Santa Clause: Why the Lies Must Stop

A bit of history: the Christmas character known as Santa Clause is loosely based upon St. Nicholas, a bishop from Myra who devoted his inheritance to assist the needy, sick, and suffering. St. Nicholas was well known for his generosity, his love of children, and his concern for sailors and ships (he was named the patron saint of sailors). Santa Clause today is an extremely popular figure, especially around this time of year, however, that does not mean that we should accept the Santa Clause tradition. We, as a society, need to re-think this tradition of lying to our children. Santa Clause may forever be a symbol of Christmas in America, but it is unethical to encourage our children to believe this myth.

Parents who encourage the Santa Clause myth must perpetually lie to their children. This is not the same as a little white lie or a lie told for the good of their child; keeping up the Santa Clause myth requires a long string of lies and defenses which need to be elaborated on over time.. A good parent builds their relationship with their child on trust, not dishonesty; you know the consequences. Another repercussion of keeping the myth alive is that in order to do so a parent discourages skepticism. As they are asked more and more questions about Santa Clause, parents make up more tales about this man and his supernatural powers.

I think that the worst part of the Santa Clause myth is the lesson it teaches our children about rewards and punishment for good and bad behavior. The Santa Clause myth implies that Santa Clause is constantly watching you (mildly parallel to Big Brother of 1984) and judging you as "naughty or nice" based on your good and bad actions. Children learn that through good acts they will be rewarded with presents and through bad acts they will be punished with a piece of coal. It is not the right lesson to learn; children should be taught to be good not for the sake of reward or from fear of punishment, but because it is the better thing to do. Similarly, it is unethical to control your children through Santa Clause.

Lastly, Santa Clause is incredibly similar to Jesus and God: he has supernatural powers and he rewards or punishes children based on his own definition of good or bad deeds; his existence is implausible, yet you must be a believer to get the rewards. I hope you consider all of these thoughts before you and your children put out a plate of milk and cookies for this powerful stranger.

The Annual Turkey Slaughter (aka Thanksgiving)

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. All over the country Americans marked this holiday with their ritual turkey sacrifice. It's a disgusting tradition, and it must stop. We live in a country where meat consumption is unnecessary for our health and survival, and therefore, immoral. What you might not have known is that turkeys are excluded from federal animal protection laws. Many turkeys raised in factory farms have their beaks removed to avoid aggression caused from overcrowding, but this process causes lifelong pain to the newly-disfigured bird. The process of debeaking and detoeing (I assume these terms are self-explanatory) do not involve anesthesia and can cause bleeding, infection, and death. Overcrowding presents other problems, too; the birds are forced together with very little room to move around while the breathe in ammonia and dust. The dust these turkeys breathe in causes many of them to develop respiratory diseases while the ammonia fumes burn their eyes. They are also know to develop food ulcers and breast blisters, as they are constantly given drugs to make them large in time for the holidays. Also, a good question to consider is why Americans mark this holiday with a turkey sacrifice instead of murdering a deer, a duck, or another animal. There is no record that indicates a turkey was eaten at the first Thanksgiving feast. In addition, Thanksgiving didn't become a large American holiday until 1863.