Blogger is Absolute Rubbish: A Response to Miss Price

Believing that I had successfully posted my response to your comment on a previous blog post, I didn't check blogger for a few days. Upon further review it turns out that it wasn't posted and that blogger refuses to let me post any comments, on my own blog or anyone else's. Grr.

Obviously, the below comment is dramatically paraphrased, the original being a masterpiece of word craft.

"Yay Miss Price! I thought you had already forgotten about us. I hope that you're all settling in well, send my regards to Mr G. Is the 9-5 getting to you yet? 

Christianity does indeed have a great importance to the UK within the context of history, culture and politics. If there was a movement away from religion, even greater than what is seen currently, the vernacular surrounding holidays would be limited in change. Simply because Christianity has been the point around which the English language has developed for so long. However, it could also be argued that with the connectivity of the internet, language is becoming much more fluid. Already I have seen a very quick evolution of language in areas such as gender and sexuality, with new words and phrases being created and widely adopted everyday. There is no reason to suggest that this could not occur regarding religious language. 

The fact of there being no codified constitution in the UK means that it is more reliant upon history and tradition than may be the norm in other countries. This has its benefits as technically it is easier to change, but the nature of tradition means that if we were to suddenly change everything then our political system as a whole would collapse. This suggests to me that changing the Christian-centric system in the UK would be unpopular due to tradition at a legal level (e.g. changing opening hours for retailers), but somewhat necessary if we are to consider ourselves a postmodern society."

On another note, you'll never guess who turned up in my Politics textbook? The one, the only, Fritjof Capra. I failed to suppress an audible groan of "Oh Jesus Christ, no.", and spent the next 5 minutes waxing lyrical about why he was total rubbish - much to the pleasure of both my politics teacher an class, as you can imagine. I can't believe that his total nonsense has wriggled its way onto two different exam boards and subjects. It was in relation to holism which, admittedly, he is relevant to, yet still I could not contain my dismay nor my rolling eyes.

Happy...holidays?: Postmodernism and Secularisation during the Holiday Season

Venture onto any bleeding-heart liberal forum, particularly on the internet, and you'll be assaulted with cheery holiday greetings. Ranging from a simple and inclusive "Happy Holidays!" to "Happy Wednesday (if you don't celebrate Christmas)!", it raises the question as to what exactly is the appropriate greeting for one to use in a society where very few people actually celebrate Christmas for what it is - as opposed to using it as an excuse to exchange gifts, get trashed, eat far too much and argue freely with family members (don't forget to cut Auntie June off after sherry number 3, or be treated to  long-winded rants as to why the local gypsies are menaces to society).

The question of holiday greetings does seem to be one that is very subjective, in that I personally would not be offended if someone wished me a Merry Kwanzaa today or a Happy Hanukkah at the beginning of the month. In the end, they are all expressions of well-wishes and happiness. However, I can understand coming down on the other side of this. The society I live in preaches tolerance and open-mindedness to a relatively large degree. I choose to accept the well-wishes and do not linger over the precise sentiment. But if one were not raised in such a pick'n'mix society, then one may feel differently about this. I can understand the frustration that would arise from being constantly subjected to the traditions of a culture that was unlike my own, and may have, in the past, even oppressed mine.

This is where the all-inclusive holiday greetings seem to arise from. An effort to discard the "shove it in your face" element of Christmas in so many Western countries. While this does seem fair, it does also raise the question of free will, freedom of expression and on the flip-side, of whether or not an inclusive greeting is quite enough.

Being a liberal myself, I am always keen to defend the freedom of expression and the freedom to do as you wish within the constraints of the harm principle. However, I do recognise the problems that arise from such a principle. For example, although the oppression experienced by women, particularly in England today, is of a very intangible quality, it causes harm in ways which cannot be quantified. Situations such as this highlight the slightly finicky nature of the principle. In the context of tolerance and secularisation, it begs the question of how free people should be allowed to be with their religious behaviour. It has been suggested that religion has become more privatised in recent years - that people are far more inclined to keep their religion to their private rather than in the public forum. However, does this mean that it should only be private? Here arises a battle between tolerance and freedom.
To what extent should we tolerate peoples' religious expression and how much harm must come to an individual or a collective before we are justified in removing freedoms?

In a society so ideologically divided, our options seem limited. Shall we continue to adhere to our state's religion, enjoying the public holidays dictated by Christianity? Or shall we attempt to create a more cohesive society that allows people to take the religious holidays they deem necessary to themselves and not only to the majority? And in this case, should atheists be awarded days off to observe their faith in a lack of God?

Inclusive greetings seems appropriate at the given time, but they do raise questions as to how we structure our society. As a person raised Catholic, but who now practices no faith, I wonder at the extent to which our society is Christian-centric. It is the product hundreds of years of law and tradition, but in such a multicultural society, with religion either becoming more privatised, disappearing or at least differentiating to allow for multiculturalism, then should we not begin to change things more radically?

Photo attributed to AForestFrolic