Job Discussion Forums

[leeroy]

"And so the perennial dictum is to spread goodwill among all men. The irony is, of course, that this is contrary to our nature. So why do we do it? Because we are being watched! We tirelessly work towards the happiness of others safe in the knowledge that we will be rewarded - with peace, happiness... (and plutonium)."

As said Stewie Griffin (see left) playing baby Jesus in the Family Guy Christmas special, during the Quahog Christmas Pageant. His reference to plutonium was based on a deal he had struck with Santa Claus. Stewie, you see, is an evil genius hell-bent on world domination, who, upon hearing of Santa's omnipotence, decided it would be pragmatic to bargain with Santa rather than oppose him outright. Thus, in return for "being good", Santa would reward him with plutonium. (In the end, he got it). Anyway...

Foor those of you not in the know, Family Guy is an American cartoon - somewhere between South Park and The Simpsons in terms of crudeness. "What's the point leeroy?" - a few might be thinking at this point.

Well, I've seen this episode a few hundred times recently (I made a worksheet on it, and have been showing it to every class in the school for the last 3 weeks) - and Stewie's comments got me to thinking...

Yes, the idea of Christmas is that we are all nice to each other (along with the equally prominent, but less morally righteous consumerist obligations). It is a time when everyone is supposed to "be nice", to see the family and (in Britain, at least) a time when you are allowed to be friendly to complete strangers without seeming that you have just recently escaped from an asylum.

On the surface, at least, this might seem fair enough. Why not have a time of year when people are jolly and civil; a time when differences and hostilities are at least temporarily forgotten, and everyone is, indeed, "nice"?

If the Dalai Lama had his way, then we would all be like this all the time. But as Stewie so aptly put it: "this is contrary to our nature". We are not inherently "nice" to everyone - so why pretend? This fake niceness that occurs at Christmas is exactly just that, we know that the jolly Christmas salutations to shopkeepers and other anonymous members of the public are nothing more than societal obligations - as do they. No real festive cheer is being spread at all, this is nothing more than conformation to societal (and, tenuously, religious) dogma.

That's one way of looking at it, at least.

The other would be to say that actually, people are a little jollier, and a little nicer (in the genuine sense) at Christmas time. This isn't something that we can keep up all year - but is something that we can scrape together for a week or two. Perhaps Christmas is all about being realistic - we can't be nice all the time, but we can manage it for a bit.

So here's the question...

Forgetting about the consumerist aspect of Christmas, where on line between "fake" and "genuine" do you consider the "Goodwill to all men" message to be?

[Teacher in Rome]

[Ariadne]

It is my personal theory that most people really want to be nice, and that given the opportunity to interact pleasantly, they will. Store clerks are a great example. If I take the time and effort to really look at them and say a few friendly words, the clerks will almost always undergo a visible change. The glazed look will leave their eyes, they will usually smile a real smile, and they will make some verbal response. It seems to work that way back home and in China. Christmas offers a few extra choices for casual greetings, but it doesn't cause me to change the way I usually interact with folks. I think that being nice is a good thing.

[struelle]

My take is that people simply are able to loosen up and relax around the holiday season, whether it's Christmas in the West, Spring Festival in China, Ramadan or Deepavali in Malaysia, and in other holidays around the globe.

For the vast majority who are stuck in the grind of unfulfilling work and consumerism, the holidays present a short break from that, at least the work aspect. So for a short time, people can forget about how unhappy they are in the office, and chill out for a bit.

Steve

[Ben Round de Bloc]

[valley_girl]

Nipping at the egg nog today, are we Leeroy? (j/k)

OK, I'll bite. I think that kindness and politeness are feigned more often than they are sincere, but that doesn't change the fact that kind gestures and good manners are appreciated by others. A teenaged boy held the door open for me at Tim Horton's yesterday and it brightened my day. He was probably only doing this as a reflexive action, something his parents taught him to do to be "polite", but it was still appreciated by the receiver of the action (me). I believe that we underestimate the power of good deeds and kindnesses. These things can have a ripple effect that lasts for days or even weeks, touching countless lives. It's like the ol' Kick The Dog Syndrome: we tend to pass on whatever is passed on to us.

Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you here on Dave's 'Happy Holidays!' And go easy on that egg nog.

[runabout]

[moonraven]

How about good will toward women? We are, after all, more than 50% of the population of this planet.

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

[valley_girl]

[homersimpson]

Great Wall,
Most questions directed at moonraver might as well be categorized as rhetorical. Don't expect a response (unless from an alias).

[moonraven]

Whiner: Egg on your face again--The title of this thread is Goodwill toward all MEN.

Try learning to read--makes for a better teacher.

[dmb]

[Spinoza]

Valley Girl,

Who's the blue-haired lady in your avatar?

[moonraven]

I edited the typo, dmb. Happy?

Merry Christmas!