The comparisons to Jesus and Santa have been made before and
not all are nice. In fact there are more than a few books and websites that do
nothing but expound upon the similarities of Santa to Satan and his usurping of
Christ’s role in the world particularly at Christmas time.
But what does a 19th century American essayist/philosopher/rebel
have to do with either of them? The truth is, depending on your personal
beliefs, nothing or everything. Contrary to popular belief I hold a degree in
Religion. It is a degree that, though I enjoyed earning, means very little in
the “real world.” I do not regret my decision in pursuing such a degree and I
only make mention of it because I can’t help but notice that many of my friends
that studied alongside me have all followed paths much different than my
own. That is not to say I am alone in my
beliefs, not at all. Simply that the community that I was part of whether
through similarities of study, interest, disposition, or even convenience I no
longer feel a part of. There is a restlessness of spirit that no amount of
study of scripture was able to fix and which has at least in my private
thoughts ostracized me from that community. Yet, there is no mourning on my
part. Rather I feel as a prisoner let free from the confines of a prison. I
have a newfound freedom that neither study nor experience has fully prepared me
for.
Yes, I know, as Socrates once said “I know that I know
nothing.” Without getting into Greek semantics and syntax I first acknowledge
that I do not possess all the knowledge that would allow me comfortably to make
all the right decisions every single time. Also I am honest enough to say that
even at times that I do have the required knowledge to make the right choice I
may, for whatever reason, choose not to. This is I believe my right as a human
to be able to choose. However it is my duty as a neighbor living amongst others
and in a world that I share with others to choose to do right.
Now again, what does Thoreau have to do with this? And Jesus
and Santa for that matter? To me Thoreau stands as a rare ideal. Not in that
his beliefs are mine though yes some of them are. What I see in Thoreau that I
do not see in Jesus is freedom. I don’t mean to blaspheme here…or perhaps I do.
I haven’t quite decided. Jesus; those teachings
of his that are transmitted down to us are what I cherish and value. Yes I
admit even those can never be fully accepted either without some amount of
faith. Yet, even if those teachings are myth attributed to legend they are
still very valuable and instructive. And were we still to assume that the Jesus
in the scriptures is the real Jesus it is not hard to find many places where he
has been taken up as an icon and idol to be worshiped blindly with little
regard, if any, to his actual teachings. We seek salvation through gestures and
prescribed readings while the evil in the world festers through indifference
and a lack of courage to act.
Santa is an even more perfect example though perhaps not as
devastating as the empty Jesus. Here is a figure that represents all the good
we would like to see in the world manifested precisely in the manner by which
we prevent that good from being fully realized. The commercialism is a problem
yes that distracts us from doing good unto others. However the general
atmosphere does have the ancillary effect of promoting a spirit of goodwill
that one finds less common in the general population on a daily basis outside
of the season. The real problem I believe lies at the fact that it is the
material goods that keep us from attaining that full awareness of the other. We
do enough to appease our conscience and little more. What happens when the
trees are taken down, the toys forgotten, the lights put away? Is Santa that
figure that promotes the good we are capable of beyond the season in ways
beyond the material? Is he a leader or a myth we create and expand upon because
it makes us feel good? Or does he represent more.
Both the modern Jesus and Santa are to me of little import
when discussing matters of good and evil simply because they are constructs of
a society created to serve that society not the other way around. I am not
saying that we should open a church of Santa (as funny as that sounds to me). Nor
am I saying that to enjoy our traditions makes us an outright agent of evil.
But it is very easy to get distracted and forget what is really important.
And that leads me back to Thoreau. I don’t know what is
really important and I am one of the biggest fans of our current Christmas
season; to such a degree that I have been playing Harry for the Holidays since
mid-September. Is that normal? Probably
not. What I find appealing about Thoreau and others like him is the rebellious
nature. He questions as easily as he breathes, and I suspect that to him it is
just as necessary to existence. I love the freedom of thought, to challenge an
idea and not fight against the friction created by the reproach of centuries of
orthodoxy. The God I choose to believe in does not look down on this freedom of
thought, but rather encourages it. How can we better understand his greatness
if we are not allowed to discover all that we don’t know?
I would have finished this review earlier but Voldar was
keeping me hostage in a cave.
By: Gus Victoria
Title:Santa
Claus Conquers the Martians
Year:1964
Director: Nicholas Webster
Writer: Glenville Mareth (based on a story by Paul L.
Jacobson)
Cast: John Call, Leonard Hicks, Vincent Beck, Bill
McCutcheon…
Plot
Something is wrong
with the Martian children. They don’t eat, aren’t sleeping well and seem to be
obsessed with TV programs from Earth. Kimar, the leader of the Martian people,
notices this change in his own children; Bomar and Girmar. Gathering a council
he proceeds to seek advice from the wise sage Chochem. This has long been
coming he says. The Martian children have no childhood. They are fed a
“constant stream of information” from the moment they are born. They don’t know
what it is to play and be children.
Kimar decides the
best way to help the children of Mars is to kidnap Santa Claus from Earth and
put him to work on Mars making toys for all the Martian boys and girls. So in
short order they arrive on earth only to find many Santas!! They then come
across two children, Billy and Betty, who explain to the confused Martians that
all those Santas were simply his helpers and the real Santa is found at the
North Pole. Kidnapping Billy and Betty they then make their way to Santa’s
workshop where they capture Santa and take him, along with the Earth children,
back to Mars.
On Mars Kimar has
provided Santa with a high-tech fully automated workshop. He seems to be a real
hit with the girls and boys of Mars and Kimar’s plan is working perfectly
except for two things. The earthlings miss home and another Martian named
Voldar has been against the plan the whole time and actively seeks to sabotage
the workshop and send Santa back to Earth. Voldar is foiled by Santa and the
chidren, but Santa is still sent home with the earth children after Kimar’s
bumbling yet friendly servant Dropo becomes Mars’ own version of Santa Claus.
Review
The real mystery
behind this gem of a film is why I hadn’t seen it earlier. This really should
be a Christmas classic! The premise is weak, the script even weaker and the
production quality matches both in feebleness. However the acting, though far
from great, is not as terrible as other WTF films. Santa Claus, Kimar, Voldmar,
and Dropo all deliver decent if not stellar performances. The charm of this
film I think is its apparent innocence and lack of pretense. It is a low-budget
Christmas film about aliens from Mars and it does not pretend to be anything
else.
Missed jokes and poor comedic timing just make
this movie funnier. This movie reminded me of a later sci-fi film, Planet of
the Vampires, of course not as good and without the Christmas theme.
Perhaps two of the
best bits about this movie were the props and the unforgettable theme song. The
Martian “stun guns” are nothing more than painted Wham-O Air Blasters and I get
a nice laugh every time I see them used against Santa’s elf helpers. The theme
song of course is the epitome of bad 60’s pop cheese. And boy is it catchy.
This movie is highly
recommended. Perhaps it does not benefit from the quality of other
Christmastime films but it is no less enjoyable if taken for what it is. A bad
sci-fi Christmas movie! That genre unfortunately is not as large as it should
be!
Religion. It looks like a dirty word doesn’t it? To me it
is. It carries with it the combined baggage of our collective human existence, its
origin predating the very foundations of culture. This article does not begin
there. Rather the genesis of this particular rant is found years ago in one
particular song; Imagine by John
Lennon. For so long I had spurned this song as a soulless heathen daydream. How
can one imagine let alone wish for a
world without religion. Friends and family adored this song and I resisted. I
was at the time a self-styled intellectual with deep spiritual roots and happy
in my conservative Catholic tradition. I saw a world so different than what was
ideal, but a world where religion was crucial as a means to bring back that
ideal and create a better world. Imagine
was a childish fantasy I wanted no part of. And then I grew up.
Years of study and living has led me to see the best and
worst that religion has to offer. I could assign the bad to Satan and credit
the good to God. A younger me probably would have. An angry, equally foolish me
would have reversed it ironically. I
choose to do neither, because those two figures have nothing to do with it.
Every action, good or bad, began as a choice. Religion is a mask we use to
protect us from the truths of the world. The best and worst that religion can
offer is also the best and worst that humanity can offer.
It is easy to condemn religion as an opiate or a panacea for
the weak. It would be hard to argue the hate that has originated from all
religions despite the message of love they all seem to convey. However it would
be equally hard to deny the power of love and justice that religions all over
the world throughout time have championed. The cycle of hate must not be
allowed to carry on by condemning believers, nor must the cycle of love be
allowed to end through a difference of belief.
Just imagine it; a world without religion and without
nations. The differences of mankind would no longer divide. These are not the
words of a foolish man. They are the words of a person that understands we are
one. Now I understand that song. I am a dreamer. Are you?
Today is an important day for a lot of my friends and
coworkers and indeed millions of others around the world. You see 110 years ago
one Walter Elias Disney was born. And today more than any other day I feel like
Ebenezer Scrooge; a person that seemed to simply miss the point of the day.
However unlike Scrooge I will not be visited by spirits of past, present, and
future Disney to show me what this celebration is really all about. Furthermore
I would not want to be. Disney was a man and he left a company. That is it.
Nothing more. So many others seem almost to deify him, and frankly it is
sickening. What makes him so worthy of cult-like adulation?
He was an innovator! Well so was Wozniak and Tesla.
He was a visionary! Ghandi and King Jr. had grander dreams.
Well he created Disneyland! To those that visited the 1893
World’s Faire that was far more impressive in all aspects even if not
permanent.
I’m not here to bash Disney. There are more than enough
places where that is the case. Each of those things above are true, he created,
innovated, dreamt, and made those dreams reality. That is rare in a person and
worthy of admiration. However it seems that it is much more than admiration
what I witness. Yes, I live in one of two ground zeros for that sentiment. So I
perhaps am unfairly critical because of my constant contact with this blind
love. I’ll give you that. It doesn’t change how I feel though that this
admiration borders on fanatical devotion to one man. A man to whom has been
attributed much more than what he actually did and no notice paid to any of his
own personal faults. Faults that in today’s society would have him become a
social pariah in moments. Or perhaps not, Disney was as much shaped by his time
as he did shape it.
Walt Disney left an indelible imprint on American culture
and entertainment and his influence is hard to overstate. However he is not a myth, he was just another
successful director/producer/studio head with a much better reputation than
most. Seems the man my friends celebrate today was too good to have lived. Is
this how heroes are born? Someone quote Joseph Campbell please!
There are theories as to why he receives such an inordinate
amount of love, but I will save that for another post. I leave you friends with
birthday wishes to TWO men I admire (but do not idolize) with utmost certainty:
Happy Birthday Walt Disney and Werner Heisenberg!
