Marketing the Holidays

The Most Advertised Time of the Year

It is that time of year again. Commercial ads and sales galore! All dollars earned must be spent on frivolous fabrications of the leviathan, also known as the manufacturing sector. Stacking deep and selling cheap deals can be found alongside scams and other snake oil peddling pontification. Black Thursday has been indefinitely extended. Buy... Buy... BUY!

Quite frankly, I'm not buying it.  Now, that is not to say that I never purchase anything. I am, however, more conscious of whom I purchase from.  I must admit, living in a place like Austin, Texas makes it easy. I have stayed away from Wal-Mart for years now. Living in ATX makes finding local alternatives to big box options a breeze. Not really my point for this blog entry, but a nice aside that bolsters my greater train of thought.

What Have We Strayed From?

Found this little Internet gem:

Origins of Christmas

For someone like me, information such as this is nothing new, but still appreciated when I stumble upon it. Humanity has danced away from past tradition and ritual as we always have and will continue to do. Our current step is off balance, out of sync, and in disharmony with the beautiful music echoing throughout space. Abundance is the tune that resounds. Freedom is the melody punctuating the tune. Love, Kindness, and Respect are the instruments comprising the melody. I cannot wait to be a part of this Cosmic Fugue (Carl Sagan).

Speaking of Sagan, a birdie whistled to me one summer afternoon that Mr. Sagan may have been Majestic... as in Twelve.  Not only that, but Carl Sagan was said to have held a vastly different opinion of life outside of Earth prior to a possible incident that changed his perspective forever.  I wonder if Mrs. Sagan holds answers to such mutterings..?

Why Not Create a Different Society?

We are smart creatures, right? Why are we so unable to create a mutually equitable societal system for the entire planet? Why are we instead taught to compete? If you do not believe that Western Society is predicated on and almost always personified by competition, hit the snooze button and go back to sleep.

For those interested in my point, we are taught competition at home as children, in schools as children, in colleges as adults, in the workplace as employees, and in the sacred texts of all denominations. Why is that? If you need examples,  think of sibling rivalry. There is even a tag for this explicit type of familial competition. Later it is the pressures of competing for grades in both high school and college, all for the sake of competing in the job market. On the news, religious and national competitions manifest as wars and genocides, usually visited by the stronger unto the weaker. Resources and land being more valuable than human life you see...

Some of you may be thinking that my argument is invalid since the types of competition mentioned are not taught outright, intentionally, or with malice as the aim. Perhaps. However, who constructed our current society and has it really changed at all since its inception?

Sure, technology has improved over the generations, hell, over the past few weeks in certain fields religiously. But those creating the technology are actually just competing for profit margins and bottom lines, right? No one is actually manufacturing anything sustainable, renewable, or equitable for society at large, are they? I do not mean to paint with wide brushstrokes, but if even a fraction of the current capitalist system pursued a benevolent societal transformation, built on the values mentioned above in reference to the Cosmic Fugue, wouldn't we be there already?

The Resistance

If the entirety of the population of our planet, all 7 billion, could live harmonious lives in tandem with peace, prosperity, and abundance for all, who would resist such a Utopia? We have the means to make this possible.

Open Source Ecology

Keshe Foundation

The Venus Project

Above are just a few links to sites that, if viewed with an open mind and loving heart, provide plausible possibilities for Humanity's future. Our individual and collective psyches will play an important role in shaping our adaptability when it comes to transitioning from our old, competitive paradigm into a new, mutually equitable scenario.

We have been taught, almost bred to fight for everything we have as humans. Who this initially was taught by may never fully be known. Regardless, what has been learned can be unlearned. What has been bred in can be bred out. Awareness and recognition of our current state is the foundation on which benevolent change can manifest for Humanity. Few are beginning to see. Most never will.  Until the few become the majority though, the status quo will Ho Ho Ho HOE out the Holidays, pushing the soulless values upheld by the current capitalistic consumerism over the soulful yearnings of Love, Kindness, Respect, Freedom and Abundance for All.

- JBiZ!