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Holiday Musings
So the office is half empty, as more and more people start their holiday (American Thanksgiving) a bit early. Even for those of us that are here, not a lot of work seems to be getting done.
Now Thanksgiving is traditionally a family thing, with some major Christian and Manifest Destiny overtones. Some Native Americans approach it as a occasion of mourning. Most people claim it is a purely secular holiday, but the whole "giving thanks" thing has developed a very Judeo-Christian cast.
What about paganism, then? How should we "celebrate" this holiday that is essentially a commemoration of the survival of a bunch of religious fanatics (pilgrims) in their new land, and the beginning of the end for a large indigenous population?
This holiday is halfway between Halloween and Yule, and in many ways actually harks back to pagan European "Late Harvest" type festivals, although the Pilgrims did not acknowledge their heritage in that. The native peoples on this continent may have done something similar, although my cultural education on the details of this is sorely lacking.
I suppose one could say thanks to ones own deities for providing enough to weather the winter, although we no longer store food for several months to wait out the snow - we just nip down to the grocery store. Or better yet, one could mark it with the usual feasting, as a way of noting that not all changes are for the better, that we still can feast a little this year, and with fervent wishes that we don't end up like the indigenous populations of so many places when confronted with a powerful force that wants what little we have.
I find it ironic that a now openly imperial America celebrates its first conquest with a lot of commercial fanfare. The conquests continue, as corporate interests successfully lobby for all kinds of pork and priviledges, police viciously apply war-zone tactics to people exercising their supposedly constitutional right of protest, and powerful, well heeled "NGO"s (read corporate shills) endeavor to unify the world into one massive race to the bottom in terms of human rights, wages, living conditions and healthcare. The quarterly report has more importance to most of the power weilders in the world than the people who own stock and/or produce the goods, the environment that they depend on for life and health, or and concept of justice or fairness. Are we really going to give thanks for NAFTA, the impending FTAA, and all sorts of other "deals" that fritter away our jobs and rights for a penny increase in share value?
What have I to give thanks for now? The fact that my job could be "offshored" to a person living in a one room hovel next to several million other one room hovels, for a fraction of what I earn? The fact that my and my neighbors' cost of living doesn't go down, and the difference ends up in the pockets of a few already very rich people, most of who contribute large sums of money to the Republican party, or corporate shill Democrats? Yeah, thanks a lot.
Bend over America, you're getting stuffed, and you don't really know it yet.
Links:
Free Trade Area of the Americas
Unions Call For Timoney's Job Following FTAA Protests
Lots of Offshoring Articles from WashTech
Wife of key Saddam lieutenant held - hostages, anyone?
Media Ownership Deal Reached, Clearing Way for Big Spending Bill
Books: 'Hegemony or Survival' - interview with Chomsky
Now Thanksgiving is traditionally a family thing, with some major Christian and Manifest Destiny overtones. Some Native Americans approach it as a occasion of mourning. Most people claim it is a purely secular holiday, but the whole "giving thanks" thing has developed a very Judeo-Christian cast.
What about paganism, then? How should we "celebrate" this holiday that is essentially a commemoration of the survival of a bunch of religious fanatics (pilgrims) in their new land, and the beginning of the end for a large indigenous population?
This holiday is halfway between Halloween and Yule, and in many ways actually harks back to pagan European "Late Harvest" type festivals, although the Pilgrims did not acknowledge their heritage in that. The native peoples on this continent may have done something similar, although my cultural education on the details of this is sorely lacking.
I suppose one could say thanks to ones own deities for providing enough to weather the winter, although we no longer store food for several months to wait out the snow - we just nip down to the grocery store. Or better yet, one could mark it with the usual feasting, as a way of noting that not all changes are for the better, that we still can feast a little this year, and with fervent wishes that we don't end up like the indigenous populations of so many places when confronted with a powerful force that wants what little we have.
I find it ironic that a now openly imperial America celebrates its first conquest with a lot of commercial fanfare. The conquests continue, as corporate interests successfully lobby for all kinds of pork and priviledges, police viciously apply war-zone tactics to people exercising their supposedly constitutional right of protest, and powerful, well heeled "NGO"s (read corporate shills) endeavor to unify the world into one massive race to the bottom in terms of human rights, wages, living conditions and healthcare. The quarterly report has more importance to most of the power weilders in the world than the people who own stock and/or produce the goods, the environment that they depend on for life and health, or and concept of justice or fairness. Are we really going to give thanks for NAFTA, the impending FTAA, and all sorts of other "deals" that fritter away our jobs and rights for a penny increase in share value?
What have I to give thanks for now? The fact that my job could be "offshored" to a person living in a one room hovel next to several million other one room hovels, for a fraction of what I earn? The fact that my and my neighbors' cost of living doesn't go down, and the difference ends up in the pockets of a few already very rich people, most of who contribute large sums of money to the Republican party, or corporate shill Democrats? Yeah, thanks a lot.
Bend over America, you're getting stuffed, and you don't really know it yet.
Links:
Free Trade Area of the Americas
Unions Call For Timoney's Job Following FTAA Protests
Lots of Offshoring Articles from WashTech
Wife of key Saddam lieutenant held - hostages, anyone?
Media Ownership Deal Reached, Clearing Way for Big Spending Bill
Books: 'Hegemony or Survival' - interview with Chomsky
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