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Tyranny of One, Tyranny of AllHolidaysWritten by Darrell Anderson. I do not celebrate holidays. Yes, that practice tends to occasionally raise eyebrows and cause some uncomfortable feelings for some people, but I have been a rebel and unorthodox much of my life, so I suppose nothing is new. I stopped recognizing holidays several years ago. My change was gradual, but today is complete. My first defiance was with Christmas. I had grown weary of the commercialization of an arguably religious celebration. I believe in true, voluntary free enterprise; I believe in free voluntary exchange, I believe in free will, but the idea that a holy day should be commercialized seemed unnatural to me. Repugnant. Christmas today is pure orgy. Many people, through various means, have observed how humans act like lemmings and respond during this time of year. Worse, that people would stop for a week or two to pretend they wanted “peace on earth and good will toward men” and then during the remainder of the year be willing to rape, pillage, plunder, steal, and kill all seemed to me a mockery of the celebration — and of God. Consider, for example, for the 24 hours of Christmas, the mockery of the common practice of declaring a cease-fire to war and hostilities. The next day both sides go back to killing. So I stopped celebrating Christmas. I was not going to be a part of mass mockery and crass commercialization. Initially, family members did not deal well with my decision. Although they knew I was not going to buy them gifts, some originally insisted on still buying me gifts. I accepted those gifts reluctantly, not because I am a greedy SOB, but because they all knew my decision and nonetheless had exercised their free wills. However, eventually I stopped accepting gifts by not visiting during those days. Interestingly, several family members now appreciate my decision and have joined me. They hardly can believe the stress they eliminated by not playing this commercialized lemming game. They no longer battle greedy fools in stores. They no longer battle unashamed salespeople. Now, if we gather during those days, we can focus on enjoying the company of each other, and not worry about tally points in the exchange madness. I do not want people to think I am cold-hearted. Most people who know me will admit that throughout the year I willingly and routinely share my wealth and fortunes. Many times a twenty or fifty has been pulled from my pocket with no intention on my part to ever again see the paper note. Many times I have handed to other people an envelope and insisted that the other person accept the gift with no thought of return or reciprocation. Other times I have paid bills for people. I never have once regretted such actions. Currency is merely a medium of exchange representing an unfinished exchange of wealth. Whether that exchange is completed through my hands or another individual often is immaterial to me. The difference for me is that I choose to give throughout the year, not just for a few days at the end of the year. Also, I refuse to allow the world to commercialize me. People should remember that the word holiday is actually derived from two words, holy day. If people understand that grammatical distinction, then you should understand why I do not celebrate other holidays. Most of the other holidays are all statist declarations. Thus, such days never can be “holy.” Such days must be repugnant to a holy God, if such a God exists. Consider the following fiat declared statutory “holy days”:
Can you see the reeking statism embedded in such days? Martin Luther King fought for civil rights. Civil rights are not natural rights, but fiat legislative privileges. President’s Day? Glorification of the chief war monger. Notice that in almost all historical texts presidents who are considered “great” were the biggest war mongers. Memorial Day? Veteran’s Day? A celebration and remembrance of war — a mechanism of statism. That is not to dismiss the sacrifice some men and women make on behalf of family, friends, and community, but that is the only reason they should have fought — not for the nonsensical “glory” of some obtuse politicians perpetuating fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Flag Day? Worshipping statism. Independence Day? Independence from what? Although a momentous historical occasion, the American colonial rebels merely traded one set of statist tyrants for another. Labor Day? A statist-declared day off from labor; which should remind people only that they spend most of their laboring hours producing to satisfy the wealth redistribution mechanisms of politicians. The very concept of such a holiday implies that statists reject the concept of self-ownership. Columbus Day? Columbus’s travels served several motives, but the one that American statists want to remember is that the modern state’s roots can be traced to Columbus plunking a flag in the ground and then claiming the entire continent to belong to the king and queen of Spain — which through conquest America later controlled. What a concept! The National Day of Thanksgiving? I believe every day should be a day of thanksgiving, but the statists want people to be collectively thankful that the great “benevolent state” exists to “protect” “the people.” No liberty-minded individual should find any foundation for celebrating such events. There are other holidays I do not celebrate. I do not celebrate Easter. Have you ever noticed how Easter falls on a different day every year? Have you ever tried to discern how this fluctuating calendar operates? People within the Roman Catholic church, née the Roman Political and Military Empire, in its effort to Christianize the world, decided to merge “Christian” celebrations with those of the pagan world; thereby hoping that the pagans would be converted to their faith. Easter was merged with the pagan celebrations of the Goddess of Spring, Eastre or Ishtar. The annual day in which Easter is now celebrated is determined as the first Sunday after the first full moon of the spring equinox. Go figure. Christmas was merged with the pagan celebrations of Saturnalia and Yule — celebrations of the winter solstice — noting that longer days had returned. Does that mean I condemn any individual who celebrates Christmas or Easter? Hardly. Every individual is a creature of free will, and as long as other people do not coerce me into specific actions, or deprive me of lawful property, then they are free to act as they please. Additionally, for Christians, Paul reminded people that legalism is a violation of free will (Colossians 2:16). Do I condemn people for celebrating statist holidays? Maybe I should, but I like to be forgiving and just chalk up the phenomenon to stupidity and ignorance. Ignorance — the lack of knowledge — is curable. Stupidity is not. Choose you this day whom you will serve. Finis. |
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