There’s No ‘Christ’ in ‘Xmas’
A Capitalist Spirtuality Take Over
“Rudolph and Frosty got songs named after them! Jesus don’t even got a song dawg!”- Charlamagne Tha God
Just as the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC before them, One Direction is a boy band that has managed to take over the world. How? They have enraptured the minds of preteens and teenage girls over the globe with their good looks, enticing vocals, up-tempo beats and relevant lyrics. To their target demographic they are seen as the Greek gods set high upon Mount Olympus, and the only way to get close to and worship these gods, is to buy that latest record, or buy a signed autograph off of eBay, or buy a concert ticket. One Direction are a prime example of consumerism in popular culture as a religion, or alternately as a form of spirituality fueled by capitalism. Popular culture today, is in a sense plagued by capitalism.
Popular culture is full of examples of capitalist spirituality. Jeremy Carette and Richard King, in their work Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion state that there are eight defining factors of Capitalist spirituality: atomization, self-interest, corporatists, utilitarianism, consumerism, quietism, political myopia and accommodationism (21–22).
Popular culture is also aware of its capitalist spirituality. Comedians and radio personalities like Chris Rock, Andrew Schulz and Charlamagne Tha God all publicly realize this consumerist culture that takes advantage of religion to make sales rather than have anything to do with faith and religious practice. There are barely any aspects of popular culture that do not generate some form of financial profit, and this comes into play especially during holiday seasons. Religious holiday seasons have been manipulated into profit seasons for major companies, who impose alternate forms of the holidays on the masses to ensure sales. For example Chris Rock in his opening sketch for Saturday Night Live mentions Christmas as a materialistic holiday, which is counter-productive to the idea of celebrating the birthday of one of the least materialistic people to have ever lived. (Skip to 3:50)
In this sketch, Rock recognizes the following areas of capitalist spirituality: self-interest, where profit is the motivation for human action, that the US commercializes everything in order to generate profit for corporations, which also ties into the corporatist aspect of capitalist spirituality. He demonstrates how corporations create and inflate the beliefs and values that society has and use it to their advantage, to financially benefit and pray off of people’s faith.
Another popular culture reference to religion as a consumerist venture today comes from the podcast aptly entitled ‘The Brilliant Idiots’ by the ridiculously funny Andrew Schulz and Charlamagne Tha God, where they discuss the highlighted societal issues of current events as well as random issues. In this specific podcast entitled ‘We Not Here For This’ the two comedians and their guests discuss religion in relation to American consumerism, providing their own personal viewpoints, which are reflective of many societal views. For context on their views on religion start from 56:29, the highlighted section starts from 1:02:20 until 1:11:20.
(Please note that this podcast contains coarse language and mature content- listener discretion is advised).
In this podcast, the involved clearly recognize and outright state that Jesus is not a prominent figure in his own birthday holiday due to America’s consumerist culture. That instead of celebrating religion in popular culture, people take to a form of capitalist spirituality and can often forget the roots of the religious holiday. Money and profit are the driving force in today’s popular culture, whether it be that the gods of popular culture such as One Direction are being worshiped through capitalist avenues, or that the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus over shadow Jesus Christ in order to create revenue. The capitalist spirituality in today’s popular culture seemingly replaces standardized religion for a more profitable alternative.
Works Cited
Carrette Jeremy and Richard King. Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion. London: Routledge, 2005.
