The Thirteen Scariest People in America. I find the judge and the academic to be particularly scary, for obvious reasons (Kevin MacDonald seems to be a good argument against tenure).
Class rant ahead: I have a theory about Halloween that's been percolating for a few weeks now. Halloween is the holiday of the poor and disfranchised and dispossessed in the U.S. This is aside from all its Saturnalia connotations or pagan elements. It's the time when we actually acknowledge that the world is a scary, fucked-up place full of monsters under the bed and capitalists in the closet and warmongers and acts of violence and cruelty committed for their own sake. Compare this to Christmas*, when we are expected to spend frantically in order to prove some notion of universal love and peace and brotherhood -- nothing's scary, everything's beautiful and pure! Classic bourgeois denial mechanism and an annual chance to make yourself feel better (yearly visit to the shelter or church collection plate), along with providing a "much-needed boost to our economy." Halloween on the other hand is cheap and easy -- it's a fun holiday in the trailer park or housing project because most people with access to 99 cents for candy and a needle and thread for costumes can afford to participate in some way (and food stamps work for pumpkins -- later they become pie!). Again, compare this to Christmas (or Thanksgiving -- both falling unfortunately at the end of the month) when those without money or feasts or presents for their kids invariably feel like crap in comparison to the highly commercialized, shiny, sparkly, non-scary lives they're supposed to have. And bags of donated food or old clothes do not make that feeling go away. Goblins of the world, unite! (I also have a theory that working-class folks are more likely to dress up in scary, as opposed to cutesy, costumes -- admittedly based solely on my series of Halloween parties this weekend, but that's another story.)
*Disclaimer: For all my trash talk now, I will totally be rhapsodizing about Christmas and decorating like crazy in approximately a month, because I am a contradictory person and because I have a huge overcompensation thing going on for my own years of donated food Christmases. Plus I am a sucker for pretty things and Christmas is all about the pretty. But I also know that my experience of a pretty Christmas now comes at the price of all those who live in a scary world 365 days a year. So Halloween still feels a lot more real.
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3 comments:
Thanks to you, the revolution will be color-coordinated.
Never underestimate the power of aesthetically-pleasing propaganda. Or what capitalists like to call "advertising."
Or maybe - Halloween is the day before All Saint's Day when one makes sure to acknowledge all the crappiness in the world before acknowledging all of the goodness? It's really too bad that so much meaning has been taken out of these holidays so all that's left is this big, ugly commercial shell.
I HATE what Christmas stands for in the US. Money, presents, tinsel, MONEY, PRESENTS, ahh! And yeah, I'm not too impressed with the once-a-year make-myself-feel-better givers either.
Not saying we should all be forced to bring the Christ back into Christmas, but it is rather a stupid holiday to celebrate if you're just in it for the presents.
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