Well, I will say this in Tessa's behalf. Every year the holidays do start earlier, in terms of sales and commercials. With the decline in our economy, one way to boost it has been to get people to shop. Couple all this with the fact that more people have access to commercials than they did even just ten years ago, and, that the american society, as a whole, has become more jaded and desensitized due to our electronic culture, and has become less spiritual due to our misguided knowledge that we all "get science," and yes, you could say that holidays have become more commercialized and less meaningful.
ok... to satisfy everyone [if that's possible], or at least jj, here's how i perhaps should have worded that post, in order to not appear to be a 'racist' which i soooo most definitely am not! [being 'white' myself, that wouldn't make much sense, would it?]: i've lived with the hopi, have met folks from many other tribes, as i traveled back and forth across their lands, and i've seen first-hand the results of non-tribal folks' greed and lust for 'easy money' being passed on to them in the form of casinos... all those garish temples to the money god [that are all financed/built/backed by bahanas (the hopi word for non-tribal people, whom most tribal folks generally refer to as 'the white man' or 'whites'... which is the only reason i used the term in the original post)] do is exacerbate these long-suffering peoples' long-existing curses of alcoholism, diabetes, domestic violence, et al., because whatever money is doled out to the tribal members from gambling profits only brings them more of the same... and/or is lost by gambling either in their own casinos where allowed, or privately where not... i don't fault the majority of 'native americans' or canada's 'first nation' people for it in any way, only the uncaring, greedy non-tribal folks who are the only ones who benefit from using and abusing those who were here first, as they've always done... i do, however, also assign some blame to the tribal leaders who fall for the non-tribal folks' offer of the tempting 'apple' since they know better and still accept it... unlike the hopi, who are probably the only tribe in the us or canada whose leaders and members have resisted the tempation, being wise enough to know what ugly evils lurk beneath the attractive surface...
I think its ridiculous that the Dec 25 celebrations are no longer called xmas. Its a catholic thing, if its not your bag move on but let us keep Christmas. I bet the PC police are chomping at the bit to screw Easter! happy holidays my ass - happy effin Christmas!
If there is a politically-correct or at least politically-safe group to discriminate against or be bigoted against in the U.S., it appears to be Christians these days. I'm not religious, so I have no inherent investment in the Christian religion, but people who might otherwise consider themselves progressive and would be loathe to make prejudiced comments about other races, creeds or religions generally often have no problem doing so with respect to Christians or Christianity. It is emblematic of the contradictions within human politics and social policy.
The US has it's own culture, no doubt. But we also have large cultural differences within the country. I'd imagine that's true for more than one large country. Russia, China, and India, all have distinct cultural differences within their borders.
