CSotD: A Christmas Carol Without Pity
Skip to comments
Phil Hands offers a cartoon I like but hesitated over because it's so obvious. And then I realized that the fact that it's obvious is precisely why it should not only be included today but should lead off.
Dickens wrote his story not just so that it could become a wildly popular Christmas story but so that it might make people think about those less fortunate than themselves.
Well, I love watching Carol Kane smack Bill Murray in the chops with a toaster as much as anyone (and do click on that pic), but that seems to be about the most impact Dickens' little novella has had.
Unfortunately, it seems to comfort the afflicted without in the least afflicting the comfortable because, while people at the bottom of the trickle-down pile are well aware that they are in trouble and readily identify with both poor Bob Cratchit and with Scrooge's well-intentioned, frustrated nephew, Fred, the people at the top do not realize that they are Ebenezer Scrooge.
They simply do not get it.
And you don't need a story telling people they're at the bottom of the pile, unless you feel it's a good thing, once a year, to reassure them that it's going to be all right.
Which would be a much better message if there were a grain of truth to it.
I'm in the middle of streaming "Town Without Pity" on Netflix.
It's a 1960 movie about a rape trial in a Gernam town in which Kirk Douglas is defending four American soldiers, one of whom (ironically, Robert Blake) appears to be at least innocent to the point of not deserving the death penalty.
Everybody in town wants all four men to hang, and Douglas isn't too dedicated to improving the fate of the other three.
I'd like to see it mashed-up with "A Christmas Carol," so that Bob Cratchit's wife leads the overwhelmingly popular prosecution, while Scrooge's nephew, Fred, tries to make the less palatable case for mercy.
"I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round — apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that — as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”
I'm watching "Town Without Pity" in segments while I do dishes, so I don't know how it comes out yet, but that's okay, because I'm not sure how I'd want "A Christmas Carol Without Pity" to come out, either.
Here's what I do know: The people playing the role of Scrooge in our current economy are, like him, not simply deaf to the suffering of those around them but blind to the lives they lead.
In another generation, Bobby Kennedy, raised in the lap of luxury but taught that "everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required," famously turned theory into vision with a visit to the Mississippi Delta, where he saw the daily, insidious effects of poverty.
The current crop of Scrooges have not been raised on that bit of Scripture and are hardly inclined to travel to the Delta or to revisit their lives with the aid of three ghosts.
But I don't think Dickens was writing to convert their souls so much as he was writing to persuade other, more reasonable people not to accept the heartless judgment of the powerful who refuse to care.
And to stop pretending that they didn't know, and couldn't see, because it is all around you, if you care to look.
Perhaps we need Fred defending us from the hangman.
Juxtaposition of the Day
There have been questions raised in social media, asking people to imagine the outrage from conservative circles were Hillary Clinton accused of making common cause with the Russians, or of getting their covert aid for her campaign. (And, yes, Artley's sticker translates to "I Voted.")
There is a difference, however: Those currently ignoring or denying the CIA report on Russian interference would believe anything said against Clinton, up to and including the ridiculous charge that she was part of a pedophile ring with tunnels under a pizza joint.
But they nod and agree with Trump's response to these revelations: "These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," — a claim touted, whether or not it was believed, by a Republican administration that ignored CIA warnings about Osama bin Laden and airplanes – "The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history." — a criminally transparent lie anyone could disprove in 10 seconds — "It’s now time to move on and 'Make America Great Again.'"
Which last statement I place in the laps of those who have empowered these deaf, heartless, unredeemed souls, who go beyond Scrooge by not only begrudging the money spent on workhouses and prisons but in being determined, and able, to cut it off.
Ready to raise Kane
Fastrack hits at a moment when I'm beginning to distrust my laptop's stability and am planning on replacing it.
Which must include buying a copy of the last iteration of Microsoft Office that was on disk, since so many clients use it and expect me to. Fortunately, I own the last disk versions of Photoshop, Quark and InDesign, which are also now in the cloud and for exorbitant rent, not purchase, only.
I'd like to send Carol Kane to visit the heads of these parasitic software companies, toting a large, heavy desktop.
Thus singeth the Scrooge choir:
Comments 1
Comments are closed.