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UID:Indybay-18465318
SEQUENCE:18486767
CREATED:20071205T225900Z
DESCRIPTION:Once again, this time of year, the sleigh of mystification flies in the 
 dusk of reason.\n\nThe most powerful myth in the arsenal of consumerism 
 dons its white beard and red costume to enter your hearth, your home, and 
 your heart. Santa Claus is coming to town. Where does Santa come 
 from?\n\nWhy is he so powerful and appealing? Why does each generation 
 perpetuate this myth?\n\nWhat are its origins, and what function does it 
 serve? \n\nThis lively, interactive presentation will peek beneath Santa's 
 jovial costume, to reveal the ideological skeleton that props up his 
 corpulent body. We will look at Santa's pagan and Christian roots, his 
 racist and colonial upbringing, and his adoption by Coca-Cola and Corporate 
 Capitalism. We will survey his relationship to his ideological kissing 
 cousins, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. In doing so we will also 
 develop an analysis of myth, ideology and propaganda as seen through the 
 work of Edward Bernays, Roland Barthes, Claude Levi-Strauss, Louis 
 Althusser and Terry Eagleton.\n\nWe will show the deep structural 
 relationship of the Santa Myth to other contemporary myths and control 
 memes, such as "efficient\nmarkets," "productive capital," "individual 
 freedom," "white supremacy," and "the war on terror." \nEveryone is 
 welcome, naughty or nice, and we hope to offer to everyone who attends, the 
 true gift of Christmas: a radical and penetrating awareness of the world, 
 the true flight of the spirit that a clear consciousness can attain.\n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/12/05/18465318.php
SUMMARY:The Myth of Santa Claus
LOCATION:Event takes place at the Niebyl-Proctor Library, located at 6501 Telegraph 
 Ave., (just north of Alcatraz) in Oakland.  Free event.  Wheelchair 
 accessible.
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/12/05/18465318.php
DTSTART:20071209T180000Z
DTEND:20071209T200000Z
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