"The slow annihilation of public life in America can be tracked by the decline of Christmas caroling. There was, in some of our lifetimes, a hearty tradition of groups of people, including barber shop quartets, and church and school choirs going into neighborhoods, knocking on doors, singing a Christmas song they prepared, and moving onto the next house to do it again, to bring joy and/or proselytism to people during the coldest and darkest time of year."
"Why did people stop doing this, exactly? The answer lies in your own mind, programmed by a society that has systematically encouraged atomization in every aspect of life, paranoia about the safety of a stranger, whatever that might be-a world where some random person can be commanded to deliver fifty dollars worth of Taco Bell to be dropped off on your porch as a small comfort, but where several people arriving to briefly sing you a seasonal folk song is strange and terrifying."
"Civil society, bonds between neighbors, anything in life that doesn't generate profit... all of it is poisoned, dismantled by capital for parts, put on hold until some massive rupture reorders the world around a better set of values. But for one night, in Pioneer Courthouse Square, small groups of people fought back against the violent inertia of the social world of contemporary America."
Public life in America has declined, visible in the disappearance of neighborhood Christmas caroling traditions. Social programming toward atomization and widespread paranoia about strangers discouraged communal practices. Capital has dismantled civil society and neighborly bonds when those bonds fail to generate profit. For one night in Pioneer Courthouse Square, small groups resisted that social inertia by reviving public caroling. The 11th Annual Great Figgy Pudding Caroling Competition featured sixteen teams, including barbershop quartets, high school choirs, larger adult groups, and a women’s group that reworked Christmas traditionals into protest songs. Groups started in Pioneer Square and spread to sixteen outdoor locations, while revelers floated from one performance to another, dropping wooden coins.
Read at Portland Mercury
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