All the major supermarkets are open in Scotland on New Years Day. This is the first time this has happened and is a good example of how the dominant ideology in this country is systematically destroying our culture, our institutions, our values and our normative order in its never ending pursuit of profit and the exploitation of its workforce. It is only a matter of time until Christmas Day is sacrificed to the economic gods and the destruction of the moral order is complete. Easter as a holiday from work as a mark of respect is just a memory now. I have no particular time for the Christian religion but I am very conscious of the symbolic nature of its holy days and how that particular religion underpins the moral order and social cohesion of British society. What is happening is the destruction of respect and of the increasing contempt that the masters of our economic and political life display towards values, rights and any form of moral barriers to the pursuit of profit.
As Emile Durkheim explains, religion is simply the worship of society itself, and the destruction of religion and its attendant symbolic characteristics is a manifestation of the relentless attack on traditional British society with the purpose of altering the nature and structure of that society to resemble one huge business enterprise that operates 24 hours per day, 365 days per annum. Now, I am aware that New Years Day is not a religious matter, but in Scotland it has been traditionally more important than Christmas and is central part of Scottish culture. When I worked in industry we had a days holiday at Christmas but two days at new year. This traces back to the Protestant Reformation in Scotland when the Church of Scotland discouraged the recognition of Christmas on the grounds that it was a Popish festival. But even these fanatics and bigots recognised the need for a substitute to break the monotony and mitigate the bleakness of winter, something our ruling elite cannot now bring themselves to recognise.
You see holidays, and holy days, interfere with profit making, they are constraints and, as I continually stress, the neoliberal free marketeers will not tolerate constraints on their activities. What the British people continually fail to realise is that we are governed by people with no moral compass. They have neither dignity, decency nor self-respect. They only operate by one value, money. Everything is judged and calculated from the point of view of how much they can gain from it. Thus, if a tradition like new years day interferes with their pursuit of gain then they will have to remove that tradition. Thus, religious and cultural norms and values must be modified to justify an economic imperative or removed and replaced altogether. In the process the workforce must be increasingly subjected to conditions of employment that resemble forms of slavery and the unemployed, the sick and disabled be penalised for their unproductive characteristics. They must be made to accept that they are scroungers and parasites and of no economic value. Surely even the most biased conservatives in this sick society must see what is happening. Britain is a very sick society and is drowning in a moral swamp of its own making. Oh, the economy may eventually make some sort of recovery, but by that time society will be dead because under the neoliberal agenda economic recovery is contingent on the destruction of a fair and just society. It need not be this way, you have been warned.
Your Servant
Doktor Kommirat
As ever, you talk sense, Dr K. I remember the days when the whole town shut down for a fortnight in the summer and everyone went on holiday at the same time. Such traditions contribute to social cohesion. Christmas, and indeed, New Year, are now celebrations of consumerism, material excess. The fate of religion is central to the problems facing our society. Multicultural, and therefore multi-faith, society has undermined Christianity, which is hanging on by its fingernails as our national religion. The ecumenical movement is a clear indication of the demise of this important component of our culture. I am an atheist, but I am worried about the weakening of Christianity and the consequent erosion of our traditional norms and values. The situation is not helped by the odious and idiotic Prince Charles proclaiming that he wants to the defender of all faiths.
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