Santa Claus and Deductive Reasoning

i have long held that i was actually born with a static maturity level. The maturity level that i was born with, will die with, and currently posses is exactly the same.  As a child i appeared extremely mature, but the older i get the less mature i seem every year. Currently at middle age, it would seem that i am just going to get more and more childish compared to my peers. If i survive long enough, i am going to a terror around the old folks home.

i bring this up because i have been thinking a lot about Santa this holiday season.  All this Santa talk got me thinking about how i discovered that there was no Santa (spoiler alert... too late?). This has also got me thinking about the ramifications of all the lies our society tells children, especially the ones that are told knowing full well that they one day will learn the truth.  Exhibit A: Santa Claus.

The idea of a chivalrous code of conduct steering one's daily behavior has been a strongly appealing concept to me for as long as i can remember. Jedi, superheros, monks, and especially knights in shining armor all led lives that i admired. i could take my parent's bathrobes and pretend i was a Jedi or monk, i had plastic capes left over from past Halloweens in Superman red and Batman blue, but there was just never enough foil on those aluminium foil rolls in the kitchen to fashion myself an adequate suit of armor (i'd just end up with my arms covered, an empty roll for a sword, and an extremely angry mum).

Although clearly imaginative, i was also the son of an engineer who honored Spock's logic therefore, i took my make-believe very seriously. Having been told that Santa Claus was magical and that he could do anything, i decided one year that all i wanted for Christmas was a suit of armor for both me and my dog Barney. i envisioned the two of us roaming the neighborhood saving those in need and fighting off any foe invading our street.

Just imagine a dog instead of a horse

My mum kept telling me that i should add more to my Christmas list but that was truly all i wanted. A suit of armor was more than enough to keep me fully content. Eventually she said that i needed to pick things Santa could get at a store and that they do not sell suits of armor any more. "Well that's what the elves are for" was my response, "they can make me one."

As one would imagine, Christmas morning came around and sure enough, there was no suit of armor under the tree. i had been a good boy all year, and i am sure there were great things under the tree but there was only one thing that i really wanted. Then i started putting pieces of the Santa puzzle together.  Why was my mother so insistent that things on my list could be bought at a store?  Why were all the gifts me and my siblings got all things that came from stores? Why didn't i get a suit of armor and why did Barney only get a bone?  He was a GREAT dog, clearly deserving of his own armor.

Thoughts that Santa could not, in fact, do EVERYTHING quickly turned into thoughts questioning the very existence of the fat man in a red suit. Santa was a big one.  If he wasn't real, clearly the lesser players: mainly the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy, were scams as well. Reviewing the evidence (my child memory) it became clear to me that all the signs were there, like when you re-watch Fight Club or The Usual Suspects.

You sit on a throne of lies

The "Santa Realization" rapidly lead to the fall of the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy but i kept up the act for the benefit of my younger brother and sister. Shortly after i stopped acknowledging my imaginary friend Homer.

The fact that a fiction, a lie even, could be so pervasive throughout our society was a concept that not only stuck with me but even has haunted me at times. All these things that my parents had told me that had turned out to be completely untrue had me questioning almost everything my parents had taught me.  This line of inquiry butted up against strong Catholic guilt as i inevitable followed it to the logical conclusion of wondering about the realities of God and Jesus at an age when i did not posses the emotional maturity or tools to handle such a heavy philosophical pondering (although i am not sure if even today there is any way to fully prepare for the ramifications of such ponderings).

Having spent years with these types of contemplations by the time i hit my teens, any type of authoritative action was met with extreme skepticism. Just because my parents said it was "bad"
didn't mean anything to me. Why?  What makes it bad? Bad for everyone or just some? i required proof and often required experimentation.

Now, it is not abnormal for a teenager to be experimental and even confrontational. In fact, to some extent, it is very health and quite important in developing independence as adulthood approaches. The effect, however, of all these lies and exaggerations we tell children and how that impacts their later views of both the world and simply of sources of information in general is something i do not think gets enough attention in our society.

Maybe i just have a hyperactive drive to chase truth, but i can't help but wonder how a culture free from youthful make-believe figures would impact the reasoning used by adults in a society more focused on a lifetime of reality.  Or maybe i'm just bitter i never got a suit of armor.