Not from today's Lectionary: "Old Marley was dead as a doornail."

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Sunday, December 4. 2011

Not from today's Lectionary: "Old Marley was dead as a doornail."

The great Charles Dickens would, I am sure, be amused that his casual novelette, A Christmas Carol, would be one of his most popular works. It's a story of a cranky sinner becoming a reborn Christian, and the best testimony ever along with being one of the best movies ever made.

From covetous, cheerless insanity to joy in life, the loving "life in abundance" that we are promised. Non-Christians and atheists mght be able to get a sense of what it is all about from this film, even though it is never overtly Christ-centered.

This is somewhat edited, but contains the gist of it:

Posted by Bird Dog in Our Essays, Religion, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 05:36 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

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Ah yes. If one can suspend disbelief, this is a great feel good story. My favorite version has George C Scott starring.

However.

From my point of view, this story has the seeds of socialism planted in it. The subliminal message here is that Scrooge exploits the working man by not paying a living wage and that if he just "pays his fair share', he will be happier and the world will be a better place.

Furthermore, the cynic in me wonders how much money the gentlemen fundraisers skim off for themselves after they have received Scrooge's donation 'for the poor".

The message that giving all your money away can make you deliriously happy has always been a concept that I have been uneasy with.

#1 feeblemind on 2011-12-04 10:58 (Reply)

And I forgot to mention the obvious.

Scrooge became the poster boy for the eeeevil capitalist/entrepreneur. A nasty, stingy old man who cares about nothing but himself.

Scrooge is the Hitler of the business world when it comes to comparisons and analogies.

Dickens didn't do the business world any favors by creating him.

#1.1 feeblemind on 2011-12-04 11:06 (Reply)

I don't think Charley Dickens ever heard about or thought about the concept of "his fair share" or Scrooge's either. Society of his time was free of such muddled,ill-defined concepts. It was much closer to pure free enterprise than today's hag-ridden politically correct liberals would like it to be.

Marianne

#2 Marianne Matthews on 2011-12-04 12:12 (Reply)

Feebs:

I think you miss the point. Watch the film.

#3 Bird Dog on 2011-12-04 12:26 (Reply)

I don't see socialism.
Rather, I see a species aware of the difficulty of survival and the horror of its ultimate fate, helping each other during the most-difficult season (in the Northern Hemisphere).
It's called the commonweal.
We humans have survived for 8000 generations because we have cooperated at the family and group level.
No doubt we shall perish should this cooperation stop.

#4 PacRim Jim (Link) on 2011-12-04 15:33 (Reply)

This is by far my favorite movie version of A Christmas Carol. Alistair Sim was perfect, and who could not like a movie with a character named Mr. Snedrick?

#5 SCOTTtheBADGER on 2011-12-05 00:35 (Reply)

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Sunday, December 4. 2011

Not from today's Lectionary: "Old Marley was dead as a doornail."