A Lesson Never Learnt

In 1843 Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol and included a message that resonated with me from the first time I read it. The character of Scrooge’s nephew Fred is, along with Bob Cratchit, the force for good in the novel and the diametric opposite of Scrooge and Marley. To Scrooge Christmas is a humbug but to Fred it is the most important time of the year. He describes Christmas time as

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 fellow passengers to the grave and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.

It is a lesson we are further away from learning now than we were in 1843. At that time many rich people were oblivious to the real struggle of the poor. Now they revel in it. At that time those who were aware of the situation saw it as unavoidable and shrugged it off. Now they want to make the situation worse. At that time some politicians were sympathetic to the plight of those who could not afford food or means of warmth. Now, politicians build their power by competing with each other to be as nasty as possible to those who don’t succeed.

This doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Human nature has always been malleable, and today that nature has been moulded into hatred of anyone different, anyone from the ‘other side’ and anyone who suggests an alternative way. We are in a time of anger, despair and hatred where even at Christmas hardly anyone takes these words as their guide. In fact it is just seen as a useful weapon in the culture war waged with lies, exaggeration and misleading those who are easily enraged. The average person would seemingly rather see misery at Christmas especially if it is for those they disagree with. Scrooge is in the ascendancy, Fred is in retreat and the society that Dickens wanted to see ended turns out to have been a dress rehearsal for what we see now, but a dress rehearsal that doesn’t even come close to the nastiness of the real thing.