer have any meaning. I saw a clip from an old Woody Allen movie where one of the characters said that if Jesus came back and saw what people were doing in his name, he’d never stop throwing up. I would add that if he happened to arrive sometime after Black Friday he’d just go right ahead and kill himself.
Not only the spending but the length of the holiday represents another American characteristic: immoderation. This goes back to David’s point: Just like America eats too much, it spends too much, and for too long a time. My Chinese students seemed to understand this American trait when they joked to me that Americans only want one thing: More!
Alas, it seems China is not immune to the appeal of this American vice. It’s no coincidence that the celebration of Christmas in China is going hand in hand with an increase in consumerism and materialism there as well. Indeed, I was more than a little disappointed during my time in China to discover Christmas displays and celebrations in China. I mean, these were the folks who put the “godless” in “godless communism.” If China can’t beat off this beast, what hope is there for the rest of the world? Resistance, it seems, is futile.
Some try to defend the Christmas holiday in terms of its impact on the economy. Without the massive spending of the Christmas season, they claim, the American economy would collapse. Like it could get any worse! Besides, the Chinese economy is doing quite well with a citizenry that spends less and saves significantly more than Americans. In fact, the main beneficiaries of the Christmas season are the credit card companies. To use the current lingo, Christmas is a holiday that benefits the 1% at the expense of the 99%, who mostly go into massive debt as a result of their holiday spending spree
But the real genius of Christmas is that the holiday has made itself immune to criticism. Anyone who raises a finger in protest is immediately labeled a Scrooge (character from Charles Dickens’ The Christmas Carol who bad-mouthed Christmas until he had his own spiritual awakening) and dismissed.
As a result I keep these thoughts mostly to myself, or let them slip out late at night and after a few drinks, like now. Which, I guess, is one good thing about Christmas. As W.C. Fields said in one of his movies of his wife, “that woman drove me to drink and it’s the only thing I have to thank her for,” I guess I have some reason to appreciate the holiday.
Cheers!
I am no longer a practicing Christian so the Christmas cacophone only assaults my poor brain and not my spirit but there is the odd twinge of nostalgia for a simpler time.
I am in Beijing now but when I was in Shanghai I a few weeks ago I walked out of my apartment/hotel one morning to see the doors and windows everywhere plastered with 'Merry Christmas' and 'Happy New Year'. Yikes. Is there no escape?
I don't think that Christ would kill himself but rather he would do what he did in the Temples and begin to trash the place.
But I really think that the Chinese are way ahead of the curve in defining consumerism on a grand scale. So many things in China are on a grand scale and shopping malls and spending money and flashing your money are all grand here.
And of course most of the borrowed money that Americans use to buy stuff comes from China.
I am beginning to think that the USA will one day, in the not too distant future, become one of China's Special Administrative Regions like Hong Kong and Macau. hahahaha