Rational versus Irrational.

This weekend I watched a ton of movies. It seems to be the thing to do over vacation. Santa Claus, Santa Claus 3, Far North, Ashes and Diamonds, and then I went to the Harvard Film Archive and saw some vintage Christmas stuff.  It's weird looking back at what society was. I mean things haven't changed that much. It's more like how it was represented was changed.

I actually first watched the Santa Claus with my Aunt when I was "too old" to believe in Santa Claus but did anyway. But I will tell you the truth right now. I still believe in Santa Claus. I also think that when the movie came out the world was more "rational" because their were all these explanations about how magic couldn't possibly exist and you have to be rational etc.

Look at how the world's changed (sort of in a bad way.)

Nowadays the mainstream accepts devout religion much more readily. I mean Heaven and God and Jesus are really not that different than believing in Santa Claus. (I believe in all of it by the way. But I separate my poetic creative side from the literal. Duh I know that Grace bought the presents and I put them under the tree and then we unwrapped them. Does that mean that Catholic priests don't believe in the Eucharist, or better yet some other Church where they actually make their own bread? No. We all know that in one sense. It's just a different understanding. Just because something isn't literally real, doesn't make it fake.)

But now you have suicide bombers who believe in a Pardes (I mean they must right? Otherwise why not just kill people without being a suicide bomber. Or better yet rob a bank or sell drugs or something. That way you have a chance of living, You get stuff, and you make people afraid for whatever reason you are motivated to do that.) The world is so not rational right now. People totally believe in Magic and that God can stop global warming or this or that.  But what's scary is that they believe it literally.

In the Santa Claus movie they want to send a kid to the Psychiatrist because he believes in Santa. I can't imagine that being so nowadays, when politicians and world leaders totally believe in crazier things than gifts. I mean there are adults that believe the earth is flat and that evolution is a hoax.

What's bad about believing in Santa (Odin) as a poetic representational spirit of Christmas? If my kids told an elaborate story about going to the North Pole, first off, nobody would care, they would just tell him to write a book about it and capitalize on imagination. Secondly, if I had trouble at school, I would just explain that there is stuff you can tell other people and stuff you can't, because they will think you are nuts and it's just easier that way to function in society.

Well I'll cover the other movies at some other point.