This is the beginning of the season when numerous versions of A Christmas Carol will be shown on television.
Dickens' preface is worth noting.
I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.
That Ghost of the Idea in this book, unfortunately, does not haunt the American Right today.
I recognize that the reformed Scrooge learns how to keep Christmas and increases the wages and improves the benefits for his worker. And, some on the Right have argued it is this private charity that is all we need.
However, the unreformed Scrooge is the model who is really admired by today's Right.
Let me explain.
On the day Scrooge will be visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, two men come to his business asking for a contribution to help the poor.
Scrooge, a job creator, responds the way any good Republican today would.
`At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge,'' said the gentleman, taking up a pen, ``it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.''
``Are there no prisons?'' asked Scrooge.
``Plenty of prisons,'' said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
``And the Union workhouses?'' demanded Scrooge. ``Are they still in operation?''
``They are. Still,'' returned the gentleman, `` I wish I could say they were not.''
``The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?'' said Scrooge.
``Both very busy, sir.''
``Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,'' said Scrooge. ``I'm very glad to hear it.''
``Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,'' returned the gentleman, ``a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?''
``Nothing!'' Scrooge replied.
``You wish to be anonymous?''
``I wish to be left alone,'' said Scrooge. ``Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.''
``Many can't go there; and many would rather die.''
``If they would rather die,'' said Scrooge, ``they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides -- excuse me -- I don't know that.''
``But you might know it,'' observed the gentleman.
``It's not my business,'' Scrooge returned. ``It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!''
As all our good friends on the Right know, they already pay enough to take care of the poor and it is sufficient. They have no obligation to help the unemployed have any joy in their lives. In fact, some of those poor even have color televisions, cell phones, and coffee makers!
Moreover, job creators, like Scrooge, have enough to take care of their own business and should not be interfered with.
A Christmas Carol, of course, is a specter showing how morally bankrupt all of these ideas are. Consequently, I have never understood why the Right has never gone to war against it.
Maybe they don't have to. Given the political discourse in this country today, the Ghost of the Idea in the story does not haunt enough houses and those houses can clearly lay it aside after having seen it on a stage or in a movie.
May we all in this season be haunted by the Ghost of the Idea in this little story, and like Scrooge, learn how to keep Christmas well, if any person alive possesses that knowledge.