There's A Bug In My Hum

So despite my lack of festive cheer for...well pretty much any holiday, I thought I'd throw up about one of the several "classic stories" that I find to be pretty biased according to today's social standards.

The story in question is A Christmas Carol written by Charles Dickens. Now, I caveat by saying in no way to I challenge the mastery of Dickens' writing abilities. I'm sure even with the best inspiration I couldn't hold a candle to his ability to tell a story. However, it's the crux of the story I'd like to talk about.

To me this story represents the mob mentality that is holidays, I will break down elements of Scrooge's character and justify this to present day:

#1 - Scrooge hates Christmas - Does this necessarily make him a bad person? Essentially, the whole story centers around this idea, and thus justifies the torment in one night that befalls him. On the inverse, why does a "bad" guy get a second chance at life, but a good guy gets screwed from the very beginning (i.e. Tiny Tim). And on top of this, I worked retail for one holiday season, and I'm pretty sure my disgust with the merriment is colossally larger then this character's ever was.

#2 - Scrooge works his employees on Christmas Day - So? Starbucks works their employees on Christmas Day. Some would argue this immoral (or as I call it, F#(king wrong), others would say this is a business savvy approach to getting work done on an off day. What is considerably evil in this book is considered "fantastic" by your atypical, jack-hole consumer.

#3 - Scrooge keeps little heat in his office and home - Any person who's ever had a father knows about the constant thermostat power struggle. No grown man likes to spend money on heat. Durr.

#4 - Scrooge eats gruel every night, presumably to save money - And? I've been eating top ramen typically at every dinner for years to save money. Does that mean it's okay for poltergeists to haunt the hell out of me every night?

#5 - Scrooge radically underpays his employees - Reference #2, pretty much at least 50% of the current day workforce feels their underpaid. Hey Cratchet! Quit that s#*t job and get a new one! Durr!

#6 - Scrooge loathes the poor and is in favor of Victorian Workhouses - Okay...let's dissect this. For anyone who has lived in a large city with a poor population, it only takes a couple of months before you're pretty much tired of being panhandled and seeing them piss on the side of buildings or in open parking lots. Workhouses where they earn a keeping? Hm. That idea sounds far from wicked. I would support a system where the under privileged worked for their sustenance before I'd just dol out money to someone sitting around. And hey, the Army is always hiring!

#7 - Scrooge doesn't give to charity - Alright, the fact that someone doesn't give to charity doesn't make them a bad person. Furthermore, have you ever tried giving to a charity in a non-anonymous manner? The charity itself will haunt you until you're dead and gone.

#8 - Scrooge continually pushed back his marriage until he had the desired level of finances (and ultimately got dumped) - AKA building a nest egg. I've seen plenty of marriages that lacked financial strength, but for some reason went through anyway because "they loved each other and that's all that mattered". And now those marriages live at their parents house.


Bottom line - History has skewed the "demonic" traits of this character. Could it be that society is losing this ethical threshold? Or could it be because everyone so so damned loaded with Christmas cheer that they have to push it on others? Hmmm....