Cultural twilight

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I’ve run out of library books (just finished David Halberstam’s wonderful October 1964), so I began scouring my own bookshelves for reading material. I read several essays by the late Neil Postman (from Conscientious Objections) and then began skimming through my own bookshelves looking for other nuggets. I came across Morris Berman’s book, The Twilight of American Culture, which I bought back in 2001. Berman, a cultural historian and social critic, offered a fascinating prescription for dealing with the cultural rot that seemed prevalent in America at the time. Having seen things shift perceptively more negative since my first reading, I’ve begun pulling fascinating material from my second trip through the text.

While Berman spends plenty of time detailing our cultural race to the bottom, I think he paints a prescriptive option for maintaining our dignity, intelligence and preserving the best of Western ideals. His concept draws upon the monastic movement of the Middle Ages to illustrate ways individuals can ward off the onslaught of McWorld and corporate hegemony.

Berman gives many anecdotes and quotes statistics, as well as drawing upon the work of other writers and researchers to illustrate our dropping levels of literacy, critical awareness, and general intellectual awareness.

One statistic he quotes from Paul Fussell’s book, BAD, Or The Dumbing of America that shocked me was the statistic that only six percent of Americans read one book per year, with “book” being anything from harlequin romance novels to self-help books. Berman cites the depressing statistic that 60 percent of Americans have never read a novel! I know we are not a nation of readers, but these numbers are terribly deflating.

I have not been able to substantiate the numbers that Berman cites, but they have certainly whetted my curiosity to do more investigation.

Buy, buy, buy!!

With Thanksgiving over 'cept for the pile of leftover turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and other assorted items, it's on to our next holiday--the Christmas retail season.

Starting very early, with some stores open before sunup, shoppers will flock to buy alot of stuff
that they don't need, for people who won't appreciate it.

I've always had an aversion towards the commercialization of Christmas. For me, whether I have any warmth for religion/xianity or not, the day has always had some kind of deeper significance--the whole "peace and goodwill towards man" thing. I love the carols, Charlie Brown's Christmas special, the something magical that hangs in the air, the ringing of the bells by Salvation Army workers, etc.

With each successive year, holding on to the spiritual significance of Christmas becomes harder and harder. I detest shopping from Nov. 26-Dec. 24 and since I'm a procrastinator, I never get any of my shopping done prior to this. While my wife and I no longer do the crazy Christmas dash to dispense cash any longer, some sanity has returned to the day. However, I will go out and pick up a couple of rather inexpensive items and I'm brought face to face with the shoving, pushing, screaming consumers trying to pick up that last gift for Aunt Millie. God forbid that you get in their way!

For those of you who would like an alternative to your consumeristic Christmas past, here's a suggestion for making Christmas a little less frantic.

If you are going out to the mall today, be careful and don't get hurt.

Some companies get it

While on the subject of retail, living wages and ethical consumption, the Wal-Mart model doesn't have to be the one chosen by U.S. corporations.

Costco manages to compete with Wal-Mart while paying a living wage, offering health insurance and allowing employees to have a life of quality.

It's refreshing to hear an American CEO offer the following sentiments about valuing people over profits. In a recent interview, CEO Jim Sinegal expressed his belief in compensating the people who have built the $42 billion business into what it is today.

"They're entitled to buy homes and live in reasonably nice neighborhoods and send their children to school," he said.

If you live in an area where you have a choice of shopping at Costco or Wal-Mart, I think you know what you need to do. See if you have a warehouse near you.

Sweat-free shopping

This holiday season, I decided to take a seasonal job to pay some bills and help supplement my income while launching my first book. Many Americans use seasonal employment as a means to close the gap between the incomes from their five or six/day a week gig and the growing cost of living in many parts of the U.S.

I was rehired by a large retailer that most outside the Northeast would know. Their retail store is tourist destination for folks visiting my home state during the summer and fall. Founded by a “real” Mainer, the company has changed dramatically since their founding in the early 1900’s. What has disturbed me while answering calls from catalog customers is the number of items that the company now offers that are made in countries such as Thailand, China, Madagascar, El Salvador and other countries notorious for sweatshops and the labor abuses that go along with that. While one of the perks of seasonal employment usually is the discount that goes along with having the extra income, I’m finding it difficult to find any products that I want to buy, as every item I look up appears to be made in a third world country. While I'm sure there are reasons why this is so, I'm concerned that the primary one is profit. Not only is their merchandise made elsewhere, they aren't exactly paying top-shelf wages either.

I’ve heard many rationales for why Americans shop at retailers like Wal-Mart and others who continue to ignore calls to stop importing sweatshop-made merchandize. Some people either tune the reality out, or are too narcissistic to care. In speaking to a seasonal co-worker the other night about this very issue, his response was, “I don’t worry about that.” While his lack of concern was troubling, I believe many Americans are caring people. If presented with a way to buy well-made products at comparable prices and support the workers producing their merchandise, I think most Americans will opt to do the right thing.

I’m going to challenge my readers to carefully choose where you buy those items that aren’t necessities. For instance, your Christmas gifts this year—how about refraining from purchasing any items that are not made in the U.S.—it might take some effort, but it also might be more in keeping with the true spirit of the holiday.

If you are interested in being a better consumer, you can check out the No Sweat! site that gives consumers information about ways to avoid supporting exploitation of other humans.

Additionally, there is a great retailer that I’ve been using of late. With some great blue jeans, as well as quality mock and regular t-shirts, I’ve found a U.S. company that still pays living wages to their employees. Not only are their products union-made, they are less expensive than sweatshop-made products that I’ve made comparisons to.

Here’s an opportunity to start making a real difference by being a wiser and more humane consumer. Studies show that if Americans made a commitment to buy just one union-made garment during 2005, that would be $9 billion of merchandise—that creates an amazing amount of jobs by one relatively easy act! The choice is yours—do you buy products that provide quality lives for others, or do you act in your own self-interest, knowing others are suffering as a result?

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving, as much as any truly American celebration, is wrapped tightly in the mythology of God, flag and our superior goodness as a people.

The more I learn about the mythical Pilgrims, the less I am to want to laud the day with the significance that many do. The idea that this special group of God-fearing English settlers got together to share their bounty with the local savages that they were helping to socialize might be comforting for some, but seems rather condescending and downright racist to me.

Here is just a bit of background to ponder while settling down for that turkey and gravy:

Despite the propagation of the Thanksgiving story in books and encyclopedias, some historians believe a good deal of Pilgrim lore is just plain false. It's generally agreed that sometime in early October, not late November, fifty or so Pilgrims held a three-day harvest bash. Beyond that, there is little evidence to authenticate the stories. Writers and painters have tended to moralize and romanticize the story, embellishing it with colorful anecdotes and side stepping the grimmer details.

According to William B. Newell, a-Penobscot Indian and former chairman of the anthropology department at the University of Connecticut, the first official Thanksgiving Day Commemorated the massacre of 700 Indian men, women and children during one of their religious ceremonies. The Indians were celebrating their annual green corn dance--Thanksgiving Day to them--in a meeting house when they were attacked by English and Dutch settlers. The Indians were ordered from the building, and shot down as they came forth. Those who were left inside died in the building, which was set on fire. Another such "thanksgiving" day was proclaimed by Gov. Kieft in February 1644.

Whether they were celebrating Indian deaths or truly giving thanks for a good harvest, the Pilgrims consumed a good deal of home brew. Each Pilgrim drank at least a half gallon of ale a day. According to one account, when Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag tribe first visited the Plymouth colony, he was given a pot of brandy. It is said to have "made him sweat all the time after."

We know the first Thanksgiving took place in 1621, but the year the feast went national is anyone's guess. Some scholars say Thanksgiving became a formal holiday in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it in response to a campaign by a magazine editor named Sara Joseph Hale, the author of "Mary Had A Little Lamb." Others say it was President George Washington who proclaimed it a holiday in 1789.
(This information was reprinted from The Vegetarian Times, 1982)

What does all this mean? I for one am going to eat my turkey, celebrate the opportunity to see my son (home from college) and other family members--Americans don't take enough time to get together with one another--as well as enjoy a day when most business shuts down. I'll also keep in mind that the mythology that I was taught in school was a lie and give thanks that I'm aware that much of what passes for the truth is worthy of skeptical consideration.

The older I get, the more difficult I find it to just go along with many of the "holidays" that we celebrate. What I've been doing is finding new ways to imbue these days with some sense of reality, while not totally shunning participation in the activities. I enjoy the festive nature of many of these celebrations, but often despise the superficial meaning that many try to maintain in the face of evidence to the contrary.

Having said all of this, I still take the time to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, whatever that means to you and yours.