Because all he can see are the material trappings of Christmas, he assumes that that's all everybody else sees too. But that's not what Christmas means for the Whos, and after he takes away all of their things, they celebrate anyway.

I have long felt that we are being conditioned, by politicians and others who benefit by having ordinary people afraid of each other and at each others' throats, and by an entertainment culture that continually pumps out apocalyptic narratives in which the worst of our human nature rises to the top. This culture gives us worlds in which people are pitted against each other in a desperate battle for survival and the only way to make it out alive is to lie, cheat, steal, brutalize, kill–and sometimes eat–one's fellow human beings.

It feels to me as if someone with an agenda has been manufacturing these narratives, "training" us to think of each other as nothing more than competitors for scarce resources, enemies even. And to live accordingly. I haven't seen the film "Contagion", but I am told that it is representative of this trend: As soon as there is a big disruption in society, the social fabric immediately tears apart and people begin looting and killing each other.

But that's not what I'm seeing around me now. What I'm seeing is people coming together, helping each other, encouraging each other. Yes, some of the nastier aspects of humanity are surfacing too: The people who report businesses and individuals for violating the draconian orders, and the police officers who unthinkingly obey those orders. But looking around me, the first seem to be the exception, and even the second is not universal. Neighbors are helping each other; people are sewing masks (for all the good they may do); and many local sheriffs across the country are recognizing that these lockdowns constitute a violation of fundamental rights, and are refusing to enforce them.