How do you force people to enjoy themselves?

Yep it is Christmas coming up again.

Same old boring movies on television - including stuff appearing after the cut-off time (longstanding opinion - movies that are only fit for children should not be shown after 1800).

Same old dirges on the radio with awful sentimental lyrics that you would never hear again if they didn't have the word "Christmas" in them every second line.

Same old commercialisation trying to get people to buy things that they cannot afford and would probably never purchase under other circumstances in the proverbial month of Sundays.

Same old thinking that you have to be as miserable as this economy makes you, but for some strange reason on December 25th you have to be cheerful.

And the same attempts to make the event religiously significant (despite the above) to an audience in Europe that is ever more sceptical. In 30 years time, the way things are heading, atheists in many European countries will outnumber Christians by a massive margin, so the significance of Christmas will change per se, although whether there will be a change in outlook by commercial interests remains to be seen.

And yes I know that it used to be a pagan festival (to celebrate the winter solstice) that the Christians stole.

As I am neither a Christian, nor a pagan (and winter is for me the least desirable of the seasons) ....

So why not try to be happy every day? And generous and .... Why not celebrate on August 4th, December 12th, March 3rd (for people with birthdays on those dates of course, you might anyway, but I think that you get the point)?

Meanwhile turn up for one of those typical family get-togethers where you have to eat too much, far too much alcohol is consumed and someone gets not merely drunk but chronically verbally abusive ....

Then and there someone will then tell you in an imperative voice "Enjoy yourself, it's Christmas!!!!".

A bit like the Christmas turkey (or chicken or goose or duck) is supposed to enjoy itself, I suppose.

Enjoyment, my friends, arises from within. It cannot be forced from the outside. It is very difficult to force someone to enjoy themselves (and bad excuses like "well it's Christmas" definitely do not work). Maybe masochists can be forced to enjoy an event if you know where to hit them and how, but for most everyone else it is as ridiculous a thought as it gets.

In fact most Christmas celebrations are, in my experience, held with many people that you would choose to avoid most of the time. Enjoyment in those circumstances is definitely not part of the argument!

A waste of time and effort in other words.

Now let us get back to the point which I made earlier about being able to enjoy life all the time and not (stupidly) on one day a year.

For that we need a working, prosperous economy, interesting worthwhile jobs that reward people who want to work, an affordable lifestyle and a degree of control over our own lives rather than having it run - and ruined - for us by a few idiot gamblers who are part of the corporatocracy. 365 days a year (366 in leap years). The chances of that though are about as likely as getting through to December 28th without any more nonsense!