Although mainly of Western European origin, the myth of Santa Claus is one we can live with. Yes, we are telling lies to our children and the children of others, but in this case the ends justify the means. Young children live in a world part fantasy and part reality most of the time, in case you cannot remember. We would make up a fantasy world and proceed to live in it for a while. When we grew up, we scuttled our make-believe worlds as reasoning powers developed.
In India the legend of Ganesh‘s sweet tooth, a tale told to children is another example of the myths we tell children. In a modern rendition, Ganesh has the head of an elephant and rides on a magic mouse. He loves a particular sweet called laddu, a kind of sweet pastry. Magic Mouse warns Ganesh if he tries to eat a super sized jawbreaker made of laddu, it will break his tusk. And he does. And it does.
Santa teaches the joy of giving; Ganesh the wisdom of moderating sweets among other things like gameboys. Both teach our children something valuable for their future lives. This is their redeeming value.
There was an age and a time when people could not imagine making a profit on such myths. These are people embrace a third myth: anything I can do to make money without technically breaking a law or. at a minimum, not getting caught and ending up in jail. They claw into the public good weal and skim a tad of happiness here and there for themselves.
The myth that you take advantage of your neighbor if you don’t get caught, must end. They are Heel-lots because as the Colonel, in Meet John Doe, says because they follow your heals if they think you got money they might have. I’m pretty sure that we don’t have a chance to shut the Heel-lots down today. They are the majority. It is now just a matter of whether or not they will redirect the object of their desire before their greed consumes the earth.