Is Santa Truly a Conspiracy?

In Jay Mock’s blog “Is Santa Claus a Conspiracy?” he contemplates whether Santa Claus has an evil purpose. Mock goes through what happens every year during Christmas time now and how “good feelings are directly connected to consumerism” (Mock p3), how we lie to support the conspiracy (Mock p5) and the different options a child may go through when trying to decide whether Santa Claus is real or not (Mock p7-15).

Jay Mock is a conspiracy theorist. On his blog (http://riverjournal.com) he has ten pieces about conspiracy theories ranging anywhere from Santa Claus to Global Warming Cover-ups.

First off, he explains that nowadays Christmas is directly associated with commercialism and that people now feel as if they have to buy things for other people. Whether that be something they will use every day, something that they will throw in the back of their closet and forget about or something that they will just throw away. Not only do they buy the gifts, they buy wrapping paper, bows, cards, bags, tissue paper and many other unneeded things. Which is true, but there are many ways to get around the typical holiday gifts. Some families make things for their direct family members and some families just have a dinner and go their separate ways.

He also brings up the point that people “mindlessly dig up raw materials; apply energy to them to make colorful and shiny trinkets just to bury them in landfills when the interest fades” (Mock p3). Which, is also true, and wasteful and he believes that can be counted as evil. Many people would agree with him, but just because people’s actions during the holiday season are evil and thriftless doesn’t mean the idea of Santa Claus is as well.

Many people forget the true meaning of Christmas. It is no...

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...ld reacts like that to a fake Santa, he is most likely seeing the same behavior at home, school or elsewhere. If that is the case, then yes, that can be counted as evil. But the source of evil wouldn’t be the Santa legend, it would be the child.

All in all, Mock’s blog is a good expression of his point of view, but not everyone will look at it that way. Many would argue that Santa is not evil and he is a symbol of happiness and joy. Mock could have made his blog more pointed to the majority of people who would believe that Santa is not evil. Also, Mock could have used more pathos or ethos instead of all logos. His main problem is that he has no personal experience. He needs more emotion in order to keep the attention of his readers. He could add in a personal experience from his childhood to give insight on how he felt which could be the reason he thinks this way.