My Christmas Message for 2023

 On Christmas, Politics & Society

Now the countdown has begun again: 14 days until Christmas. Many in our street have begun illuminating their house, decking the inside and outside with lavish decorations as if they needed to be visible from space, and of course the first christmas-themed sweets were already purchasable in late summer. All of this made me wonder again about how little the whole eve actually mattered amidst this ludicrous pomp. In Germany, we've got the famous skit movie entitled „Weihnachten bei Hoppenstedts”, where said pomp is being ridiculed, but as always, the best comedy is based on at least a grain of truth.

What you can see there can still be found in today's society: Excessive decoration¹, absurdly expensive gifts, traditions that are rather ticked off on a list than genuinely celebrated, and the distressful preparations that overshadow the true meaning of the holiday.
(In a Trump voice) “Many people say” that “Capitalism” were to blame for the descent of Christmas into a consumerist frenzy². (That is, few peole say so because the majority of those who decry Capitalism as an ailment are often self-proclaimed atheists, so they don't care about the holiday as such, although some may enjoy the day off work) But as I have written in blog posts such as the one cited in footnote no. 2, as well as in (yet) unpublished manuscripts, Capitalism is only an umbrella term summarising the collection of our own actions, it is not the name of a deity or a puppeteer who pulled our strings³. It is the core of a society of free people that can exercise their free will in the utmost realms permissible⁴. If that leads the people to centre inordinate consumption during The Season, then it is their fault, not “Capitalism's”. It's no-one's business to behave responsibly and rationally but someone's individually. Another argument I've heard occasionally is that it were “expected” by them to obey to consume so much for the celebration of this event, i.e. the birth of Jesus Christ. This is often linked to the argument that advertising lured them into overconsumption. Which left the question by whom this were expected exactly. Who expresses this demand? I see that there are a lot of commercials with sales of christmas-themed luxury goods, but aside of these specially themed advertisements, there are equally abudnant commercials about stock trading apps, sex toys and nasal sprays. Yet no-one decries how caitalism corrupted the business of stock brokers, the joy of onanism, or the easiness at which we could relieve a cold. 

The reason for this particular indignation may be that Christmas was not originally conceptualised to be about giving presents to one's loved ones, decking halls or xeroxing one's buttocks during the company's Christmas party⁶. In the Bible, in the Gospels of Luke (2:1—21), the story is told of Joseph and Mary who were summoned to Galilee to partake in a census but since they were already running late, they found no vacant hostel so that they had to resort to a barn. (Since AirBnB, or Bed 'n' Breakfast as such, was not a thing yet) There, Mary gave birth to a baby boy who turned out to be God's only son. God showed a sense of how promote the birth of his son, so he sent out an angel to some shepherds to tell them that his son was born. In the angel's words:

“No scared. I come fo tell you guys Good Stuff From God dat goin make you guys an all da peopo stay good inside. Dis day inside King Davidʼs town, one boy wen born dat goin take you guys outa da bad kine stuff you stay doing. He da Christ Guy, da Spesho Guy God Wen Send. He da Boss. Dis how you goin know him. You goin find one baby dat stay wrap up inside plenny cloths, lying down inside one ting fo hold da cows food.”⁷

 And as if this weren't enough trouble for the new parents to begin with, three wises step up at Caesar Augustus' behest, as can b read in Matthew 2:1—12. Of course Augustus didn't want to appear like a scrooge who didn't wish to fall from grace with the newborn “King of the Jews” (Rex Iudæorum; the same words that were also written on the plate above his head on the cross after he was crucified; see John 19:19, although it only lists the English translation in the KJV), and so he gave three gifts with the mages who paid a courtesy call to him (Matthew 2:11):

“And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.”

The following sentences didn't explain why the magi brought those specific gifts, although at least gold is an obvious choice. Frankincense and myrrh, the former which is still used in Catholic masses, are not so obvious, though, and have threrefore been subject to research too⁸. The explanation that those gifts were for Mary to relieve her postnatal ailments probably makes the most sense, but is also not the main topic of this blog post, so we will move on from here. Of course, and given the advancement modern medicine has made, those gifts seem outlandish to hand to a woman who may well be down on her luck not only because she and her husband had to spend the cold night in a barn (the argument that is given in the Bible of course states that all inns were booked out, but this may also be a literary figure to exhibit Jesus' humble abodes, his overall humility, which is further spun with him picking up his father's job as a carpenter (Mark 6:3; “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us?”) and practising the voluntary destitution that would later inspire an entire school of Christian praxis, mostly built upon a passage in the Bible that calls upon this (Matthew 6:19—21):

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

“But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

His mother Mary does not stand next to this in the limelight, although the New Testament does give us hints towards her personal poverty, given how little she could give herself (Leviticus 12:6—8):

“And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin offering, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest:

“Who shall offer it before the Lord, and make an atonement for her; and she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that hath born a male or a female.

“And if she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons; the one for the burnt offering, and the other for a sin offering: and the priest shall make an atonement for her, and she shall be clean.”

Even for this time, those were sacrifices little in value when generally perceived, but a lot when someone does not have high solvency. So we can safely assume that Jesus was born to lower-class parents, which may too have been God's plan so that he could assure that his son were not going to be an aloof personality drunken on power not only in the supernatural sense. With all of this considered, it no longer seems so absurd to also give the new mother herbs to treat her postnatal labour pains; what now seems absurd contrarily is the celebration of this feast, especially considering what feasts normally are in the Christian tradition⁹. It was meant to of course be lavish (although not Hobbit-like lavishness), but still meant to encapsulate and centre the celebration of a Christian saint, in this case Jesus Christ. This is also the point meant to be conveyed in this blog post: That we have gone from honouring God's only son, the prophet of Christianity and the leader of Christendom, to seeing ads on TV and the internet with a Santa Claus¹⁰ and a Coke® lorry driving over a snowed landscape to, supposedly, bring the joys of Christmas to the people. Coming back to the subject of (voluntary) poverty and the growing decadence of Christmas feasts, one also just had to look how expenses for Christmas gifts have developed, seeing that people in general seem to spend gradually more to give to their family, friends and loved ones¹¹. Already before we have asked the question who expected of anyone to spend gargantuan sums in gifts, leaving us with the preliminary conclusion that this was at best a question of looks and how one were perceived, so everything was subjective feelings. When one is seriously interested in what others believed of one, then of course they would spend more and assure they were seen with the gifts they gave. It's a little like the Hollywood display of aristoctratic societies, like the upper-class gala events where the crème de la crème attended because it was part of their identity. Think of the Wiener Opernball, which Austrian real estate tycoon Richard „Mörtel” Lugner usually instrumentalises to show his latest flame. More or less it may remind one of the Vanderbilt Costume Ball of 1883¹², although this is not an annual event. I just struggle to find something comparable in today's US. But the point should be clear: We have fallen off the true meaning of Christmas, and so, this bastardisation has spawned numerous strange shoots¹³. 

The more theological reason for a desanctification of Jesus' feast into a decadent grand bœuf with a subsequent avalanche of gifts mutually extended (the order annually performed in my family; outside of those who skip Christmas Eve and only celebrate the “Day of the Biblical Magi” («Los Tres Reyes» in Spanish) on the later January 06) is certainly the above-mentioned fall from grace with God. Now it is hard to find exact numbers of people leaving the church behind, whether they have become atheists or just think that organised religions are not for them is even more difficult to track down. Others have chosen science as their preferred religion¹⁴. But the most prominent reasons in the past few years were twofold: (1) The sexual abuse scandals that were covered up around the world, even on behest of the Holy See¹⁵; (2) the overall sense of corruption amongst clerics which no-one wants to support through one's denomination as a Christian under the organisation of the Catholic (or Evangelical) church¹⁶. At least in Germany an apparent study on the question why people leave the church was conducted¹⁷, proving what I have mentioned above: Distrust in the church, intent to practise one's belief without affiliation to the organised church (page 39). What is surprising indeed is the church sex scandal, which I have mentioned but didn't seem to have been mentioned by the people surveyed. Then again, personal reasons may trump those that make the headlines on a newspaper's A1. In my opinion, though, it showed just how deep the church's corruption reaches—it didn't take until the 2010's that the world would learn about those multiple cases: It was the recently deceased Irish pop musician Sinéad O'Connor who first exposed the cases in her country and Britain as a whole in front of a greater audience, while tearing up a photo of then-pope John Paul II¹⁸—, and how necessary it was for her not only to learn to integrate women as well as LGBTQ+ persons, but also to become more secular for her own good. Under secularity, we understand the strict separation of the church and the state. but what I mean is that she must become more transparent for outsiders too. At the moment, from the outside, the church appears like an organised parallel society with its own gubernatorial structures, impenetrable even for the actual state's executive forces, as the scandal has shown: Instead of allowing for the police to investigate the cases, it offered to investigate it themselves, a laughable suggestion that was often described as the perpetrator investigating its own crimes. After finalising their mock investigation, they have released an equally ridiculous report about their supposed findings: “Brothers in the mist”¹⁹ (Brüder im Nebel; this particular scenario was exclusive to the German church, I ought to emphasise, as during the past few years, when it came to a reparation of the cases, I mostly heard from my own country's church. Abroad, the only encounters that were heard of were expulsions from offices, but only after a lot of handwringing despite clear evidence of an officeholder's evidentiary knowledge of subordinate clergymen's misconduct)  Now I do not know enough to speak about this whole scandal in greater detail; because I am fairly ignorant about the issue as a whole, and what I recalled heretofore was mere hearsay, spotted with some quotes to at least establish them on firmer ground. What I mean to say is that such public displays can draw people away not only from the offending organisation but also the idea it used to transport. But as the survey has proven: It did not play as great a role in church departures as one (read: I) would have thought. Which bears the question: What drives this growing irreligiosity in Western society?²⁰ Most people would say, also in reference to the three sources listed in footnote no. 14, that they held scientific knowledge in higher esteem than a religious belief in a supernatural deity that cannot be proven epistemiologically²¹. Yet their astout anti-religiousness thus not necessarily find common ground amongst some of the most famous natural scientists: Despite some people's persoanl understanding, Darwin was a relatively religious Englishman²². A more pragmatic reason may be that the Christian church no longer plays such a major role in society, as compared to her “Golden Age” in the Middle Ages, or during times of crises in general. In the US, particularly in the “Bible Belt”²³, the church still serves this function, especially in the African-American communities²⁴. We may get back to this subject at the end of this text. But what we can hold onto at this point is that the church used to play a greater role in shaping communities, in even creating them. Nowadays, this function has been fulfilled in various kinds of services for pastimes and material satisfaction. Some people create personal environments with people they have met (and perhaps befriended) at work, others meet new friends either at bars or at halls of their favourite pastimes, like climbing or cart driving. (A more modern pastime may be roleplaying, where surely a lot of people met and befriended at last) Some acquaintances and friendships may have begun on the internet, disregarding platforms like Tinder which are created for short-lived acquaintances under a different intent. Such opportunities didn't exist in the olden past—the church was the only true activity outside of work, it was also an activity that everyone had got in common, since religious belief functioned as the centre of everything in one's life: God provided food in shape of bountiful harvests; God assured one's good health and that of one's family; believing in God ascertained one's rupture into Heaven after one's death. Nowadays, with many people no longer believing in those “eternal truths” and even the church itself no longer prophesying damnation for those who may be of feeble belief, there is no use in returning to Christendom. Could a reinvigoration of belief revert this? Even if this were humanly possible, it were unlikely to achieve this effect; simply because while Christianity (or any other religion) played a key role, it was not the be-all-end-all gear wheel in the social clockwork. There also needs to be a public will to reunite. And with that in mind, we shall come to the end of this post.

Norman Rockwell's 1950's ad painting, “Merry Christmas,Grandma!” It was comm-

issioned by Plymouth, an automobile brand that was discontinued in 2001.

Image source (since embedding didn't work): Pinterest 

There are several illnesses and diseases that haunt good parts of communities in the Western world: Because many of us, myself included, work office jobs, plentiful of people suffer from back pain²⁵ and too little exercise, which consequentially leads to spikes in obesity, even amongst youngsters²⁶. Depression is also on the rise, again with great prominence amongst youngsters²⁷, which was recently tracked back to the policies enacted during the pandemic, e.g. lockdowns and orders to meet as few people as possible²⁸. Of course there are cures to this, and some of them seem as obvious as they are unexpected, such as exercise, having hobbies, or socialising with friends²⁹. After all, it seems as though the New Age-esoterics were right to some degree when it came to homeopathic treatments to everyday diseases. Of course one could also pursue the common haunts like anti-depressants, although those show only a relative success, while their side-effects could convey some new problems to the patient. Ketamine shows promising results as a treatment to depression³⁰, but in the end, when it comes to one's health, a less invasive treatment should always be prepared over one that can have probable side-effects, which always occur with psychomedical drugs, ketamine included. 

Illnesses, mental ones in particular, always have a reason to emerge, they are not viral but either genetic or social. Depression can have genetic or bacterial origins too³¹, but in this case, we do not care about such cases. In this text, we want to focus on a more common reason for depression (aside of financial despair or an other existential threat, such as the loss of one's job): Solitude. Another consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic was the imposed isolation that bereft many people of a vital essence they didn't know they depended upon at great length³². It also frightened a lot of people to see how quickly they could be technically incarcerated in their own homes. Yet even beforehand, social isolation proved to be a growing problem, only worsened by the pandemic³³. It would be futile to repeat what could be all the reasons for why people seem to become lonelier—we perhaps could only add to it if we simultaneously addressed the question of why people seem to get married less, which could only descend into a litany of the Western world's descent, a path where we have already been halfway; of how bad habits like getting too used to the internet and creating a second, a better, life there instead of improving one's life in the real world—but with regards to the fact that a disproportionate frequency of suicide incidents takes place on Christmas Day³⁴, a little compassion could help the most vulnerable in our society. We were called upon to help the downtrodden and the poor, i.e. those in need of our support. Just remember what the Bible says about this urge (Psalm 82:3—5):

“Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.”

And in the book of James (James 2:14—17), we are told to enact proactively so that we help our brothers and sisters in need instead of watching indifferently as they suffer in plight: 

“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”

So, in the end, there is good reasons galore to go ahead and get together this Christmas, lest because in most parts of the world, resitrictions have been fully lifted and there may be many who will not have anybody to celebrate it with, thus leaving them stumped at a time where they will be traditionally bombarded with feelgood ads about families reuniting and being happy. Especially elders (young people less so) are at risk of becoming lonely in such a way as that it will affect their mental health³⁵. In the end, elders are disproportionately more at risk of becoming lonely, once their children are out of the house and too far away to look after them, while they may no longer be able to go outside easily and meet with the neighbours, or call doctors or the police on the phone to look after them. Of course it were a reasonable precaution to secure a flat in a nursing home, that can become a problem too because of labour shortages in nursing homes. Personal visits must also not be the only solution to assure that one's parents are being taken care of so that they don't become pathologically lonely: Just calling can be a solution too, so that they know that someone remembers them and cares for them. As for those who broke up with their parents in bad faith, this creates another nuisance, one that is not as easily solved by saying that one should look after them one way or the other. While the Bible may say that

“[But] I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,

Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also.”
(Luke 6:27—29)

Unfortunately, as is often with well-meant advice, it does not hold up with lived reality. When one hit the other on the cheek and the hit one turned the other one in return, the hitter would grasp that opportunity too. To give to one's enemy could be assigned as a weakness and therefore exploited. As I said, it's well intended, but would fire back in three out of four times. (I would likely be the fourth one favouring the peace offer if I could be sure that they would not try to trick me into lowering my defence to blow their fists against me) I also understand that there are many people who experienced such harsh mistreatment that they had little to no sympathy left for their associate patrons, but still, they should exercise certain precautions that will assure that someone will at least remove their rotten corpse once their day had come. There's little so indignifying than to only be remembered when the smell of decomposition crawls out from underneath the threshold and into the hallway. And that is only for the lucky case that they lived in a block of flats. Had they lived in a house of their own, or just a condominium, they may have been forgotten for so long ago that no neighbour would even consider that someone had to live in there but never seemed to leave it. Dying alone and forgotten by the rest of the world is a death that I would personally not even wish upon my worst enemy. 

It may be a far-fetched suggestion for a lot, but perhaps, on this Christmas Eve, perhaps try to make peace with some of your worst enemies. I understand if some people with either reject this right away or after a period of consideration, but as the Bible says (Proverbs 24:15—20):

“Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting place:
For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth:
Lest the Lord see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.
Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be thou envious at the wicked:
For there shall be no reward to the evil man; the candle of the wicked shall be put out.”

No-one shall scorn those who make a decision against forgiving their tormentors, even though it says in the Bible that “[...]if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:15)—as I said, sometimes the Gospel can be a little adjacent from reality. Jesus was God's son, and of course we need to aspire to live by his teachings, but it is hard when we are likely to be downtrodden all the time because we obeyed it. We cannot do good in the world when we try to strictly follow a dogma that is supposed to tell us how to do good the right way. First and foremost, doing the right thing is paramount, and if that meant to adjust the Gospel to match the world of today, there is no reason why God should disapprove of that. 

So, if not for the rest of this year, perhaps for the next year we all should make the one plain and simple resolution of doing better, not only for and to us, but also others. Already in the US we have to brace for a proliferation of division allegedly under the name and teachings of God and his only son, not to speak of that which will hold up and not ebb away here on our European home soil. As we know, the betterment always begins with oneself; one must not wait for others to make a change but go ahead and do it oneself and step forward as an example.

“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
(2 Corinthians 5:16—17)

I have written in my own texts in great detail and repetition that when we want to change our society for the better, we have to do that ourselves, because no-one else will do that for us, lest those who wish to not improve it by objective standards but even make it worse, to send our society back into worse, reactionary conditions. If led truly by the Gospel, we may be able to make our world a better place and even, although unlikely, convince our greatest enemies of the goodness of our practice. 

For now, I wish you all a merry Christmas if you observe, and happy holidays if you don't! 

און א פרייליכן און זיכערער חנוכה פאר אונזערע אידישע ברידער און שוועסטער

THE END

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Footnotes

[1] Not to speak of the US-American conditions, represented in Christmas comedy movies like “Deck the Halls”, starring Danny DeVito. Needless to say, there is, or rather was, a couple from Florida (because where else?) has become infamous for its ridiculous Christmas lighting. Recently it turned out that they squatted in a house formerly owned by a Miami Dolphins player:

Huriash, Lisa J. (November 17, 2023).  The massive Plantation Christmas display home was ‘squatted’ in for years, investigators say. South Florida Sentinel: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2023/11/17/the-massive-plantation-christmas-display-home-was-squatted-in-for-years-investigators-say/

[2] I have spoken out against this kind of scapegoating beforehand in one of my longer texts, See, for example: Bender, Oliver (2022). De Mundo pro Omniem. Rationalpolitik [Blogger]: Page 621 - 622. Link: https://politique-rationale.blogspot.com/2019/12/free-world-for-everyone.html#more.  Otherwise, there are also other blog posts by other people with a similar sentiment. For example: Johnson, Jeremiah (May 16, 2023). Ugh, Capitalism. Infinite Scroll [Substack]: https://www.infinitescroll.us/p/ugh-capitalism

[3] We're not going to discuss the latter as it is a lost cause with those who purport it, but the former may have gotten some critics too. Of course we do not live in a pre-civilian state of society, nor in an anomic state where too, everyone lived by their own standards and moral principles. Nonetheless, states cannot impose expected and desired actions onto their people, only place guidelines and banisters to illegalise the actions that were imminently harmful towards uninvolved third parties. That's all common sense. What may not be common sense is what we conclude therefrom: That humans can ultimately not be controlled individually, let alone as a greater, heterogenous mass. We have seen historic examples of states trying to monitor their peoples from a central standpoint, and fail with all guns blazing. (literally or not is up to the reader) The only relatively successful examples—Mainland China and Việt Nam—are because they do not keep total control of their people and, more specifically, the market. In the latter, a specific system was forged to bridge the discrepancies between a Capitalist Free Market and a Socialist centrally planned economy, the “Đổi Mới”. The problem is that it remains open to bribery and favouritism thanks to relationships to the upper échelons of the one-party government: 

Emmanuel Pannier & Guillaume Duteurtre, 2022. “The Hybrid Nature of the Vietnamese Market Economy: Personal Relationships and Debt in the Dairy and Maize Sectors,” Springer Books, in: Thi Anh-Dao Tran (ed.), Rethinking Asian Capitalism, chapter 0, pages 59-91, Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98104-4_3. Perm. handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-030-98104-4_3.

Another example of this being true can be found in a highly entertaining, eight-piece German investigative radio report about the GDR's trade relationship with Việt Nam to import coffee. In case you speak, or at least understand spoken German, you can find the report entitled „Operation Kaffee” (Operation Coffee) under the following link: https://www.ardaudiothek.de/sendung/operation-kaffee/12724915/. Although I cannot vouch for how long this link is going to work. But the essence can be read in the above-cited research article anyway. 
As for Mainland China, or the PRC, to apply its official name's abbreviation, it has often been described—especially in its official doctrine, as a “Socialism with Confucian characteristics”. In other times, the “Confucian” is replaced with “Chinese” (Boer, R. (2021). Socialism with Chinese characteristics. Springer Singapore. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1622-8). Whether it makes a difference is for scholars to decide; I am none. The point is that the only Socialist countries that managed to succeed and prevail against the tooth of time were those who managed to not stick to ideological premises that were established centuries ago—an argument that is often brought up against Captialist who supposedly relied on aged texts and authors such as Adam Smith and his invisible hand that functioned like a Deus ex Machina. I often argue that people misunderstood the tongue-in-cheek metaphor of Smith's (Oliver Bender (2022), page 393), but since there seems little basis in research, especially in economic journals, the problem may rather be a misconceptualisation or comprehension. In fact, the invisible hand was never meant to be the market functioning through apparent reactions corresponding to humans' prior actions. 

Jonathan B. Wight (2007) The Treatment of Smith's Invisible Hand, The Journal of Economic Education, 38:3, 341-358, DOI: https://doi.org/10.3200/JECE.38.3.341-358

However, it doesn't really matter because the market weren't allowed or even supposed to work freely, i.e. unobserved like a brushed DC engine driving a roll of film.  As long as we keep the market as it is today, we also need a state to take over the position of the referee (Oliver Bender (2022), page 284). Likewise, the state must not become too big to take over all power and become an absolute in itself. Capitalism does not liken the wet dream of all Libertarians, and in the current state, it dissatisfies both the Ordoliberals and the penultimately mentioned. Yet it's hard to talk about this frankly thorny subject with people who are undereducated on this complex subject and still heavily invested in specific, ideologically driven positions that guide them like the aforementioned banisters. 

[4] Think about the popular quote that “youre liberty to swing your fists ends just where my nose begins”, often affiliated to the Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, but was actually uttered by chairman of the Prohibition National Committee. He has said something similar to the quote, and in a more concise way it was immortalised. His full words can be found on page 128 under the following link: »Google Books«

[5] Hans Kjellberg (2008) Market practices and over‐consumption, Consumption Markets & Culture, 11:2, 151-167, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10253860802033688. Some may claim that the article were dated (which could also have been said about the above article about Adam Smith, but that one is also about a standing article by an author who had no chance to revise it anymore), but the content still stands, only commercials have become worse in a sense of incrementally losing the creative appeal, it becomes more unbearable because many of them look like a continuation of stock photos and videos with hollow phrases and the mentioning of the advertised article's name. Repeated airing replaces creativity that recipients would recall because it was pleasing to the eye, because it's also cheaper. It may prove efficient on the seller's side, as studies prove:

Albena Pergelova , Diego Prior & Josep Rialp (2010) Assessing Advertising Efficiency, Journal of Advertising, 39:3, 39-54, DOI: https://doi.org/10.2753/JOA0091-3367390303

[6] Needless to say, during the early days of Christianity, there was even debate as to whether Christmas should be celebrated as a feast of its own at all:

Conybeare, F. C. (1899). The history of Christmas. The American Journal of Theology, 3(1), 1-21. Link: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/477033 (PDF, 438 KB)

[7] It can be questioned whether the entitlement of this quote's language as Hawai'ian Pidgin were correct, rather than calling it Hawai'ian Pidgin English. It certainly were since it already presumed that we're speaking an English dialect, and not a Hawai'ian or Polynesian. There has bee nsome debate, particularly in the linguistic field. See, for example:

Bickerton, D., & Wilson, W. H. (1987). Pidgin Hawaiian. Pidgin and creole languages: Essays in memory of John E. Reinecke, 61-76. Link: https://manifold.uhpress.hawaii.edu/read/pidgin-and-creole-languages-essays-in-memory-of-john-e-reinecke/section/3cd304ec-3c1b-41f1-ad40-70350866953b

Now, the more interesting question may be why I didn't quote the passage in a more authoritative version such as the King James' Version, or the NIV. I had that in mind, to be honest, I thought about it, but then again, since the quote doesn't contribute greatly to the flow of the red thread in this text, it didn't matter. And I like the dialect as such too, it sounds funny. So, my choice fell for the Pidgin. 

[8] Van Beek, G. W. (1960). Frankincense and myrrh. The Biblical Archaeologist, 23(3), 70-95. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3209285

[9] Rouwhorst, G. (2020). The Origins and Transformations of Early Christian Feasts. In Rituals in Early Christianity (pp. 27-51). Brill. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004441729_004

[10] McKay, G., & Whiteley, S. (2008). Consumption, Coca-colonisation, Cultural Resistance – and Santa Claus. In Christmas, Ideology and Popular Culture (pp. 50–68). Edinburgh University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1r1xq8.8

[11] https://www.statista.com/statistics/246963/christmas-spending-in-the-us-during-november/. Although there are hints that in particular because of inflation, people were likely to spend less this year, although the kink is not as significant as one would believe, given the logical reason: https://news.gallup.com/poll/403985/americans-planning-spend-generously-holiday-season.aspx

[12] Vanderbilt Ball. How a costume ball changed New York elite society. Museum of the City of New York: https://www.mcny.org/story/vanderbilt-ball

[13] As for the centralisation of consumption in the festive season, we could speak with the words of the late Americo-German philosopher Herbert Marcuse, who has said that 

„[...] die Rezeptivität der Sinnlichkeit und nicht die Spontaneität der Vernunft Quelle des Glücks wird, folgt aus den antagonistischen Arbeitsverhältnissen. Sie sind die wirkliche Gestalt der erreichten Stufe der menschlichen Vernunft, in ihnen wird über die mögliche Freiheit und das mögliche Glück entschieden. Ist diese Gestalt eine solche, daß über die Produktivkräfte im Interesse kleinster gesellschaftlicher Gruppen verfügt wird, der größte Teil der Menschen von den Produktionsmitteln getrennt ist und die Arbeit nicht nach den Fähigkeiten und Bedürfnissen der Individuen, sondern nach den Anforderungen des Verwertungsprozess geschieht, so kann in dieser geschichtlichen Form der Vernunft das Glück nicht allgemein sein.”

(Marcuse, Herbert (2011). Zur Kritik des Hedonismus. In: Kultur und Gesellschaft I. Frankfurt am Main: edition suhrkamp. Seite 140—141.)

As is often the case with left-leaning and leftist philosophers, there are a couple of true assessments made, but a good part is at least built upon an at least partially false premise. In this case, it is the eternally conveyed critique that the means of productio nwere separated from the workers who manipulate them, with little reason as to why this separation has taken place: That they belong in the hands of those who can operate and handle them, which is the ability of the managerial échelon. Workers in accordance to their training are capable of manipulating them insofar as that a specific product can be formed of them. As per their training, they are not able to trade them in such a way that profits could be reaped from them before they were correspondingly manipulated. Critics who go by such means of arguments always forget about the details that justify this secular state of the means of production. 

Another wrong point is that the conditions of one's employment determined one's probable luck and probable freedom. This is only true on a level that Marcuse rather presumes his readers to either know or assume out of mere benevolence for the author than the pressing obviousness of the statement thitherto uttered. It is true that one's salary or wage can either infringe or expand one's freedom in terms of accessibility to certain goods and services. But luck can also be found outside of financial means, outside of materialistic goods that could emit the proverbial shot of dopamine. There is also a basis in research that proves this point, although unlike this study model suggests, in can be found across all sexes and, presumably, genders:

McLaughlin, T., Blum, K., Steinberg, B., Modestino, E. J., Fried, L., Baron, D., Siwicki, D., Braverman, E. R., & Badgaiyan, R. D. (2018). Pro-dopamine regulator, KB220Z, attenuates hoarding and shopping behavior in a female, diagnosed with SUD and ADHD. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 7(1), 192-203. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.6.2017.081

Cynical people could suggest that this were a good thing borne from “Capitalism”: That there now is a system where people could satisfy their needs for quick dopamine shots without fostering an addiction. The majority would intead argue that this were another symptom of “Capitalism's” tendency to induce needs that weren't there in the first place. There is some truth to that, although there is too little research on the subject to at least prove this presumably intentional effect:

Gannon, Z., & Lawson, N. (2010). The Advertising Effect. How do we get the balance of advertising right. Link: https://www.compassonline.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/The-advertising-effect-compass.pdf

Voloshchenko, Y. (2018). Phycholinguistic dimensions of modern advertising: suggestive aspect. Topical Issues of Humanities, Technical and Natural Sciences, 181-183. Link: https://jti.donnu.edu.ua/article/view/6408

But as I have written above with reference to personal agency and societal expectations to conform with the consumerist behaviour linked to the season, we are still free to reject the bountiful offerings made towards us. To speak otherwise could consequentially function as an apologia for rapists who argued in court that their victim's short dress lured* them into their miserable action. It's a wrong argument in both cases equally. Of course ads need to be appealing (although I argued above that they aren't in a majority of the cases; there are exceptions such as in a couple of the Superbowl ads), but since they are generally aired, often on publicy accessible media, it is hard to say that they created artificial needs that weren't there in the first place. For this to work, one had to find a unified model on advertising, i.e. create an ad that would appeal to either a majority or even all spectators universally. And this is just not possible because tastes are different, and as I have written above, ads seem to go more for constant presentation than for a lasting impression that will allow the spectator to recall the ad even days after first reception. 

To cut things short, what drives humans into their obedience is their willingness to be sedated by their surroundings. What I have written here, as well as ever, in any text, is nothing new, it's all reach-me down knowledge. The problem is that there are too many people who are either unaware thereof, or deliberately ignore them because it could threaten the coherence of their own arguments. Friedrich Nietzsche broke this phenomenon down comprehensively:

„Alle Tugend und Tüchtigkeit am Leib und an der Seele ist mühsam und im kleinen erworben worden, durch viel Fleiß, Selbstbezwingung, Beschränkung auf weniges, durch viel zähe, treue Wiederholung der gleichen Arbeiten, der gleichen Entsagungen: aber es gibt Menschen, welche die Erben und Herren dieses langsam erworbenen vielfachen Reichtums an Tugenden und Tüchtigkeiten sind – weil auf Grund glücklicher und vernünftiger Ehen und auch glücklicher Zufälle die erworbenen und gehäuften Kräfte vieler Geschlechter nicht verschleudert und versplittert, sondern durch einen festen Ring und Willen zusammengebunden sind. Am Ende nämlich erscheint ein Mensch, ein Ungeheuer von Kraft, welches nach einem Ungeheuer von Aufgabe verlangt. Denn unsere Kraft ist es, welche über uns verfügt: und das erbärmliche geistige Spiel von Zielen und Absichten und Beweggründen nur ein Vordergrund – mögen schwache Augen auch hierin die Sache selber sehn.”
(Nietzsche, Friedrich (1954). Aus dem Nachlaß der Achtzigerjahre. In: Werke in drei Bänden, Band 3. München: Carl Hanser Verlag. Seite 434) 

In other words, the will is not there, and therefore, the flesh is weak. It requires discipline, and that needs to be trained on. I have always argued that this is what school is for, that is why there need to be allegedly useless classes with knowledge that, again—allegedly, not going to benefit us in later life. In my opinion, a broad base of knowledge in various fields can shape our character and allow us to spark curiosity in even more fields, it can furthermore empathise us and make us human. There is nothing more unbearable than an ignorant person proud of their ignorance, worse are only people who are ignorant about numerous subjects of all colours of research and faculty, but masters in one. When I look up a translation for this from the German Fachidiot, I receive the word nerd, which may be true, but at least nerds are not complicit about their lack of knowledge  but more aspirant to close those gaps. 
I have never watched the movie “Idiocracy”, but from what I have heard about it, the people about who this movie is, they match what I have described. Of course I do not mean to declare a good part of our society proud dimwits, but then again, the fewest would proclaim that they had no interest in expanding their knowledge about our world. I only take grudges with people who criticise the breadth of knowledge that is taught, if superficially, at school. School is not to teach one how to go through life safely, that's what other institutions are for. One should not set the fox to keep the geese. 

* Not to speak of the men's problem of feeling the inner urge to display their power over women by harassing them, which in turn not only degrades the women in question, but also evidently threatens their physical health: It causes major cardiological distress, as it can be read hereunder:

Lawn, R. B., Nishimi, K. M., Sumner, J. A., Chibnik, L. B., Roberts, A. L., Kubzansky, L. D., ... & Thurston, R. C. (2021). Sexual Violence and Risk of Hypertension in Women in the Nurses’ Health Study II: A 7‐Year Prospective Analysis. Journal of the American Heart Association, e023015. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.121.023015

There may be a link to a similar study finding out similar results for people who suffer from general discrimination and bullying on the workplace, but then again, it is important to point out women may be twice as affected from harassment-related hypertension. Read the study on the general link between harassment and heart attacks:

 El Husseini, N., Katzan, I. L., Rost, N. S., Blake, M. L., Byun, E., Pendlebury, S. T., Aparicio, H. J., Marquine, M. J., Gottesman, R. F., Smith, E. E., & American Heart Association Stroke Council; Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing; Council on Cardiovascular Radiology and Intervention; Council on Hypertension; and Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health. (2023). Cognitive impairment after ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke: A scientific statement from the American heart association/American stroke association. Stroke; a Journal of Cerebral Circulation. https://doi.org/10.1161/STR.0000000000000430

The sexual-harassment case is particularly interesting because it's so avoidable, since it is often committed by people iwth an otherwise clean vest. This is not to belittle the deeds the perpetrators commit, but how normal it seems to be for some, that they'd commit that without a second thought. And I don't speak of the 50's, where this was as normal as never having been addressed as problematic behaviour. For once, one could just watch a movie adaption of any available James Bond movie and see how he acts next to Moneypenny, or any woman he has sexual intercourse with later during the plot. Another trace of evidence would be women's magazines of the same time. While Bond was not the one to normalise it as he just laid down in a prepared bed of such behaviour, he certainly is one of the best-known examples thereof today, next to more current examples like Harvey Weinstein or Jeffrey Epstein. Or Donald J. Trump. The #MeToo movement has raised awareness of such issues, but in the end, it's overall success is disputed, even six years after its first emergence:

Corbett, Holly (November 16, 2023). The #MeToo Movement Six Years Later: What’s Changed And What’s Next. Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hollycorbett/2023/11/16/the-metoo-movement-six-years-later-whats-changed-and-whats-next/

What it surely has achieved is that women's demand for equal treatment—we could talk about the shortcomings of the unadjusted gender pay gap, but that would lead us completely off the trodden path of this text so far—and kept it in front of the public conversation's face. This was a great achievement already, since the nuisances a priori were left as a convenient means of exploiting women's work without feeling guilty about it. But of course, a lot has to be done still, and should be actively combated. The only question is: How? And what exactly? There are certainly jobs in which women do earn less than men for the same amount of work, at rates that are not explainable just as a natural disequilibrium because different employers pay different salaries. When this happens at the same company, for example, this explanation were invalid and could only be explained by means of sexism or misogyny. If somebody underperformed in their position, they should be informed about this perception and at worst be fired to be replaced with someone more fitting. (As someone to whom this has happened twice, I know what I am talking about and understand the consequences for someone affected by such decision-making) Otherwise unexplainable pay gaps are unjustified and should be struck down in court. Therefore, women who find out about this should sue their employer or quit on their own to look for a fairer employer. At least in my opinion, it never seemed reasonable to fight court cases against one's employer to continue with the defendant somehow, no matter what is the reason for the dispute that had escalated in such a way. But this needs to be decided by the plaintiff / employee themselves, of course. 
What sprang to my mind recently, additionally, is a twofold fact; twofold insofar as that the same model was applied for both the Germanophone space in Europe (the acronym „DACH-Raum” has made its way from business into the common man's speech, and references Deutschland (Germany), Austria (...) and the Confederatio Helvetica, the latter which references Switzerland but applies the Latin name of the country, which in turn references the Celtic tribe of the Helvetians (likely no relation to the Norwegian/Danish word for hell, Helvete)) and in the US. To break it down into two points:

1. There are, firstly, more men with the first name of Thomas who are mayors of German towns and cities, than there are women holding such an office. That is, as per the—now defunct—online politics zine KATAPULT Magazin. Secondly, there are, again, more men with the first name of Thomas in a CEO or comparable position in MDax corporations, than there are women in such a position. This is according to:
   Rottwilm, Christoph (06.03.2015). Weniger Frauen in Vorständen als Männer, die Thomas heißen. Manager Magazin: https://www.manager-magazin.de/politik/artikel/weniger-frauen-in-mdax-vorstaenden-als-maenner-namens-thomas-a-1022017.html
   This year, the number looks a lot better, the number of women in such positions have nearly doubled compared to eight years ago, when that article was published. You can read more hereunder: 
   Haufe Online Redaktion (30.10.2023). Frauenanteil in Aufsichtsräten, Vorständen und Führungspositionen 2023. Haufe: https://www.haufe.de/personal/hr-management/frauenanteil-in-aufsichtsrat-vorstand-und-fuehrungspositionen_80_482366.html
   Since we spoke about the DACH space, let's add one more case statistic from Austria: As of Q1 2023, there are more women mayors than there are male mayors who go by the names of either Hans or Franz:
   Kurier (07.03.2023). Erstmals mehr Frauen im Bürgermeisteramt als Männer namens Franz und Hans. Link: https://kurier.at/chronik/oesterreich/erstmals-mehr-frauen-im-buergermeisteramt-als-maenner-namens-franz-und-hans/402354888
2. In the US, there is no statistic on men with a specific name who lead NYSE or Dow Jones companies, but there were more men with the first name of John who worked as CEOs in corporations than there were women heading companies. I couldn't find that particular anecdote, but there is a comparison with men going by the name of John, but now, women have prevailed:
   Peck, Emily (April 27, 2023). At the CEO level, women finally outnumber men named John. Axios: https://www.axios.com/2023/04/27/women-men-ceo-sp500
   With regards to Congress, there is a similar study: There are more men in Congress with the name of Mike (excluding men who go by the name of Michael, I suppose) than there are women occupying seats:
   Metzger, Bryan (January 10, 2023). The House of Representatives will have more guys named 'Mike' than women chairing committees under the new Republican majority. Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/house-republicans-more-mike-women-committee-chairs-2023-1
   
   

[14] Taylor, Steve (January 12, 2021). Scientism: When science becomes a religion. The Scientific & Medical Network: https://scientificandmedical.net/scientism-when-science-becomes-a-religion-by-steve-taylor/
Pigliucci, Massimo (January 25, 2018). The Problem with Scienticism. Blog of the APA: https://blog.apaonline.org/2018/01/25/the-problem-with-scientism/
Peterson, G. R. (2003). Demarcation and the Scientistic Fallacy. In Zygon® (Vol. 38, Issue 4, pp. 751–761). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2003.00536.x

Not to speak of the fact that even atheists can exercise their atheism in a dogmatic sense, when they treat it as the monolith that cannot be toppled by anything as it reflected the eternal truth. Still, there needs to be more research on the subject, as I am familiar with only this one study I cite hereunder:

Uzarevic, F., Saroglou, V., & Clobert, M. (2017). Are atheists undogmatic?. Personality and Individual Differences, 116, 164-170. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.04.046

 

[15] Charles J. Russo (2021) An update on the clerical sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in the United States and its impact on education, International Studies in Catholic Education, DOI: 10.1080/19422539.2021.1955526

[16] García Portilla, J. (2022). Corruption and Religion (A), (B), (1). In: “Ye Shall Know Them by Their Fruits”. Contributions to Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78498-0_6

[17] Ahrens, P. A. (2022). Kirchenaustritte seit 2018: Wege und Anlässe; Ergebnisse einer bundesweiten Repräsentativbefragung (Vol. 1, p. 90). Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG. Link: https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/9783748933021.pdf (PDF, 12,5 MB)

[18] Hochman, Steve (October 24, 1992). Sinead's Defense: She Says She Seeks Truth. Los Angeles Times: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-10-24-ca-655-story.html

[19] Hein, Franziska (18. März 2021). "Brüder im Nebel". Juristisches Gutachten belastet Kölner Bischöfe. Evangelischer Pressedienst (epd): https://www.evangelisch.de/inhalte/183889/18-03-2021/brueder-im-nebel

[20] Franck, R., Iannaccone, L.R. Religious decline in the 20th century West: testing alternative explanations. Public Choice 159, 385–414 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-013-0103-9

Ribberink, E., Achterberg, P., & Houtman, D. (2013). Deprivatization of Disbelief?: Non-Religiosity and Anti-Religiosity in 14 Western European Countries. Politics and Religion, 6(1), 101-120. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755048312000740

[21] Worrall, J. (2004). Science discredits religion. Contemporary debates in philosophy of religion, 59-72. Link: https://joelvelasco.net/teaching/2330/Worrall_Ratzche_science_religion.pdf (PDF, 1.05 MB)

[22] Lamoureux, D. O. (2017). Theological Insights from Charles Darwin 1. Religion and the Challenges of Science, 39-53. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351150408

For those who are not interested in reading the article, there is a quote from his most famous book, “The Origin of Species”, that I usually cite when emphasising Darwin's Christian belief. (Although one guy I once met on Google+ who claimed to be a Darwin scholar and were certain that Darwin was not a believing Christian, although they didn't cite any sources for that claim. I didn't interrogate further, as it doesn't matter; What does matter is Darwin's writing, such as this book, as well as other writings like “The Descent of Man”) Read:

“He who believes that each equine species was independently created, will, I presume, assert that each species has been created with a tendency to vary, both under nature and under domestication, in this particular manner, so as often to become striped like the other species of the genus; and that each has been created with a strong tendency, when crossed with species inhabiting distant quarters of the world, to produce hybrids resembling in their stripes, not their own parents, but other species of the genus. To admit this view is, as it seems to me, to reject a real for an unreal, or at least for an unknown cause. It makes the works of God a mere mockery and deception; I would almost as soon believe with the old and ignorant cosmogonists, that fossil shells had never lived, but had been created in stone so as to mock the shells now living on the sea-shore.”

(Darwin, Charles; Huxley, Julian (2003). The Origin of Species. London: Signet Classics. Page 157. Underscores mine)

 

[23] Charles A. Heatwole (1978) The Bible Belt: A problem in regional definition, Journal of Geography, 77:2, 50-55, DOI: 10.1080/00221347808980072

[24] 
On the church's role in communities in general:
Miers, R., Fisher, A.T. (2002). Being Church and Community. In: Fisher, A.T., Sonn, C.C., Bishop, B.J. (eds) Psychological Sense of Community. The Plenum Series in Social/Clinical Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0719-2_8

The same subject continued, but with a focus on African-American communities:
Moore, T. (2014). The African-American church: A source of empowerment, mutual help, and social change. In Religion and prevention in mental health (pp. 237-257). Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315820491

[25] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/low-back-pain


[26] 

For Germany:
Schienkiewitz A, Kuhnert R, Blume M, Mensink GBM. Overweight and obesity among adults in Germany - Results from GEDA 2019/2020-EHIS. J Health Monit. 2022 Sep 14;7(3):21-28. doi: https://doi.org/10.25646/10293. PMID: 36188152; PMCID: PMC9520353.

For the United States:
Hales CM, Carroll MD, Fryar CD, Ogden CL. Prevalence of obesity and severe obesity among adults: United States, 2017–2018. NCHS Data Brief, no 360. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2020

For youngsters in general:
Jebeile, H., Kelly, A. S., O'Malley, G., & Baur, L. A. (2022). Obesity in children and adolescents: epidemiology, causes, assessment, and management. The Lancet Diabetes & endocrinology. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(22)00047-X

Anouk Francine Jacqueline Geraets, Alina Cosma, Anne-Siri Fismen, Kristiina Ojala, Daniela Pierannunzio, Colette Kelly, Marina Melkumova, Charlene Vassallo, Jelena Gudelj Rakic & Andreas Heinz (2023) Cross-national time trends in adolescent body weight perception and the explanatory role of overweight/obesity prevalence, Child and Adolescent Obesity, 6:1, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/2574254X.2023.2218148

[27] Lee B, Wang Y, Carlson SA, et al. National, State-Level, and County-Level Prevalence Estimates of Adults Aged ≥18 Years Self-Reporting a Lifetime Diagnosis of Depression — United States, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2023;72:644–650. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7224a1

Shorey, S., Ng, E. D., & Wong, C. H. (2022). Global prevalence of depression and elevated depressive symptoms among adolescents: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 61(2), 287-305. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjc.12333

Not to speak of the cases in which a Covid-19 infection was the cause of the patient's depression:
 Wilding, S., O’Connor, D.B., Ferguson, E. et al. Probable COVID-19 infection is associated with subsequent poorer mental health and greater loneliness in the UK COVID-19 Mental Health and Wellbeing study. Sci Rep 12, 20795 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-24240-3

[28] Sun, L., Wang, X., Hong, Y., Li, C., Zeng, W., Liu, P., ... & Wang, Y. (2023). COVID-19 pandemic-related depression and anxiety under lockdown: The chain mediating effect of self-efficacy and perceived stress. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14, 1100242.

But for those who already suffered from depression, the lockdowns were even worse, although the fewest of us needed a reminder in shape of a study to realise this. Some of us may have experienced that first-hand. But for those who need that heads-up:

Aguilar-Latorre, A., Oliván-Blázquez, B., Porroche-Escudero, A. et al. The impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on depression sufferers: a qualitative study from the province of Zaragoza, Spain. BMC Public Health 22, 780 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13083-2

[29] 
On doing exercises:
Boucher, V. G., Haight, B. L., Hives, B. A., Zumbo, B. D., Merali-Dewji, A., Hutton, S., ... & Puterman, E. (2023). Effects of 12 Weeks of At-Home, Application-Based Exercise on Health Care Workers’ Depressive Symptoms, Burnout, and Absenteeism: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA psychiatry. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2023.2706

Singh, B., Olds, T., Curtis, R., Dumuid, D., Virgara, R., Watson, A., ... & Maher, C. (2023). Effectiveness of physical activity interventions for improving depression, anxiety and distress: an overview of systematic reviews. British Journal of Sports Medicine. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2022-106195

On eating healthy:
Zhao, Y., Yang, L., Sahakian, B.J. et al. The brain structure, immunometabolic and genetic mechanisms underlying the association between lifestyle and depression. Nat. Mental Health (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-023-00120-1

On pursuing hobbies:
 Mak, H.W., Noguchi, T., Bone, J.K. et al. Hobby engagement and mental wellbeing among people aged 65 years and older in 16 countries. Nat Med (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02506-1

On socialising:
Bulut, S. (2019) Socialization Helps the Treatment of Depression in Modern Life. Open Journal of Depression, 8, 41-47. doi: https://doi.org/10.4236/ojd.2019.82005

On keeping good relations to one's parents:
Ford CA, Pool AC, Kahn NF, Jaccard J, Halpern CT. Associations Between Mother-Adolescent and Father-Adolescent Relationships and Young Adult Health. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(3):e233944. doi: https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.3944

[30] Anand, A., Mathew, S. J., Sanacora, G., Murrough, J. W., Goes, F. S., Altinay, M., ... & Hu, B. (2023). Ketamine versus ECT for Nonpsychotic Treatment-Resistant Major Depression. New England Journal of Medicine. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2302399

But as was already the case with Wegovy, in all the hype to have found an alternative to an underperforming solution, the question of the side-effects is suppressed, and those who take the drug in all hope to have found redemption bear the brunt:

Perrone, Matthew (November 07, 2023). Mind-altering ketamine becomes latest pain treatment, despite little research or regulation. AP News: https://apnews.com/article/ketamine-pain-drugs-psychedelic-fda-2c67eeac1932962a7b0affc07d24c09a

[31] Gao, M., Wang, J., Liu, P. et al. Gut microbiota composition in depressive disorder: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression. Transl Psychiatry 13, 379 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-023-02670-5

[32] Jeffers, Alexiss, Ashley A. Meehan, Jordan Barker, Alice Asher, Martha P. Montgomery, Greg Bautista, Colleen M. Ray, Rebecca L. Laws, Victoria L. Fields, Lakshmi Radhakrishnan, and et al. 2022. "Impact of Social Isolation during the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health, Substance Use, and Homelessness: Qualitative Interviews with Behavioral Health Providers" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, no. 19: 12120. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912120

[33] Leigh-Hunt, N., Bagguley, D., Bash, K., Turner, V., Turnbull, S., Valtorta, N., & Caan, W. (2017). An overview of systematic reviews on the public health consequences of social isolation and loneliness. Public health, 152, 157-171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2017.07.035

[34] Carley, S., & Hamilton, M. (2004). Suicide at Christmas. Emergency Medicine Journal, 21(6), 716-717. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/emj.2004.019703

And in newer articles regarding the subject, the myth that people committed suicides more often around festive holidays, but point out that after New Year's Eve, the frequency increases. Yet needless to say, it seems around that time of the year that people lose hope and the will to live, which should concern us enough. Anyway, read the article: 

Begley, Sharon (December 30, 2015). Christmas suicide surge is a myth, but what about the January rebound? STAT News: https://www.statnews.com/2015/12/30/suicides-rise-after-christmas/

[35] Oliver Huxhold, PhD , Georg Henning, PhD, The Risks of Experiencing Severe Loneliness Across Middle and Late Adulthood, The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2023;, gbad099, https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbad099

Although of less interest for the subject matter, but intriguing nonetheless, there is a distinction between the terms loneliness and solitude; while the former may be not bad for one's health because one could still have a social environment that helps to satisfy their human needs of socialisation and being surrounded by equals, the latter means that one has (been) isolated altogether and therefore suffering deeply from it. In case you wish to read the study:

Oliver Huxhold, PhD , Georg Henning, PhD, The Risks of Experiencing Severe Loneliness Across Middle and Late Adulthood, The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2023;, gbad099, https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbad099