A time for others

Submitted by Lindsay
Melbourne Australia!

But What is Freedom? Rightly understood,
a universal license to be good.
- Hartley Coolidge, 1833

(12/2021) Some Christmas presents come from unexpected givers with unexpected presents inside.

I doubt that anyone, six months ago, would have predicted that a President and a Chairman would look at each other and talk for some thirty minutes about matters of considerable importance. And to agree that they would continue to talk. Not since President Nixon went to China has such diplomacy been seen. That visit prompted an opera, a film, and a huge number of books.

The new one will not do that, but it has reduced the temperature of foreign relations by a degree or so, and made ‘Merry Christmas’ a distinct possibility, and instead of Christmas crackers we may be making Christmas pudding.

But it was also strange, because it showed the many differences, and the one great similarity. The differences are in the freedom, the voting, and the diversity of people - which America encourages and China suppresses – and the collective communist system versus the democratic, free-market system.

But it is the one great similarity that I want to mention here: Both countries are dictatorships. China is one because that is the communist system, and everything is, in theory, controlled by the state. America is also one because (nearly) everything is controlled by business. Yes, I know Democracy is supposed to be run by the representatives that the people chosen, but the rich and powerful found they could convince some presidents – Reagan and the Bushes among them – that they could not only regulate their own businesses, but that they would see that some of their profit would trickle down to the populace.

As the world-wide- trade machine got going, they banded together to make fewer and fewer companies that have more and more clout, until today the likes of Amazon, Google, and Facebook control much of the commerce, most of the information and a good deal of the economy.

Certainly, Trump gave them the green light, knowing that he would benefit, and many Republicans knew the same. Not so strangely, they do not want to give up any part of their power, and very little of their wealth. They have lost sight of what democracy means, and, because they are powerful, they also have to be clever, and they thus know they cannot be wrong.

That too is a funny thing. Power turns the empathy button off, the ivory tower is the penthouse of bias, the bonus is the main goal, and all is well - provided the yokels have enough dough to buy their largely worthless products.

In other words, they are a dictatorship with not one, but three or four in charge. For many people, the so-called ‘workers’ of the land, they control your wage, your conditions, your hours; they control the laws that matter, which has led to the enormous disparity and the highest incarceration rate in the world.

We know that China is the ultimate dictatorship, where one group make the laws and controls the structure. They aim to make China a country of uniformity, where everyone believes the same thing – that the leader is god, the government is supreme. Yet, from all reports, very few of the citizens are unhappy. Many of the poor have become middle-class; most of the people seem happy, and are free, provided they fall into line. Their education, though highly competitive, is vibrant, and commerce is still growing. There are no reported gun deaths, the rate of incarceration is relatively low – providing you don’t count the ‘re-education’ camps.

By comparison, are most Americans happy? How many poor have been lifted to middle class? Do you know a family that has been affected by the gun lobby? OK, only you can answer that, but you have one thing over the Chinese: The appearance of freedom. To do what you want when you want to.

And that freedom is to celebrate Christmas, where there will be presents, rejoicing, gifts and smiles. Where friendships are bright, the departed remembered, and spirits raised. That is something no dictatorship can ever allow. It’s remarkable that this day, the (nominal) birthday of the saviour’s birth, is the glue of the Christian faith. Yes, Good Friday is a time of remembrance for the more religious among you, that the season is a commercial icon, but that does not diminish the importance of the fact.

It is also amazing that the history of this comes from many cultures and places, beginning with the Egyptian Akhenaten in the 14th century B.C. who declared that there was only one God in all the universe. Not just declared, but imposed on his subjects and those who were from other tribes in the area, including a race that became the Jewish, then the Muslims in the 7th century A D. All these monotheistic movements had their God as the supreme ruler, whose voice and laws had to be obeyed. ‘I am the Lord thy God; thou shall no other gods before me.’ His name could, and did, command that the Israelites should ‘March around the city, blowing rams horns... and the walls shall fall. Then the city shall be sacked.

This God had no mercy for his enemies, no quarter for dissenters, and those who were thought to question were consigned to hell when they died. The very model of an ancient dictator. That God also had no place for women, which is still true today, no matter the protests from the Muslims.

When Jesus arrived, the old commands were forgotten, and a message of ‘love thy neighbor’ was put in their place. And that is the essential message of Christmas.

In spite of everything that works to defeat that message, I wonder if many people totally forget it today. It’s the hardest thing to do, but the great majority of people in the world are kind hearted, generous, and well meaning.

Except for those people who think militia is the way to go, and the courts who now make murder legal. The outcome of this will be more chaos, more hatred, and less love and kindness.

Even so, I really hope you have a generous, kind hearted and happy time this festive season.