Tis’ the Season to be Jolly? More Like Drowning in Debt.
The documentary God Grew Tired of Us placed a lot of emphasis on the Lost Boys’ confusion surrounding the American commodification of Christmas—who is Santa Claus? Why decorate a tree? What is the meaning behind all of it? Wrapped up in the “magic” of the season, it’s so easy to be transfixed by the crazy consumerist haze of winter holiday marketing and not question what we are literally buying into.
What Would Jesus Buy is a documentary regarding this very phenomenon. Using the Evangelical model, “Reverend” Billy and the “Church of Stop Shopping” embark on a tour of the United States to spread the gospel of anti-consumerism. Billy and his Choir preach to the (sometimes reluctant) masses of the dangers of the impending “Shopocalypse,” or the hysteria of holiday consumerism. These practices have been cultivated and perpetuated through popular media and corporate marketing ploys, who capitalize on the sentimentality of the Christmas season for profit with little regard for the local and global ramifications. Not only are working families buying themselves into crippling debt, but international communities are also harmed. Those working in foreign sweatshops, are subject to terrible working conditions and treatment in order to cheaply produce all the “stuff” many Westerners are being told they need to buy. A shopping addiction therapist in the film comments on how people now “[equate] buying with love” and believe that “happiness is just the next purchase away.”
I love Christmas, yet because I grew up in a nonreligious family, it has never been significant for me spiritually. Although I value how the holidays bring communities and families closer together, I’d be lying if I said the material build up surrounding it wasn’t the main focus.
Purchasing gifts and decorations to supplement seasonal cheer and celebration is perfectly fine, but the fact that http://blackfridaydeathcount.com/ actually exists should make people critically reflect on how the obsession with shopping has gotten way out of hand, and inspire a revolt against it.
I can’t help but feel hypocritical writing about this, considering I just recently caught myself lamenting the fact I won’t be home on Black Friday (there’s always Cyber Monday though, right?). However, I’ve grown to be more critical of materialist values. Although they’ll be hard to cast off completely, I remind myself that letting your possessions own you is not the key to a fulfilling life.
Consumeristic values have been so deeply ingrained into Western capitalist culture, is it even possible to break free from them? If you celebrate Christmas, has your family ever done the no presents (gasp) thing? What was learned from that experience?
Your post made me think of Dr Erickson’s explanation of “false consciousness” as it exists in seemingly free and “advanced” societies. In lecture, he described how Westerners are taught to value life through money, believing that more purchases will make us happier; not only is this untrue, but we continue to spend and desire more “stuff” due to our dissatisfaction with our current situation. While we believe that we are in control, we are driven by consumerism, by personal goals that are created by society itself.
I think that God Grew Tired of Us demonstrates a fascinating contrast and parallel: in Sudan and Ethiopia, the Lost Boys’ freedom is restricted by violence and famine, while in the United States, their freedom is restricted by the necessity of long working hours and losing social interaction in order to keep up with a money-driven society.
As the boys come to realize in the documentary and in What is the What, it is difficult for them to claim that one society makes them absolutely happier than the other, which really challenges ideas of American society’s superiority.
Hey Leigha! I really enjoyed reading your blog post! My family is also not as religious and presents play a fairly large role in our celebration of Christmas. I am very intrigued about the driving factors behind the desire and “need” within Western culture to consume more in order to celebrate a meaningful holiday or event. A few times when I was little, I would invite my whole class to my birthday party and ask for donations to an organization (such as the S.P.C.A.) instead of presents. I love receiving presents just as much as the next person, yet I did not understand why people were so shocked that I did not ask for presents. It’s interesting to think that Western culture has made consumerism into a social norm, so much so that the spirit of events or holidays is lost. How has it come to be that it is not enough in Western culture to celebrate and appreciate a person or a historical event without giving a gift that represents this gratitude?