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Time to be rude at Christmas Rude is an interesting word. It can mean to be ill-mannered, but when it originated, in the 13th Century, it meant rough. It can also mean pornographic, or robust. So there is something elemental about the word – it’s about a state of nature before it’s been teased into something else. I was thinking about this word because it occasionally comes up in the antique language of a handful of Christmas carols, to describe the manger in which the baby Jesus was laid after his mother gave birth. But it could easily be applied to the whole scene. When you think of it, stripped of all the romanticism, it was pretty elemental. Presumably there were midwives – somehow they got lost in my nativity set - and some hot water and whatever passed for towels in those parts in those days. There would have been blood, and smells, human and animal. This was not a sterile environment in which to bring a child into the world. Mary would have been exhausted, as well as relieved to have survived her first childbirth. It’s a rude scene in so many ways. There’s the “rude stable manger” as one hymn calls it, a strange nursery for a couple either too poor, or too disorganised, or maybe just not lucky enough, to have found a room in the inn. There is also a sense of robustness with new life finding a way, despite the conditions. And while there is nothing pornographic about childbirth, it’s one of those messy private human things, just the sort of bodily function that rude jokes trade off. And then there’s the sense of uncultured. These people are not rich and important people, they’re not well-educated, and from the way Jesus sometimes talked later in life, when they spoke they could be rough. These were not the “one-percenters”, they were more like what we would call the silent majority, doubly silent because overlaid on the nobility and the aristocrats of the temple, were the Romans so that there were two tiers of oppressors. And it was a very oppressive world. For trespassing on religious or political taboos you could be ostracised, stoned to death, or even excruciatingly crucified, depending on just what tier of society was offended. And that’s the essence of Christmas. It’s not really about friends and family, or presents. It’s about the real miracle that arising from such an unlikely set of circumstances Christianity has, over the last 2000 years, revolutionised the world. Whether we are believers, non-believers, or somewhere in between, and whether our beliefs are Christian or not, we live in a Christian country predicated on the belief that all life has integral and equal value, even a new child born to the poorest parents. Everything else, the right to own property, free speech, free thought, free association, even our light touch social welfare system, stems from that. Yet at Christmas we are also reminded that there are people who, often in the name of social justice, or equality, want to over-turn all of that. Often they leverage social or intellectual status, or mere celebrity, to dismiss what others think. If you spend as much time on social media as I do it seems we are about to be engulfed by a wave of soft totalitarianism. But maybe not so. Our friends at the IPA commissioned a poll to find out how many Australians agreed with the statement “Merry Christmas is an inclusive phrase which all Australians can relate to”. From the fuss made trying to rub the Christ out of Christmas from bureaucracies, large companies, and more than the odd city council, you would think there would be at least a substantial rump of respondents who disagreed, if not a majority. In fact only 7% disagreed, while a massive 79% agreed. So much for political correctness in Australia. But not only Australia. In an early Christmas present to sanity, on December 9, Cambridge University, previously a hotspot for cancel culture, voted down guidelines, advanced by the vice-chancellor Stephen Toope, to require opinions to be “respectful”. The V-C’s move was held a threat to free speech and academic freedom. So it’s OK once more to be rude at Cambridge University. But I’d take it a step further and say it’s our duty to be rude to our presumptive betters (amongst others). As these two examples, and even our last federal election, indicate, the majority is with us, even though it seems a PC typhoon is sitting just off our beaches. Why? Because the tyrants, while small in number, are much louder, and the majority are, well, silent, not wanting to appear impolite, or rude. At this time in the year it’s worth celebrating that everyone counts equally, and that wisdom often comes not from the great and powerful, but the uncultured and unsophisticated, and to act upon it by speaking up and saying what we think, even if it seems a little unpolished at the time. We need to take the veto away from the hecklers now. It’s the real spirit of the season. Wishing you a merry Christmas, and rude good health in the new year. 
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