In praise of Christmas excess
The future is a joyless place, where technocrats in NGOs and mega-corporations restrict us, prevent us from seeing loved ones, take away what we own, deprive us of our traditions and take away our possessions.
Walking to my only weekly appointment, I pass new-build houses overlooking the river. As every late November and early December, strings of flashing LEDs appear over balconies. They pulsate and dance; seeing them, so pretty and welcoming, I repent. I was wrong. For years, I frowned at exterior light displays. I winced at illuminated plastic snowmen; I scorned outdoor Christmas trees. Like the rest of the proper middle-middle class, I knew better. Comfortable in a sanctimonious puritanism, I disdained excessive decoration. Good taste, class reticence and environmental responsibility guided me.
My heart has thawed. Now, I celebrate excess. When I see such lights, such efforts, such expense, for the benefit of others, I feel joy and gratitude.
So what changed? In part, me, also the world. I stopped seeing life through class-defined terms. I have increasingly come to see unexamined assumptions of the middle-classes as distant from my own views, as even anti-human and inhumane in nature; now, I take people (or try to) as they are, regardless of status or education. I may prefer Stravinsky to Taylor Swift and would never wear a baseball hat, but in terms of outlook and attitude, I have more in common with a bloke in the saloon bar than I do with a lecturer (or student) in a university auditorium. I don’t feel better than anyone I meet on the street because of their clothes or accent (or because of mine).
Seeing the eco-alarmism/climate-emergency agenda kick into high gear, confirms the suspicions of the average person. “It’s just killjoys and nutters,” he might say. Even absent of analysis, he’d be right. The desire to suppress people’s desire to celebrate Christmas – a time of consumption, a chance for family unity and a part of Christian heritage – is intrinsic to a concerted campaign to demolish the few foundations of tradition left. That outlook may cite science, but it is driven by spite and moral superiority.
Yes, Christmas incorporates the pagan mid-winter festival and is not solely Christian in character, but it is a time of the affirmation of Christian belief and a link to our family and ancestors. It is part of our national heritage and sense of ourselves. It should be celebrated and reaffirmed as strongly as we can.
The future is a joyless place, where technocrats in NGOs and mega-corporations restrict us, prevent us from seeing loved ones, take away what we own, deprive us of our traditions and take away our possessions; they will outlaw our open fires and tax our traditional foods into unattainability. The Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis’s response to inflation making a traditional Christmas dinner expensive was to recommend soy products. The managerial elite will have you eating bugs and banning your Christmas celebrations sooner and more effectively than any old-style Communist regime could. The future is corporate Communism, with an Amazon logo replacing the hammer and sickle on the flag fluttering overhead.
Laughing at Guardian articles does not cut it any more. The joke’s no longer funny when NGOs, corporations and governments move to mandate to remove an efficient, commonplace and cheap form of personal transportation and replace it with one that you will hire (not own) and only if you have sufficient carbon credits. That is already law, come 2030. Laughing is past. Only refusal, evasion or revolt remain.
So, I shall be burning candles, eating meat, buying gifts, seeing relatives, disregarding social distancing guidelines and marking Christmas Day as special. Under the frowns of the BBC, the mass media, climate-advisory groups and eco-alarmist Puritans, it is a duty to resist by being normal and ignoring advice. It is a political imperative to mark family days, national traditions and religious holidays. Tyranny comes disguised as care, avowedly protecting the vulnerable but actually tightening the grip of the elite.
Merry Christmas, one and all, while we still have it.
