Over the Christmas season, did you watch a good deal of television? You were probably very busy and did not have time for much. In the hours that you did get, did you spend any time looking for the old favorites that you used to see when you were younger? Most of what I was looking for was hard to find this year. I was lucky to find some of the old favorites just one time this year.

George Orwell refers to things edited out of history as having fallen down the memory hole. The name, “The Memory Hole,” is actually popular enough that there is a website for it. It is at www.thememoryhole.com. This concept of erasing parts of the past is based upon the twin ideas of a worldly authority which cannot be wrong even when it is and the idea that people who are not anchored in their own past can easily be manipulated in the present and the future. We know the way things are in the present, since most of us actually live there; however, few of us understand the thinking behind the way things are. These thoughts have fallen down the memory hole.

You will find it difficult to defend the ideas of other people when you know nothing of them. If those other people are your own ancestors, then you will find it hard to defend yourself and your inheritance. The only effective way to combat this is to let you in on the secrets of why things were done as they were done in the past. Otherwise, you can be convinced that your ancestors were malicious fools who acted for reasons so stupid and evil that those reasons would never have occurred to your ancestors.

When the Communist Revolution imposed a secular nation of secular laws on the people of the Soviet Union, the Communist party rewrote the Christmas carols. Soviet trees were topped with a red star on a holiday that was moved to overlap New Years. Man, it seems, is also a jealous god. You cannot erase all of history because people will notice the hole. Modify history, over time, and nobody will catch on.Albert Einstein said something to the effect of his having never had much respect for the church. Until, that is, the church was the first organization to stand up to Adolph Hitler. Einstein looked to the same places we are trained to look for moral leadership. The Universities, the media and the intellectual elite were silent. Christ’s true church was not. Some Germans followed Christ only at their convenience, but Jews stood a better chance with the church than with any other organization.

Why were there so few staple Christmas movies this year? That is not given for me to know. Polls indicate that more of us are offended by “Happy Holidays” than by “Merry Christmas.” I’m finding this whole game a bit strange. Is our history being erased before our eyes?

As a stand up philosopher, I only ask the questions. There is nothing wrong with admitting that you do not know. Only a priest requires certainty. I am not a priest.

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