There are also blockbuster films with idiotic names:
Speaking of, Cameron Crow should know better:
But this is beside the point.
The point is that my yin and I had the opportunity to hang out with a lot of kids over the holidays, and besides being fun watch, it brought up an ethical dilemma:
What is one to do about Santa Claus?
Option #1: A parent tells a child that Santa Claus exists, ensuring future disillusionment and instituting a policy of parental deception, manipulation, and subterfuge
Option #2: A parent tells a child that Santa Claus does not exist, and then must attempt to explain why the child must lie to all of his or her goyim playmates.
The interesting thing about this situation is that, either way, the parent is forced to teach the child something about lying. I had never really thought about Christmas this way until this year, and although I haven't thought all the way through it yet, it seems to serve as some sort of litmus test for a parent's understanding of ethics.
Do we adopt a situational morality and lie to the child? What trauma will be incurred by the child when he or she learns the truth? How will this revelation affect his or her perception of the parent? How is one to explain why the child should lie to his or her peers? Given the American larger culture of Christian Consumer Capitalism, what are the ostracizing effects of not believing in Santa Claus?
And, perhaps most importantly, why don't more people ask these questions before they have children? Given the awesome responsibility of nurturing a child into adulthood, it seems disturbing that we do not even perform a moral and ethical inventory with regard to the stories we tell our children.
This rant has been brought to you by your friend Ebenezer.
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