Christmas is synonymous with giving
Giving is an act of grace; “giving back” is an act of obligation
“Giving back” fosters unjustified and unnecessary division
The act of giving has long been a central aspect of the Christmas holiday. The month of December often seems an unrelenting barrage of gift exchanges and the arrival of unanticipated baked goods. Mailboxes and inboxes overflow with advertisements and entreaties for charitable donations, and the Salvation Army Santa Claus takes his position outside shop entrances the world over.
But this traditional spirit of charity now faces stiff competition. A subtle yet critical transformation is taking place in the social lexicon as the virtue of giving, which has for so long characterized the spirit of this season, is quickly being replaced by the obligation to “give back.”
It is now virtually impossible to find any media related to volunteer work, philanthropy, or charity that does not contain the phrase “giving back.”
Although only a minor tweak of language, the philosophical foundations of “giving” and “giving back” could not be more different in either purpose or effect. To mistake one for the other is not merely to miss the mark, but to miss it so completely as to effectively have aimed in the opposite direction.
Implicit in the idea of giving back is the assertion that something was first given to us, and furthermore that we are morally required to return it. This is a call for the restoration of equilibrium – a return to things as they should be. It is an act of justice. Far from virtuous or caring, giving back is merely the fulfillment of an obligation, and is thus no more charitable or praiseworthy than making the monthly car payment.
By contrast, giving is not justice, but generosity. When we trade it for “giving back,” we exchange an act of grace and beauty that transcends our normal human impulses for the stale contractual obligation of debt payment.
What would otherwise have been the tender relationship between a gracious benefactor experiencing the joy of giving and a grateful recipient cared for without merit, is turned instead into a bitter estrangement in which the recipient feels entitled to what he is given by a man who feels robbed of what is rightfully his. In place of the kinship of strangers, we have mutual resentment.
What little cohesive power remains in contemporary Western culture is being disintegrated seemingly by the day. Political and spiritual freedom are under ever-increasing assault, both explicitly by foreign aggressors and implicitly by the politically correct vernacular in which we find ourselves immersed (often unknowingly). “Giving back” is just such an assault. It is both the distortion of truth and blackmail of conscience that throws a cloak of obligation over an act of grace.