Cav's Place

Like a good part of the world, a few days ago I was watching Obama’s inauguration, which I keep meaning to call coronation since that’s what it looked like. I found myself rather annoyed by how pompous everything was. True, he wasn’t ostentatious himself and you can’t say there was a significant overall display of wealth for the sake of wealth itself, but the fact remains that the trouble and expenses were outrageous. But what’s much more upsetting is that such, or often even worse, displays are very common among us humans.
You have the desire to show off. You have traditions that appear to require fastuous displays. You have celebrations which are completely out of proportion to their cause or even have no real cause at all. You have displays of mourning which look more like partying. You have attempts to honor people or events with outrageous gifts or displays which have little, if anything, to do with what’s actually being honored. And perhaps I could continue… Why do we insist on such a waste of resources, time and, frankly, of ourselves?

Going back to Obama’s inauguration, instead of the advertised “peaceful transfer of power” I saw a huge national celebration when there was little reason for it. Yes, Bush and the Republicans are now gone, but Obama didn’t achieve that himself; it’d be better to say that he was just the means by which it was achieved. Yet a huge amount of people showed up to cheer as if their problems were already solved, apparently not realizing that the work is just starting and that, if he’s to be able to achieve anything, Obama needs their efforts, their direct help, way more than their cheering and adoration. And if that wasn’t enough, there was also the long parade, followed by the series of balls, all of which were directly or indirectly supported by the government. And if the fact that the vast majority of people are idiots is a given and unavoidable, the fact that governments endorse such actions, especially during such harsh times, is not acceptable.
Dictators and royalty tend to periodically benefit from such fastuous displays without, or at least before, doing anything to deserve them. In those cases the situation is indeed much worse because they, or at least the dictators, not only endorse them but actually tend to demand them. They also use to show off their wealth, either real or perceived, during such ceremonies, therefore pointing out the difference between them and their subjects. And yet those subjects keep coming and providing such dubious entertainment. Granted that some of those who are ruled by dictators do so out of fear and not out of loyalty, but I still wonder why does anyone put up with such expectations and what the point of it all could be… Other than stroking somebody’s ego that is, or even of creating a problematic ego in those who previously knew their place…
And, while I’m at it, I should also mention national holidays, since they also tend to require a lot of planning and use massive amounts of resources. There is usually a past event of great importance for that particular country which is the cause of the celebrations, which take the form of parades and speeches, but sometimes also more regular types of entertainment such as concerts. Sometimes the event happened a very long time ago and any available descriptions are quite inaccurate, sometimes willingly so. And, either way, wasting time and resources in ways which cause a disruption in the lives of those who’d actually intend to do something meaningful that day is far from the right way to honor those who fought and died (since that’s what the past event tends to involve) for your country.

Next come religious holidays and all the flashy celebrations associated with many of them. The fact that these days they have more to do with celebrating consumerism than anything else is also a major issue, but even if the celebrations are done for the right reason it’s still wrong for the state to get involved in organizing them. What happens around Christmas in countries where the majority religion is Christianity is a perfect example of that, with authorities setting up large trees in town squares and decorating the streets with lots of colored lights. All of that takes time and uses up a large amount of resources, which could be better used on many other things.
Somewhat similar are the carnivals. Granted that they are usually local events, not national, but they tend to paralyze the city in question and the surrounding area, so the amount of disruption they cause is massive. Still, if their impact would be limited to their actual duration it wouldn’t be that much of a problem since the tourists they bring tend to generate a lot of income for the host city and could therefore be considered an investment like any other, but the parades they tend to include are a different matter entirely. Those are usually not why tourists come, and yet lots and lots of people spend months preparing to play their part in them. They literally spend their time and use their skills just so they will be able to “properly” waste them for a day or three per year.
And then you have the ceremonies caused by sports events. I’m not talking about more or less spontaneous celebrations triggered by winning a trophy or other similar achievement, as those can be justified, are generally not prepared in advance and the state has little involvement in them. I’m talking about such things as opening ceremonies which are prepared a long time in advance and whose only purpose seems to be grandeur… Especially when they’re also fake, the one for the Beijing Olympic Games being a very good example of that. There could be a purpose for such ceremonies, if they’d be truly meaningful or at least very entertaining, but that rarely happens and all that’s left is mostly meaningless pomp.

Moving on to an individual level, we have the various ceremonies which are part of a person’s life, such as weddings or funerals. While it’s true that the rich and influential tend to be the most outrageous when it comes to these events, the only thing keeping most others from doing something similar is the fact that they have less resources to waste, since they tend to waste as much as they have anyway. I find it especially troubling when it comes to funerals, which end up turned into these ceremonies which can at times resemble parties, albeit subdued ones. You’d think that the deceased’s friends and relatives are actually celebrating the death, though that’s not usually the case. As for weddings, the amount of time and money wasted on the ceremonies and celebrations which are supposedly “required” for such an event often play a rather important part in why so many relationships become strained immediately afterwards.
I could also include other personal celebrations, such as birthdays and other anniversaries, here, but to a much lesser extent. In some cases the preparations for these are also quite stressful and the outcome is not worth it, but there’s far less pressure from society here so I can say that people have only themselves to blame if something doesn’t turn out right, which is not what this post is about. Still, some of the rich and influential do sometimes turn such personal celebrations into public events.

You might say that tradition demands that most of these things happen, but what is tradition? Isn’t it something somebody simply decided to do at some point? If so, why can’t we decide to do something else? Don’t all traditions have a beginning? If so, why can’t they also have an end? You have to keep in mind that most of these traditions started a long time ago, when there were far fewer people in the world, each of them used less resources and the ability to quickly travel from one place to another was rather limited. Traditions can become outdated, no longer being applicable in the current context. Not to mention that some of them are simply stupid…
You might say that many people need traditions and I might agree, but why can’t we use them to create something new and good instead of wasting even what we still have? Efficient traditions can also be created, though of course with much more difficulty than wasteful ones. But nothing worthwhile’s ever easy… And if you’ll invoke the fact that the entertainment potential of these events still makes them worthwhile, despite the inherent problems, for those who wouldn’t be able to obtain any elsewhere, I’m going to ask why aren’t we using the time and resources wasted on such ceremonies to come up with ways of making sure people will be able to have access to many different means of relaxing and having fun? Giving them the ability to choose means they’ll be able to find exactly what suits them and also that the state will be free to take care of more pressing issues.