The story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was written in 1939 by Robert L. May. It first appeared in a coloring book printed by the department store Montgomery Ward. It only later became a song and eventually part of the Christmas story all over the English-speaking world. But how often do we consider its darker and truer themes?
Rudolph was of course born off-season but his nose was a bit weird, and he was treated horribly by the rest of the herd that was destined to pull Santa’s sleigh. They ganged up on him in a typical childish groupthink and worked to keep him excluded from all social activities, entirely due to what appeared to be some birth defect.
Herein we see the cruelty of childhood and why the story connects so closely with children. Everyone at some point has experienced exclusion due to some eccentricity. It could be physical: large ears or too fat and so on. Or it could be intellectual: the geek who is great at math and therefore put down by everyone else as a freak.
Childhood gangs are infantilized versions of adult clubs and bureaucracies, where conformity with group norms comes at a premium. As Sigmund Freud explained in his brilliant book “Group Psychology and Analysis of the Ego” (1912), groups always imagine themselves to be constantly facing an existential threat from defection. This is because the group as a thinking and acting entity does not really exist; it is always a social creation and therefore vulnerable to dissolution.
To prevent that from happening, they must enforce in-group conformity. If you stand up and dare to observe that some aspect of the group ethos isn’t quite right or step even slightly outside the norms, you are subject to denunciation and shunning. This is true for all groups large and small. This explains why, for example, religions and militaries can be affectionately inviting as you enter the group but then deploy physiological and physical coercion should anyone dare to leave.
Another universal feature of group psychology is the need for an externalized enemy, something or someone to point and say: we are not like that. The more apparent the enemy is, the more the group is in a position to rally all members in favor of their own superiority and the easier it is to enforce the norms associated with belongingness. Understanding this crucial point is essential because everyone will face this problem in life.
In any case, Rudolph of course became the object of loathing by the rest of the reindeer herd as a means of social control. The poor red-nosed one did not understand because he had done nothing at all to deserve this kind of treatment. He worked to learn their games and tried to befriend them but still experienced shunning based not on any aspect of his character but solely due to the color of his nose.
What he did not understand is that the herd needed an enemy. They always do. If it wasn’t him, it would have been something else. He was too young to comprehend the moral depths of group psychology and there was no edition of Freud’s book available in Reindeer, so he was left to his own devices, trying to keep his chin up but ultimately falling prey to sulking and eventual despair.
The spring of his youth gradually turned to the winter of discontent.
But then a lucky break happened. The leader of the whole community, one of the few people who had the moral authority to depart from group norms, took note of Rudolph’s physical abnormality. This would be Santa himself. Santa noted that it lit up in a bright sort of way, and further realized that such a technology could be useful for purposes of Christmas Eve sleigh navigation. Using his power and authority, and his freedom to defy prevailing social norms, he tapped Rudolph to lead the sleigh on the only truly important night of the year.
Nearly instantly, Rudolph saw his fortunes turn. He was surrounded by adoring fans. All the other reindeer suddenly loved him and he proudly led the sleigh, smiling and happy about the turn of events. He made something of himself after all, as the sadness of his youth turned to a new confidence and sense of mission as he entered adulthood.
That’s the story and it is a good one, but there is more to consider. Following that evening when Rudloph was suddenly fashionable and loved, he might have put some thought into the dynamic in operation here. He had done nothing to merit his new status. In the exact sense that his previous shunning was not due to anything he had done, so too his newly exalted fame was purely an accident of biology.
If Rudolph were at all thoughtful, he might surely have developed some suspicion and even disdain for the group ethos that so quickly turned from hate to love. There were only two factors involved in this miraculous turn of events. First, he was tapped by the leader of the community and it could easily have been otherwise. Second, he happened to be born with a red nose that lights up at night, and this too could have easily been otherwise.
Surely he would then realize that the whole system is fundamentally arbitrary and essentially unjust. He had no inherent rights and no one believed that he deserved dignified treatment solely because of his status as a living reindeer. Instead, his status was due entirely to a kind of conferred legal privilege, one given solely for technocratic and utilitarian purposes. It just so happened that he could light the sleigh and so thus did his plight turn to privilege.
Surely he would then realize that this is not the sort of world anyone wants to live in. And what can we say about the other reindeer who so quickly turned from hating him to loving him solely because of the change in rules emanating from the top? The bitter truth here is that the herd is entirely dominated by an opportunistic moral ethos: not motivated by principles at all but purely driven by a survival instinct.
In other words, the love Rudolph seemed to be experiencing from the group was like most fame: deracinated from genuine conviction and ultimately entirely ephemeral. He would be wise not to let it go to his head because it could all disappear just as easily as it came. Fame is not a true source of value at all but an exigency of time and place, just as phony as the opprobrium to which he had been previously subject.
After all, he surely realized upon reflection, his nose could stop lighting at any time. What’s more, there were probably already cells within the herd that were plotting ways to make it so, since there is no success in life that is not met by the very powerful force of envy. Some people are motivated by the desire to destroy the good simply because someone else happens to be enjoying the fruit of success. Rudolph, if he had by this time gained some maturity, would realize that he would be wise to watch his back.
We do not want to live in societies in which groups systematically disparage and exclude others based on accidents of birth, or by choices we make that harm no one, but neither do we want systems in which leaders can confer privileges and rights based on arbitrary and purely technocratic considerations (vaccinated versus unvaccinated, for example). Until we can get a firm commitment to freedom and rights for all, we will never escape the hellish pendulum swings over who gets to lead and thus pick who can enjoy dignity however temporarily.
