I was directed towards a podcast last week that I found interesting and scary.
Christmas Carol
One of my favourite books was written by Dickens in 1843. Quite often, Dickens and this story are attributed with the rebooting of Christmas. In 1843, the day wasn't even a public holiday, added to which Dickens was in dire financial straits, as was his publisher. He wrote A Christmas Carol in six weeks and spared no expense in producing it as a quality piece of work. It was very successful, but as a result of his expensive presentation, Dickens only made a relatively small profit. However, it was a success and re-established his popularity.
The timbre of the book is both emotional and socially aware. Dickens weaves many aspects of the life of the poor into the story, and it generated a sense of guilt in some measure that caused a better attitude towards fellow humans. The Poor Law was introduced a couple of years earlier than this book, and it established institutions such as the workhouses, but the overall attitude was that of Scrooge when he asked, '... are there no workhouses, debtors prisons ...' In fact, those institutions were run as a punishment for people daring to be poor. The poor were seen as a different species.
The scary part is that here we are 180 years later, and there is a similar attitude towards the less well off when, in fact, they are in that situation, in many cases, because of poor wages, expensive housing, and the lack of affordability of the things we need just to keep going. Those prices are out of the reach of ordinary people because capitalists are trying to maintain exorbitant profit margins and unrealistic dividends for shareholders.
The question is, where is the author who will write a 21st century story that will rekindle the levels of human kindness necessary to maintain a fair society?
If you wish to sample the podcast, it is on Spotify and called 'Journey Through History' and the producers are David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell, episodes 59 - 61. Well worth a listen.
God Bless
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