Merry Nietzschmas 2008

Sometimes, I wish people a Merry Saturnalia, or Sol Invictus, or whatever pagan excuse for gift-giving and merriment it was that the Christians incorporated into Christmas. But other than a semi-facetious, subversive, appeal to tradition, what else are such greetings?

My not entirely genuine hat-tip to pagans is wearing thin. I need to be more sincere in my subversion.

MERRY NIETZSCHMAS!!!

Why not celebrate Nietzsche? It’s not like Christian or not, we aren’t doing it already.

Nietzsche never got around to his re-evaluation, but we do it every December the 25th (unless you belong to one of those strange religions*). Think about it.

You look back at the sum of your life and the year that has been, and spiralling toward nihilism, you put your head in the gas oven. If you can reflect and re-evaluate successfully, you take your head out and put the turkey back in (or the tofu if that’s your thing).

And take presents. Which is the strongest, your good will to all or your rug rats’ will to power over Santa’s list? Indeed, the little tykes are beyond good and evil – they get on the good list no matter what, shrugging off Santa’s old criteria because as Überkinder, they can make their own morals.

There is something very Nietzschian about contemporary Christmas, even as practiced by Christians.

Modern Christmas is predicated upon the Death of Claus, leading to much angst in but only a few.

Santa Claus is dead and we have killed him. Most kids born in the west never believe in Santa Claus, even if attempts to inculcate children are made. Claus lacks explanatory power, even for what the modern toddler observes of the culture of Christmas.

While for some Children, there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth, much existential angst, and for their parents, attempts to re-capture what was lost, for others, the modern majority, the Death of Claus is something to revel in. The corpse of Claus is the stuff of jokes – a by-word for stupid, even amongst those who believe in the numinous.

Instead of wallowing in angst at what has been lost, the modern participant in Christmas celebrates what remains after the carnage of Santa’s last, fatal sleigh ride, and cherishes that which grows from the wreckage. Including the loot of presents previously intended for children deemed “good” under the old slave morality.

You may say that I am appropriating Christian tradition, and that after criticising Christmas as appropriated from pagans, this makes me a hypocrite. Not at all! Appropriation is a part of that which remains, re-evaluated and deemed worthy. Appropriation from the religious traditions of others, is a Christian tradition – take what modern Christians recognise as the Crucifix – a symbol appropriated from pagans in the middle east who used a similar icon. At the time of the alleged crucifixion of Christ, the Romans used the stavros (a capital “T” shaped monstrosity) to nail people up, not a cross-shaped crucifix.

It is therefore a hat tip to Christianity, to continue this Christian tradition on Christendom’s holiest of days. Even if I’m not Christian.

It’s not just Christmas that has gone all Nietzschian. Consider the Easter long weekend. Nietzsche wrote in The Gay Science, “The secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and greatest enjoyment is — to live dangerously.”

It’s no coincidence that the road tolls peak at Easter. People are living dangerously. Perhaps not in the way Nietzsche intended, nor in a way that you or I would approve of, but living dangerously and extracting joy from it all the same (provided they are one of the majority of Xmas hoons, or at least not one of the victims thereof, that don’t wind up as a tragic accident.)

But I digress. To all of you, atheists, Christians and assorted theists alike, Merry Nietzschmas!

~ Bruce

* Yes, I’m being ironic.