Greetings good citizen, Tis the season for listening to Christmas carols and pondering the message they send. Drenched with majesty, glory and literally dripping in references to royalty, at least the old time stuff. The newer holiday progressed from being centered on St. Nick to today's laments about the 'meaning of Christmas'.
So it is, perhaps least memorably because it is centered in conservo-whacko ideology, we have El Rushbo's WAR ON CHRISTMAS where saying 'Happy Holidays' became a affront to God Fearing Christians...(of a conservative bent.) Catholics are Christians too but they aren't the 'right kind' although Catholics who carry water for their conservative brethren have joined in the bashing of other faiths that celebrate religious events that just happen to coincide with the winter solstice. [Did I mention we are neck deep in stupid?]
For all of their 'indignance' over those who acknowledge the right of others to celebrate the advent of winter their way [by defaulting to the greeting 'Happy Holidays', we don't wear tags and no longer know one another well enough to be familiar with who follows which social religious traditions...although, once upon a time, we settled among others of our 'given' religion, mostly because religious persecution followed the Pilgrims to the, er, 'New World' and the 'odd man out' didn't fare well. Those that did survive the ordeal did so by 'blending in.'
Ritual is (mostly) repetition and while it may have been rough at first, eventually you'd get the hang of what as expected and 'familiarity' did the rest.
So what is the 'major objective' of religion?
We are taught religion exists enlighten us to God's ways, that we are supposed to learn from all of the ritual and rigamarole that make us members of a particular CLUB!
ALL (as in bar none) religions teach that theirs is the 'One True Way'. What varies widely are the consequences for following the 'wrong' religion.
Most Christian sects preach that disloyalty to the, er, 'brand' will be punished by something more severe than the hell that is this life, it is punished by eternal life among the wicked, literally torment without end.
Zero irony that most of us don't appreciate we're already there.
Worse, one needn't search or scrutinize too vigorously to see that we are fully immersed in wickedness.
For example, When Elmo wishes it was Christmas every day only the flippin capitalists would turn that into a tragedy! Worse, completely out of touch with the Spirit of the Season, they changed the young puppet-child's mind by showing him how everybody would be miserable if we, er, 'celebrated' Christmas everyday.
What am I babbling about? What is Christmas? If you're a (clueless) Christian the holiday celebrates the birth of our 'Savior', although as one gets older it becomes increasingly vague precisely what we were supposedly 'saved' from. Add in the onus of 'having' to gift family members (and if you can't because you live on the bottom of the economic totem pole) it turns a time of joy into one of misery!
Again, due to the (criminal) 'gross mismanagement' of the 'incentive system' the true 'message of the holidays' is lost, replaced with misery and resentment.
So what have we learned about these 'clubs' intended to 'save' us from eternal misery?
Look at the political minefield for the answer.
Religions divide.
Is THAT the message our um, multiple 'Gods' want us to take away from the 'holidays'?
Now that we all worship the 'SAME GOD' (capitalism) can't we all set our 'petty differences' aside?
Apparently not. Man is nothing if not stubborn and man 'anchors' himself with routine and ritual that becomes 'tradition'.
How pathetic is it that one of those 'traditions' is hatred of the other?
On the whole, the people that cleve to the idea that the universe would be greatly improved by the extermination of humanity can't be faulted but it's not mankind that is 'damaged', it is those who rule that are at fault.
This shitshow can be fixed but YOU must get off of your dead backside and make it happen!
As much as we are all taught Spirit in the sky can do anything it wants the reality is nothing happens if you 'wait' for the (imaginary) Almighty to fix things.
We've been given the 'golden rule' (that gold has nuthin to do with nuthin') now we have to implement it planet-wide. Anything less is a failure.
Thanks once again for letting me inside your (amazingly spotless) mind,
Gegner
So it is, perhaps least memorably because it is centered in conservo-whacko ideology, we have El Rushbo's WAR ON CHRISTMAS where saying 'Happy Holidays' became a affront to God Fearing Christians...(of a conservative bent.) Catholics are Christians too but they aren't the 'right kind' although Catholics who carry water for their conservative brethren have joined in the bashing of other faiths that celebrate religious events that just happen to coincide with the winter solstice. [Did I mention we are neck deep in stupid?]
For all of their 'indignance' over those who acknowledge the right of others to celebrate the advent of winter their way [by defaulting to the greeting 'Happy Holidays', we don't wear tags and no longer know one another well enough to be familiar with who follows which social religious traditions...although, once upon a time, we settled among others of our 'given' religion, mostly because religious persecution followed the Pilgrims to the, er, 'New World' and the 'odd man out' didn't fare well. Those that did survive the ordeal did so by 'blending in.'
Ritual is (mostly) repetition and while it may have been rough at first, eventually you'd get the hang of what as expected and 'familiarity' did the rest.
So what is the 'major objective' of religion?
We are taught religion exists enlighten us to God's ways, that we are supposed to learn from all of the ritual and rigamarole that make us members of a particular CLUB!
ALL (as in bar none) religions teach that theirs is the 'One True Way'. What varies widely are the consequences for following the 'wrong' religion.
Most Christian sects preach that disloyalty to the, er, 'brand' will be punished by something more severe than the hell that is this life, it is punished by eternal life among the wicked, literally torment without end.
Zero irony that most of us don't appreciate we're already there.
Worse, one needn't search or scrutinize too vigorously to see that we are fully immersed in wickedness.
For example, When Elmo wishes it was Christmas every day only the flippin capitalists would turn that into a tragedy! Worse, completely out of touch with the Spirit of the Season, they changed the young puppet-child's mind by showing him how everybody would be miserable if we, er, 'celebrated' Christmas everyday.
What am I babbling about? What is Christmas? If you're a (clueless) Christian the holiday celebrates the birth of our 'Savior', although as one gets older it becomes increasingly vague precisely what we were supposedly 'saved' from. Add in the onus of 'having' to gift family members (and if you can't because you live on the bottom of the economic totem pole) it turns a time of joy into one of misery!
Again, due to the (criminal) 'gross mismanagement' of the 'incentive system' the true 'message of the holidays' is lost, replaced with misery and resentment.
So what have we learned about these 'clubs' intended to 'save' us from eternal misery?
Look at the political minefield for the answer.
Religions divide.
Is THAT the message our um, multiple 'Gods' want us to take away from the 'holidays'?
Now that we all worship the 'SAME GOD' (capitalism) can't we all set our 'petty differences' aside?
Apparently not. Man is nothing if not stubborn and man 'anchors' himself with routine and ritual that becomes 'tradition'.
How pathetic is it that one of those 'traditions' is hatred of the other?
On the whole, the people that cleve to the idea that the universe would be greatly improved by the extermination of humanity can't be faulted but it's not mankind that is 'damaged', it is those who rule that are at fault.
This shitshow can be fixed but YOU must get off of your dead backside and make it happen!
As much as we are all taught Spirit in the sky can do anything it wants the reality is nothing happens if you 'wait' for the (imaginary) Almighty to fix things.
We've been given the 'golden rule' (that gold has nuthin to do with nuthin') now we have to implement it planet-wide. Anything less is a failure.
Thanks once again for letting me inside your (amazingly spotless) mind,
Gegner
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