And that’s another point.  A recent comic strip pointed out that Christmas used to be about parents doing something nice for kids and kids appreciating it, but now it’s about “growing the economy”.

Well, that’s fine if you think that the economy is what makes America strong, but America ~ like people ~ is strongest in adversity, not in prosperity.  We have entire generations who have never known real adversity or the joys of a simple life. 

Techno, socio, economically addiction. 

The birth of social drama as a form of communication. 

The inability to look a man in the eye and speak plainly to him. 

Okay, what brought this on was a documentary film I watched on Vermont Public Television yesterday about a feller who moved up to Twin Lakes, Alaska, and lived alone in the wilderness for 35 years.  He built everything he needed, hunted for his food, and lived a good life.  A little snow didn’t phase him, and he had about 8 feet of snow on the ground from September to early-May.

So, we’ve lost our cultural intelligence, is what I’m saying, and it’s been replaced with something that is NOT positive.  And this notion of continuing to grow the economy is a symptom, and it is killing the soul of America for a few reasons:

1)    Growing the economy means that the heads of the corporations are getting richer and the businesses are growing, but, as we can see, that does not mean that the common people are benefiting from the growth, since the economy has been growing at the expense of the working man;

2)    Something can only grow so far before it collapses on itself;

3)    Growing the economy seems to mean buying more crap that is just gonna end up in a landfill. It means addiction to new technology and a loss of understanding of how to do things when technology doesn’t work. There is no longer an understanding in America of the difference between a need and a want;

4)    Growing the economy means that more people are trying to live well outside their means, and are being driven into debt because they either can’t control their spending, or credit becomes far too necessary a tool for life;

5)    Due to human nature, prosperity usually drives us further and further away from our dependence on God.

So, okay, I have homework to do, so I’m gonna stop ranting.  Remember that Christmas isn’t about growing the economy, and NEVER vote for a politician who always talks about it ~ we need to live within our means.  Think about it: Andrew Jackson was the last president who actually balanced the budget.  He figured that, if a family needed to live within its means, why shouldn’t the government?  Well, perhaps it’s because the government can’t live within its means that it is encouraging the public at large not to, either.