Actually the subject of Santa is not as slam dunk an either/or issue of existence. There are those who don’t believe in him yet do! There are those who do believe in but don’t! Chauvinists believe in him in the image of a sexy woman to effect erection. There is the conditional belief: kids only. Parents believed in Santa when kids, therefore their children must believe in him, too, with the confidence they will grow out of it as they did. There are those who think of him as a giant commercial hoax, yet hop on his Macy’s float for the sake of their kids. Many are fiercely skeptical until they reluctantly follow through on family tradition and pope in the DVD of Miracle on 34th Street and become as much believers as their children. The sacrosanct in denial strip the entire scenario of a crass Santa and gala subdivisions to a bareboned calendar date subliminally signifying ignorance, yet enjoy the day off. Some find Santa an affront to a religious occasion, but cannot turn down the secular rewards. Credit card companies believe in Santa post-mortem when the profits roll in. Business people, believers and non-believers, agree Santa is a cash-cow.
What cannot be denied is that Santa is existentially in line with the West’s infrastructure of necessary consumerism, but with the bonus of consumerism uniquely giving. As for me I am a dvout believer in Santa’s existence because Mommy said so — and I don’t mean the government.
Copyright © 2005 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: December 12, 2005.
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