To recap what I commented in darksakura's LJ: Thanksgiving should be a holiday of unity, but in a much deeper sense, especially by contrasting the Pilgrims' good will to the history of greed that ensued. As long as this is met, I have no qualm against celebrating Thanksgiving.
Yes, the latter part is largely missing, hidden, and even censored from people's consciousness. And that should be fixed. But in doing so, current salvo of activists are making a dear mistake of invalidating Thanksgiving and ignoring the good will altogether, whereas it's the good will that must be restored to the center of attention.
I think the issue ere is that it's a holiday celebrated with a mask of goodwill whereas it was created with a destructive sense in mind for anyone who was not "american" or, better yet, of european ansestry. The ignorance of this original context is further established with the ignorant and disgusting consumerism that follows thanksgiving, i.e. black friday. What are people most Thankful for during thanksgiving? What Americans actually think of the celebration as a time to celebrate unity? ever notice the large amount of people who simply refer to it as "Turkey Day"? what's Turkey have to do with unity? It's all too backward
( ... )
Note that I'm not invalidating or denying the horrible history. I simply have a issue with people who put it upfront and try to guilt-trip other people saying “You dare to celebrate the day?” That strategy doesn't work out.
Let me state again: It's the celebration sans proper recognition of history at the same time that is wrong. From your comment, I believe we in fact agree on that.
In other words, if you see something wrong with something that people enjoy, fix the wrong thing; do not try and invalidate/destroy the whole thing altogether. Have a issue with people calling it Turkey Day ('cause it suggests how shallow people are, which is true)? Call them out on that shallowness, but do not go out and shout “No thanks to Thanksgiving!”
In fact, this is a good example of how all too many people follow partial dialectic, where they focus too much on the antithesis (in this case, the forgotten/hidden history) and pay little to no attention to the thesis, preventing themselves from reaching a persuasive and sound synthesis.
Comments 6
To recap what I commented in darksakura's LJ: Thanksgiving should be a holiday of unity, but in a much deeper sense, especially by contrasting the Pilgrims' good will to the history of greed that ensued. As long as this is met, I have no qualm against celebrating Thanksgiving.
Yes, the latter part is largely missing, hidden, and even censored from people's consciousness. And that should be fixed. But in doing so, current salvo of activists are making a dear mistake of invalidating Thanksgiving and ignoring the good will altogether, whereas it's the good will that must be restored to the center of attention.
Reply
Reply
Note that I'm not invalidating or denying the horrible history. I simply have a issue with people who put it upfront and try to guilt-trip other people saying “You dare to celebrate the day?” That strategy doesn't work out.
Let me state again: It's the celebration sans proper recognition of history at the same time that is wrong. From your comment, I believe we in fact agree on that.
Reply
In other words, if you see something wrong with something that people enjoy, fix the wrong thing; do not try and invalidate/destroy the whole thing altogether. Have a issue with people calling it Turkey Day ('cause it suggests how shallow people are, which is true)? Call them out on that shallowness, but do not go out and shout “No thanks to Thanksgiving!”
In fact, this is a good example of how all too many people follow partial dialectic, where they focus too much on the antithesis (in this case, the forgotten/hidden history) and pay little to no attention to the thesis, preventing themselves from reaching a persuasive and sound synthesis.
Reply
Leave a comment