24/12/2004 10:44:16 am
Merry Christmas! Let me wish you a truly happy and restful Christmas with this quote by Ayn Rand, which I borrow from ny good friend and colleague Johan Norberg:
"The secular meaning of the Christmas holiday is wider than the tenets of any particular religion: it is good will toward men... The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says: ´Merry Christmas´ ? not ´Weep and repent´. And the good will is expressed in a material, earthly form ? by giving presents to one?s friends, or by sending them cards in token of remembrance?
The best aspect of Christmas is the aspect usually decried by the mystics: the fact that Christmas has been commercialized. The gift-buying?stimulates an enormous outpouring of ingenuity in the creation of products devoted to a single purpose: to give men pleasure. And the street-decorations put up by the department stores and other institutions ? the Christmas trees, the winking lights, the glittering colors ? provide the city with a spectacular display, which only ´commercial greed´ could afford to give us. One would have to be terribly depressed to resist the wonderful gaiety of that spectacle."