I have had a debate before about the cruelty of the Santa myth. My position was: why tell a child a lie when the truth can be just as wonderful. People give gifts because it makes everyone feel better, both giver and receiver. That's about as optimistic a thought on human nature as any I've ever heard, and makes a good moral that could stand to be reinforced once a year. The inclusion of an improbably generous elf just junks it up. Even as an avatar of human kindness, he just competes with your religious icon of choice. The only use he serves is as an implacable judge of Good vs Bad. One who is unassailable by whining and begging, but whose eyes are everywhere. Apparently God needs a heavy, and Papa Noel is it (Santa is the carrot to Satan's stick). But I've had to rethink my prior position. I think Saint Nick does serve a purpose, and an important developmental one at that.
After careful thought, I realized that Father Christmas is not about generosity, and certainly not about Christian faith, but he is definitely the incarnation of Judgement. And not just the good and bad list thing either. He is an important milestone in a child's life, an early lesson in critical thinking. Because at some point, all children learn that he's not real, and suddenly they are forced to acknowledge a painful truth: their parents have been lying to them. Not only that, but everyone else in the world has been lying to them. That forces them to think, what else are they lying about? Is there an Easter Bunny? Am I adopted? Where will it all end? Suddenly, the child is no longer a passive recipient of knowledge but a thinking being, evaluating data based on self-created criteria. Babbo Natale is all about doubt, and the deconstruction of authority. They are becoming the evaluators of good and bad. They have eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and are turning into Santa themselves.
Sure, it's a painful lesson. But so is finding out that hot things burn. You hope children find out with bath water instead of a house fire, so you let them play with the taps. You don't let them play with matches. The same goes with Mr. Kringle. Even after the initial let down, you're still left with a popular holiday, and that pleasant thought on humanity. So there is the attention focusing pain to drive the lesson home, but not too much. Not enough to threaten a normal child's psyche.
Plus it gives them a small ego boost of being 'in the club' with the other grownups who are in on the secret, a glimpse into the higher mysteries of the complicated world of grownups, who apparently lie to each other all the time, constantly. It sets them on the path of figuring out when someone is telling them the truth or not, and whether it matters, of evaluating truth in a social context. Lying is fine, even necessary, in so many situations, and the jolly old elf is the key. It's all very modern day Joseph Campbell: a myth that serves the growth of the individual in society.
So my advice is this: Don't leave Santa out of Christmas! Sure, he's a modern commercially inspired symbol subverting a religious event, but he has his place. Sing his praises, and throw in the flying reindeer. Stuff the gullible with tall tales till they eventually puke, it'll be good for them.
No comments:
Post a Comment