Merry...Holiday?
I actually get (almost) a week off! I honestly don’t remember the last time I had a week off. I think the last time I had more than 2 consecutive days completely off & free may have been May of 2004.
Anyway I just finished work and it’s barely hit me yet, boy do I plan to sleep tonight. I was thinking about the happy holidays thing (again) and figured rather than ranting here I’d just adapt the editorial where I already did that:
Happy Holidays
I chose that headline very intentionally. It’s strange, three months ago it didn’t occur to me there could be controversy tied to such a universal term, but now, thanks to our rancorous neighbours, even this has become a hot political issue.
I’m not sure how many are aware, but believe it or not in the U.S. right now there is a debate raging between liberals and the neo conservatives who feel there is a “war on Christmas” because the rest of the country wants to include more than a fundamentalist Christian definition of the holiday season.
According to notorious American pundits like Pat Robertson and Bill O’Riley the use of the term “happy holidays” is personally offensive to good Christians because it obscures the true meaning of the holiday and intentionally excludes them. Now right off, there’s some impressive circular logic: ‘being inclusive excludes those of us who don’t want to be inclusive…?’
So apparently there’s a group of people in the U.S. who want to define the holiday season not as a time of family and friends and loving and giving among people of all religions (or non-religions) but as a sombre religious event to mark the founding of their religion. (Because that’s what Christmas usually is? I remember when I was a kid and me and all the neighbourhood kids waited breathlessly for weeks for that ecstatic moment when we could wake up and—go to church?!)
There are actually U.S. groups trying to organise boycotts of company’s that use the word “holiday.”
Leaving aside the fact that Christmas started as a pagan ritual this all seems a rather odd approach. More than anything I suppose it highlights the deep and increasingly acrimonious divide between left and right in the U.S.
Mostly I feel sorry for those who feel “happy holidays” is some kind of personal attack. These must be very scared and insecure people. Nobody’s saying they can ever use “Merry Christmas” again, it’s simply that since there are a number of holidays around the same time of year “happy holidays” is often just more accurate. Obviously we know to someone like Bill O’Riley Chanukah, Ramadan and Kwanzaa don’t count, but what about New Years?
My interest in the season is the social aspect. I imagine that’s true of many in this increasingly diverse and secular society. The bottom line and the end of the “debate” in all this seems to be: “happy holidays” includes “Merry Christmas” and everyone else. The opposite is not true.
Anyway, just some thoughts. Merry Christmas.
Friday, December 23, 2005
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Superfluous superlatives
I probably realised recently that I probably use the word probably too much…probably mostly in spoken form but I realised it when I left someone an 11 word note that used “probably” twice. I’ve probably been rather self conscience of it since then and have probably stopped myself from using the word many times since then, though I feel I probably still use it too much – oddest part: I don’t even like the word.
Anyway still busy wrapping up two papers this week (one a week usually taxes my system). I realized I’m laying out like 100 pages in a week and a half. Will get to run back to Nelson for a few days. Just wanted to check in and leave some random thoughts.
Another thing that bothers me (‘cause I know you lay awake at night worried about what bothers me) is superfluous use of exaggeration and superlatives. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not claiming to be any better than anyone else on this, it’s just one of those things that really gets under my skin. Like when someone says, “the car raced past at 1,000 miles an hour,” or “it was the funniest joke I’ve ever heard,” or…? (better examples I can’t think of at the moment).
Saw a crazy documentary the other day on a very rare case of a guy who has a 7-second memory, like the great movie Momento. He literally couldn’t carry on a conversation, read a book, or watch TV because mid-sentence he’d forget what was being said, let alone pages later.
He was unable to function on his own because he had no concept of whether he’d eaten, how to cook, or where his front door was for that matter. It was pretty staggering to try and imagine. It actually called into question some pretty basic notions of what makes us individuals and what makes up our unique personalities etc. Am I just the sum of my memories and experiences?
I probably realised recently that I probably use the word probably too much…probably mostly in spoken form but I realised it when I left someone an 11 word note that used “probably” twice. I’ve probably been rather self conscience of it since then and have probably stopped myself from using the word many times since then, though I feel I probably still use it too much – oddest part: I don’t even like the word.
Anyway still busy wrapping up two papers this week (one a week usually taxes my system). I realized I’m laying out like 100 pages in a week and a half. Will get to run back to Nelson for a few days. Just wanted to check in and leave some random thoughts.
Another thing that bothers me (‘cause I know you lay awake at night worried about what bothers me) is superfluous use of exaggeration and superlatives. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not claiming to be any better than anyone else on this, it’s just one of those things that really gets under my skin. Like when someone says, “the car raced past at 1,000 miles an hour,” or “it was the funniest joke I’ve ever heard,” or…? (better examples I can’t think of at the moment).
Saw a crazy documentary the other day on a very rare case of a guy who has a 7-second memory, like the great movie Momento. He literally couldn’t carry on a conversation, read a book, or watch TV because mid-sentence he’d forget what was being said, let alone pages later.
He was unable to function on his own because he had no concept of whether he’d eaten, how to cook, or where his front door was for that matter. It was pretty staggering to try and imagine. It actually called into question some pretty basic notions of what makes us individuals and what makes up our unique personalities etc. Am I just the sum of my memories and experiences?
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Insomniac ramblings late night
sorry holidays something something
It’s 3:20 a.m. and I should be fast asleep since I have to get up in 4 hours for yet another long day…but I’m not, I’ve been working busily away and now I can’t stop my mind from racing so I figured I might as well do this, which I’ve been meaning to for ages.
Sorry I haven’t posted in a long time. I’m not going to apologise or make excuses for not posting, I’m sorry, I’ve been busy and I just haven’t gotten around to it, and I won’t apologise for it.
Anyway I was just writing an editorial about the insane “Happy Holidays” v. “Merry Christmas” debate raging among those nut jobs in the U.S. and it got me all riled and thinking in a political context. I tried to take a quick break, picked up the nearest magazine and ended up reading an Adbusters article on how we all have to unmediate ourselves, as in get rid of all the technology (cell phones, computers, iPods, TV’s, video games etc) between us and the real world.
Now I love Adbusters, I think it’s one of the few best magazines out there, and I don’t say that lightly, but that constant ‘evils of technology’ undertone always annoys me. This sort of Luddite mentality that technology is some kind of dark force outside ourselves, acting upon us in strange and often negative ways and that we all need less of it to be better people is so absurd.
Now anyone who knows me knows I’m no techno junkie, and you can check 3 entries ago, I like simplicity. Obviously most of us spend too much time suckling the boob tube or playing with our joysticks, but “technology” is not the latest electronic gadget, “technology” is simply all our tools, methods, skills etc that we use. The printed word is technology and I don’t think intellectuals spend a lot of time rallying against the printed word. A house is technology, the wheel, systems to clean water, cook food, etc etc.
I’d argue that technology is neutral, it can’t, almost by definition, be good or bad. It can be used for good or bad, but even something that is widely regarded as “bad” or is usually used to negative effect, like a bomb, isn’t in itself a good or bad thing. A bomb sitting in a warehouse is just an object. A collection of parts. It has the potential to be dangerous, but so does the printed word.
Many more people are killed by heart attacks every year than by bombs, does that make the couch an evil technology?
When shrill people yap on about the dangers of modern technology and how it’s corrupting youth and how violence is going to turn all the kids into serial killers (because the ancient world was so peaceful?) I’m reminded of this quote:
Children today “have bad manners, contempt for authority, show disrespect to their elders...They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents…and are tyrants over their teachers." That could easily be some grumpy old guy in 2005, but it’s Socrates.
We’ve always had things mediating the way we experience the world, whether a virtual reality headset, book, or the masked shaman telling a story around the campfire. Human history is the history of us using technology to help us mediate our perception and understanding of the world around us.
Anyway I’m finally feeling tired so I’m going to try to sleep.
Happy Holidays.
Ps. If you’re not up on the “holiday” debate check into it, it’s funny & maddening. Some starting points:
Banner: http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/10/Hillsborough/Banner_stirs_Christma.shtml
O’Riley: http://mediamatters.org/items/200511100014
sorry holidays something something
It’s 3:20 a.m. and I should be fast asleep since I have to get up in 4 hours for yet another long day…but I’m not, I’ve been working busily away and now I can’t stop my mind from racing so I figured I might as well do this, which I’ve been meaning to for ages.
Sorry I haven’t posted in a long time. I’m not going to apologise or make excuses for not posting, I’m sorry, I’ve been busy and I just haven’t gotten around to it, and I won’t apologise for it.
Anyway I was just writing an editorial about the insane “Happy Holidays” v. “Merry Christmas” debate raging among those nut jobs in the U.S. and it got me all riled and thinking in a political context. I tried to take a quick break, picked up the nearest magazine and ended up reading an Adbusters article on how we all have to unmediate ourselves, as in get rid of all the technology (cell phones, computers, iPods, TV’s, video games etc) between us and the real world.
Now I love Adbusters, I think it’s one of the few best magazines out there, and I don’t say that lightly, but that constant ‘evils of technology’ undertone always annoys me. This sort of Luddite mentality that technology is some kind of dark force outside ourselves, acting upon us in strange and often negative ways and that we all need less of it to be better people is so absurd.
Now anyone who knows me knows I’m no techno junkie, and you can check 3 entries ago, I like simplicity. Obviously most of us spend too much time suckling the boob tube or playing with our joysticks, but “technology” is not the latest electronic gadget, “technology” is simply all our tools, methods, skills etc that we use. The printed word is technology and I don’t think intellectuals spend a lot of time rallying against the printed word. A house is technology, the wheel, systems to clean water, cook food, etc etc.
I’d argue that technology is neutral, it can’t, almost by definition, be good or bad. It can be used for good or bad, but even something that is widely regarded as “bad” or is usually used to negative effect, like a bomb, isn’t in itself a good or bad thing. A bomb sitting in a warehouse is just an object. A collection of parts. It has the potential to be dangerous, but so does the printed word.
Many more people are killed by heart attacks every year than by bombs, does that make the couch an evil technology?
When shrill people yap on about the dangers of modern technology and how it’s corrupting youth and how violence is going to turn all the kids into serial killers (because the ancient world was so peaceful?) I’m reminded of this quote:
Children today “have bad manners, contempt for authority, show disrespect to their elders...They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents…and are tyrants over their teachers." That could easily be some grumpy old guy in 2005, but it’s Socrates.
We’ve always had things mediating the way we experience the world, whether a virtual reality headset, book, or the masked shaman telling a story around the campfire. Human history is the history of us using technology to help us mediate our perception and understanding of the world around us.
Anyway I’m finally feeling tired so I’m going to try to sleep.
Happy Holidays.
Ps. If you’re not up on the “holiday” debate check into it, it’s funny & maddening. Some starting points:
Banner: http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/10/Hillsborough/Banner_stirs_Christma.shtml
O’Riley: http://mediamatters.org/items/200511100014
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