Christmas isn't so bad. Christmas is a lonely time for a lot of people, and many feel alienated by the holiday itself. But others might retort, hey, Christmas is as Christmas does, friend! Meanwhile, happy children everywhere bum rush decked-out trees excitedly, panting for the loot those bow-flocked and ribbon-wrapped packages strewn under it contain. And who among us doesn't dig a good nog every now and then?
Hitler, on the other hand, killed something like twelve million people - or ordered it done. Which is the same thing. When the pizza delivery shows up - you pay, don't you? Then you're the one responsible. You ordered it done. Or else - why would you pay? If you want to say you didn't order it done - why encourage uninvited pizza deliverers, popping out of their cars at a moment's notice, you may not even be hungry - you're going to pay that pizza person? You're going to encourage that? Bull. You never in your life have done that. I don't believe you for a second, you're just trying to cover up for the fact: you ordered it done. You're responsible.
Now, a purist might object: the above certainly demonstrates Hitler's evil, and his culpability for the evil acts done not only in his name but at his command (one explicit difference between Hitler and Jesus Christ, for example), but the above still isn't a
comparison. It's a
contrast. Because we're not
comparing Christmas to Hitler, we are
contrasting them. Comparison and contrast have some points in common, it is true. Both are used to make a point about something, by referencing its similarities with or differences to another thing. But that's where the similarity ends - because
contrast focuses on the
differences. Comparison on the other hand, focuses on the similarities. Let's move on then, to a proper comparison. Let's move past the easy contrast. Contrast is usually easy enough after all, in the case of essentially dissimilar things! Yet when we examine the points they hold in common, we discover that perhaps seemingly-dissimilar things are, in fact, comparable. This is where the real value of
comparison comes in.
Like Christmas, Hitler is strongly associated with facial hair. Whether Hitler's stiff sub-nose-u-lar bristle-box, Santa's flowing white chin-mane, or the manly, hirsute jaw-fur of the eventual full-grown King of the Jews himself, Christ the Lord, we hear "Christmas" or "Hitler" and inevitably, facial hair is called to mind.
Hitler and Christmas both often call forth feelings of strong ambiguity or even hostility, from many Jews. In the case of Hitler, it is because an estimated six million of the nearly twelve million human beings Hitler ordered delivered to death camps
were Jews. The Jewish community of Western Europe was decimated. In a similar way, Christmas alienates many Jews who firstly, do not regard Jesus as in any way, their "King," and secondly, may not care for all the hustle, bustle and materialism taking over, and thirdly, are saddened and frustrated by a Christ-focused holiday taking over everything to do with the season. In particular, many Jews are saddened by the way their children are made to feel that Christmas is the real holiday, and Hanukkah by contrast is a bit of a disappointment. Hitler, too, objected to the relentless Christ focus of Christmas, and did his best to combat it.
Ultimately, we can't ignore that Hitler and Christmas are two very different things. But when you take a closer look, some of the underlying similarities may surprise and disturb you.
