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Happy Pretty Lightbulb Day

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By Myrhaf from Myrhaf,cross-posted by MetaBlog

Penelope Trunk, writing in the Huffington Post blog, argues that "Christmas Does Not Belong in the Workplace."

Christmas does not belong in the workplace because it
undermines diversity at work
. And businesses that promote diversity have
more profits in the long run
than companies that do not have a diverse workforce.

A big problem with Christmas is that those of us who have no reason to celebrate it have to spend a month between Thanksgiving and New Year's dealing with Christmas at work. Christmas is the only religious holiday that everyone has to stop working for. It's the only religious event that offices have parties to celebrate. These practices alienate non-Christians.

This is classic multiculturalist thinking. The holiday celebrated by the majority excludes the minority -- it's inegalitarian! It has to go! With this sententious, victim-centric nagging coming from the left, is it any wonder people are turning to religion to get away from it?

She refutes arguments she hears in favor of Christmas, the first one being:

"Christmas is not a religious holiday."

The only people who think Christmas is not religious are the Christians. Everyone else thinks, "This is not my holiday." In fact, only a Christian would feel enough authority over the holiday to declare that it is not Christian.

Objectivists would agree with those Christians who say Christmas is not a religious holiday. In essence, Christmas is antithetical to the religious spirit. Christmas is a celebration of values and joy on earth. People equate Christmas with happiness, not misery. People say "Merry Christmas," not "Deny thyself and suffer as Christ did."

Christmas originated when the early Christians cleverly co-opted the Roman Saturnalia, a popular holiday at the winter equinox. In a brilliant marketing move, the Christians decided December 25 was when their God was born. For most of history Christmas was not the most important Christian holiday, Easter was. Christ's death and resurrection is more important to the Christian myth than his birth.

All the stuff of Christmas -- the tree, the lights, Santa Claus -- are either of pagan origin or come from capitalist merchants trying to make a buck. As Leonard Peikoff writes,

Even after the Christians stole Christmas, they were ambivalent about it. The holiday was inherently a pro-life festival of earthly renewal, but the Christians preached renunciation, sacrifice, and concern for the next world, not this one. As Cotton Mather, an 18th-century clergyman, put it: "Can you in your consciences think that our Holy Savior is honored by mirth? . . . Shall it be said that at the birth of our Savior . . . we take time . . . to do actions that have much more of hell than of heaven in them?"

Then came the major developments of 19th-century capitalism...

For the first time, the giving of gifts became a major feature of Christmas. Early Christians denounced gift-giving as a Roman practice, and Puritans called it diabolical. But Americans were not to be deterred. Thanks to capitalism, there was enough wealth to make gifts possible, a great productive apparatus to advertise them and make them available cheaply, and a country so content that men wanted to reach out to their friends and express their enjoyment of life. The whole country took with glee to giving gifts on an unprecedented scale.

Liberals worried about "diversity" should not get hung up on the religious connection to Christmas. The connection is vestigial and non-essential, like the mentions of God in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

If it helps, let them think of Christmas as Pretty Lightbulb Day. The gay lights we perceive through our senses are at least reality, unlike the mythical birth of a man who was supposed to be the son of a God for whom there is no evidence.

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If it helps, let them think of Christmas as Pretty Lightbulb Day.

Won't help. Lightbulbs are an affront to their religion, a scar on the face of Goddess Gaia, ...

The only way to make liberals like Christmas is to mark it like a true Dark-Age Christian would, sitting in a cold, dark room, praying, fasting, giving gifts out of a sense of duty to people you don't like but "love" unconditionally because you have to.

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...

Liberals worried about "diversity" should not get hung up on the religious connection to Christmas. The connection is vestigial and non-essential, like the mentions of God in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

...

Where is "God" mentioned in the Constitution? I'm pretty sure it is not, which is a fact that undoubtedly bothered Christians when the Constitution was created.

I agree that the religious connection to Xmas is non-essential. It has never been a religious holiday for me, and it is celebrated by many people I know who don't believe in a God, and by many others who do not in any way take religion seriously as a guide to their lives.

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Where is "God" mentioned in the Constitution? I'm pretty sure it is not, which is a fact that undoubtedly bothered Christians when the Constitution was created.

It did, actually. God isn't even in the oath of office; that's just a customary tack-on everyone (at least within recent memory) uses.

Washington apparently was not religious, despite stories lies to the contrary. He went to church sometimes, but stood in the back and never took communion.

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  • 11 months later...
Won't help. Lightbulbs are an affront to their religion, a scar on the face of Goddess Gaia, ...

The only way to make liberals like Christmas is to mark it like a true Dark-Age Christian would, sitting in a cold, dark room, praying, fasting, giving gifts out of a sense of duty to people you don't like but "love" unconditionally because you have to.

I used to like "Happy Lightbulb Day" as an alternative to saying Merry "Son of a Religious Delusion" Birthday (Ech-mas).

There was talk about how much Edison and like inventors brought to the world. But I also learned how much Edison used government pull to sabotage Tesla's work, the inventor or Alternating Current. If it wasn't for Tesla, we'd still be living in small towns using morse code. So, I'm not as excited about connecting Edison to Rand.

I sure wish we could make Ech-mas time a period where we could celebrate objectivism with friends. Regularize it. I mean, the only reason I like the Ech-mas season is for Boxing Day, the day when all small business owners purchase their tax writeoffs for the next year.

I guess "Happy Acheiver's Benevolence Day" has just too many syllables.

But there was a time when I would reread Atlas every year, between Ech-mas & New Years, or at least read the Anthem "i" chapter in place of "Twas the night before Ech-mas".

If we want to get objectivism to seep into the culture, we need to start thinking about replacing or revising the existing holidaze. Take the best, and leave the rest. Keep the capitalistic celebration part and throw out the religious part. Keep the recognition of earthly dieties, and scrap the mythical ones. Celebrate with friends who share your values, instead of feeling one must endure the dysfunctional monkey customs of your particular genetic lottery.

Rand was right that the sacred is important. We need a holiday that celebrates the best within us, among those who truly care. I don't know what we should call it, but I know we should start doing it.

Be seeing you...

<*>aj

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Where is "God" mentioned in the Constitution? I'm pretty sure it is not, which is a fact that undoubtedly bothered Christians when the Constitution was created.

I agree that the religious connection to Xmas is non-essential. It has never been a religious holiday for me, and it is celebrated by many people I know who don't believe in a God, and by many others who do not in any way take religion seriously as a guide to their lives.

Agreed. No mention of God in the US Constitution. But the context that God isn't there is important. Previously, power to monarchs came from God. Under the US Constitution, the power came from the people. A very dynamic change. Power was no longer mystical, it was logical and born out of the power from citizens.

As for Christmas, what is there to argue? Individuals should have freedom, right? And from Ben Stein...I think that puts some of the alienation into perspective. Regardless, I don't believe there is a right to be not offended.

Edited by SD26
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Whatever happened to Festivus for the rest of us?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus

I'd never heard of this because I don't really watch Seinfeld...too much whining & hyperbole for my taste.

Besides, I think we were striving for something a little more uplifting than "airing of grievances" or "floor wrestling".

Stay Focused,

<*>aj

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  • 1 year later...

Happy Light Bulb Day everyone!

Especially apropos this year, given how effective a few rays of artificial light shined into the darkened monasteries of environmentalism have been in loosening the chains of irrationalism.

Cheers,

<Φ>aj

I used to like "Happy Lightbulb Day" as an alternative to saying Merry "Son of a Religious Delusion" Birthday (Ech-mas).

There was talk about how much Edison and like inventors brought to the world. But I also learned how much Edison used government pull to sabotage Tesla's work, the inventor or Alternating Current. If it wasn't for Tesla, we'd still be living in small towns using morse code. So, I'm not as excited about connecting Edison to Rand.

I sure wish we could make Ech-mas time a period where we could celebrate objectivism with friends. Regularize it. I mean, the only reason I like the Ech-mas season is for Boxing Day, the day when all small business owners purchase their tax writeoffs for the next year.

I guess "Happy Acheiver's Benevolence Day" has just too many syllables.

But there was a time when I would reread Atlas every year, between Ech-mas & New Years, or at least read the Anthem "i" chapter in place of "Twas the night before Ech-mas".

If we want to get objectivism to seep into the culture, we need to start thinking about replacing or revising the existing holidaze. Take the best, and leave the rest. Keep the capitalistic celebration part and throw out the religious part. Keep the recognition of earthly dieties, and scrap the mythical ones. Celebrate with friends who share your values, instead of feeling one must endure the dysfunctional monkey customs of your particular genetic lottery.

Rand was right that the sacred is important. We need a holiday that celebrates the best within us, among those who truly care. I don't know what we should call it, but I know we should start doing it.

Be seeing you...

<*>aj

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While I usually don't say "Merry Christmas," I see alot of customers during this tie of year so I will wish them "Happy Holidays" because it's the polite thing to do. Still, I don't mind it nor am I offended when someone wished me a merry christmas. What could possibly be offensive about being wished joy?

I'm also not offended when my Jewish family wished me a "gut yor," which is Yiddish for "Happy new Year," around the time of the Jewish new year. Same thing. I'm not even offended when they offer good wishes for Ypm Kippur, even though I don't observe that groveling holiday (at that Jews neither kneel nor grovel in Synagogue). Again they are wishing me well. What can be offensive about that?

I don't put up Xmas decorations myself (BTW that's a good compromise for all sorts of atheists, call the holiday Xmas liek they do in Futurama), but I like seeing some of the decorations others put up. I pass by some offices of the defense department in Mexico City on the way home from work. They put up lights all over their offices on both sides of the street, plus on the trees in the median. It's like driving down a tunnel made of light. It's very pretty and one of the best seasonal decorations in town. BTW they also decorate for Haloween but not, for some reason, for independence day in September.

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I'd totally put up the lights and stuff. A lit up christmas tree really does look neat in the dark, and invokes feelings of nostalgia.

As far as I'm concerned, the business owners have the right to do what they wish with their business, including put christmas decorations up on their buildings, give the employees the day off, close the store, etc.

I tended to see the giftgiving thing as something altruistic, but I didn't take the whole "Everyone's so satisfied that they feel like being benevolent" thing into account. Either way, I felt christmas should be celebrated on the grounds of it being a commercialized holiday, a fact that I used to despise but now think is really neat.

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