Angry Little Tree

Von at Obsidian Wings posts a sharp, concise analysis of the whole “Liberals are attacking Christmas when someone says ‘Happy Holidays’” meme. According to a number of vocal national commentators, the trend of businesses saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” is part of a greater trend of Political Correctness, a skirmish in the war against traditional values. Von hits this one out of the park:

My beef with the purportedly world-weary Lileks is that he implies some secret history when there is only the world. If he's pissed/bothered/annoyedly observant about how businesses have de-Christmasized Christmas over the past 40 years, put the blame where it belongs: on the businesses. Or, more properly, on capitalism.

It’s worth asking how many of the national voices decrying this attack on Christmas also believe that the free market’s invisible hand is the solution to other problems. I’d argue that many other cultural issues we face are negatively impacted by the pure-profit motive of unfettered capitalism. I’m no communist, but there must be deeper, more sustaining values for a culture if it’s to survive.