T'is the Season of Guilt

It's not family gatherings, parties with friends and delicious meals.

It's not the act of giving gifts.

It's consumerism and everything that goes with it.

As much as I try and fight it, I'm losing the battle.

“The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor. War is a way of shattering to pieces or pouring into the stratosphere or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.”
― George Orwell, 1984

Think about the labor wasted to produce all this stuff.

It's one thing to buy gifts for people. I do that all year long as things come up. The time of year doesn't have any weight as to when someone deserves a gift. But then the "holiday" season comes around and I'm obligated to buy more. Because of Christmas.

I try and limit the amount of junk that comes in the house, but it's a constant battle. I fight it all year but the enemy ramps things up around this time of year and they use dirty guilt tactics to win.

Everything comes wrapped in plastic. Even plastic comes wrapped in plastic. The Christmas tree is plastic, the wrapping "paper", the ornaments, the lights, the decorations, the gifts themselves, the whole lot of it is all made of plastic.

I didn't buy any of it aside from some guilted gifts, but it still found its way in like some sort of relentless cancer.

The amount of plastic required to participate in this charade is an absolute societal boondoggle.

To me, it's all hypocrisy but I can't fight it all - so am I a hypocrite for letting all this in, or am I just being worn down and turned into a prole?

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I had to drive my wife to a party the other night - gathering with friends is something this season should be about. This led me into a suburb area around where I live. Suburbs do have their purpose around bigger cities, but I don't live around a big city and it boggles my mind why people would want to live on top of each other like that and pay more taxes to do it.

Anyway, driving through all these little properties got me looking at all the lights everyone had on their houses. Nearly everyone had these lights strung somewhere. Some were very elaborate and some were not. But, they all had them.

How much extra fuel do we burn to have these lights?

What purpose do they serve except for worshiping the sun?

Do people even know it's only to worship the sun?

What sort of double standard is this?

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We're giving up disposable plastic bags at stores only to use different plastic bags to carry our plastic-covered plastic items back to our plastic houses to re-wrap them in plastic and put them under a plastic tree. Then we take off two layers of plastic, throw that plastic in the garbage and plug the plastic item in so it can burn fuel - because of Christmas.

As much as this makes me a grinch, we need to stop this.

Why do we have these plastic trees? These lights? This wrapping paper? These ornaments?

Tradition.

The tradition got us into this mess and people need to take a step back to get out of it. We all need to take a step back and eliminate the things that are producing so much waste just because that's what we did in the past.

I don't think anybody realizes it, but it doesn't look like anybody is worshiping the sun or the son, anymore. To me, it looks like this giant plastic cone sitting in the corner is an ode to the plastic gods; the oil gods.

Things nobody needs should be eliminated. Do we need Christmas trees, lights, ornaments, and wrapping paper to survive?

No. It serves no purpose. We've been doing this for hundreds or even thousands of years. Back then, people weren't as educated and all this information wasn't widely available. People were dumb and gullible back then. If we're doing the same things we did back then, just because that's what we did, what does that make us now?

There can still be family gatherings and parties with friends. There can still be great meals and baked goods. The holiday season can still be a great time, but plastic and waste should be reduced to really achieve it.

Companies aren't going to stop producing these items until we stop buying them. It's up to the consumer to fight this.

“If there is hope, it lies in the proles.”
― George Orwell, 1984

Stop Consuming.

If we could all just realize what our actions are doing regardless of whether or not we're doing it out of tradition, we could have a much cleaner place to live.

It makes me feel guilty for being a grinch. But no matter how much I try and forget about it, the problem is constantly shoved down my throat from every direction. I can't change my views until there's info showing me I'm wrong. The only thing to that nature is "A Christmas Carol" and "The Grinch". Those two films are so ingrained into people's minds that it's pretty much all they revert to in order to dismiss my views, which further strengthens my point.

The plastic tree with its plastic lights and plastic ornaments are in my house because I was guilted into it. The ornaments and decorations are all around me because of guilt. The plastic presents wrapped in two layers of plastic are here because of guilt.

T'is the season of feeling guilty, every year, without fail.