There's a "Christmas" decoration up in Sheffield City Centre which says:
Merry Christmas
Happy Chanukah
Happy Eid
Which for me is the perfect compromise. Yes, we live in a globalised, multi-cultural world, in which it is morally dubious to isolate a particular set of beliefs at the expense of others, but "Happy Holidays"? Seriously? It has no life, no meaning, nothing to represent the true meaning of the winter celebrations of any culture.
Happy Holidays epitomises the attempts to social groups to eliminate cultural identity and create one big global mess of non-identity. I love the differences in cultures, I love the different opinions and viewpoints they give. I don't want to lose the fact that I celebrate christmas (even though I'm not religious in any sense, as it has an entirely non-religious meaning to me). It's more than a holiday, it's different to a holiday, in the same way that I'm sure Chanukah or any islamic Eid has a particular meaning (although regrettably I don't know enough about either religion (yet) to confidently say so). The answer isn't to merge it all into one big grey boring mix, devoid of any noticeable identity, it's to learn to respect and marry the cultures of the world so that we can understand and respect the celebrations of others while preserving the... sanctity, for lack of a better word, of our own celebrations.
Conclusions: "Happy Holidays" is bull****. It's a cop out, cheap attempt to avoid a better solution to a problem that needs to be addressed. Do the conservative madmen have a point? Yes. Are they right to take the actions they do? Not really, but that particular group not understanding the concept of compromise is hardly news.
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- Arthur Dent
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