Well said, Orn!
On Dec 25, 3:19 pm, ornamentalmind <[email protected]> wrote:
> http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/christmas.html
>
> Christmas
>
> [In answer to the question of whether it is appropriate for an atheist
> to celebrate Christmas:]
>
> Yes, of course. A national holiday, in this country, cannot have an
> exclusively religious meaning. The secular meaning of the Christmas
> holiday is wider than the tenets of any particular religion: it is
> good will toward men—a frame of mind which is not the exclusive
> property (though it is supposed to be part, but is a largely
> unobserved part) of the Christian religion.
>
> The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good
> will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says:
> “Merry Christmas”—not “Weep and Repent.” And the good will is
> expressed in a material, earthly form—by giving presents to one’s
> friends, or by sending them cards in token of remembrance . . . .
>
> The best aspect of Christmas is the aspect usually decried by the
> mystics: the fact that Christmas has been commercialized. The gift-
> buying . . . stimulates an enormous outpouring of ingenuity in the
> creation of products devoted to a single purpose: to give men
> pleasure. And the street decorations put up by department stores and
> other institutions—the Christmas trees, the winking lights, the
> glittering colors—provide the city with a spectacular display, which
> only “commercial greed” could afford to give us. One would have to be
> terribly depressed to resist the wonderful gaiety of that spectacle.
>
> The Objectivist Calendar, Dec. 1976.
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