Date: 2007-12-19 12:45 Subject: Oooo good post Security: Public Mood: impressed

Revisiting Scrooge

The character of Scrooge today is typically someone unwilling to play along with our modern holiday games. He does not buy presents for others, or attend parties, and just generally acts like a grump through the whole thing. His unhappiness comes from his rejection of gift-giving festivities and any other function where he could contribute to the churning of our economic growth. This version of Scrooge, much like the similarly adapted character of the Grinch, is very useful for retailers and the commercial industry. Participate, or be consigned a Scrooge! You’ll be miserable! Old! Bent! Greedy! Sad! Clearly, no happiness can come from abstaining from our culture’s reindeer games. Spend your time, and your money, freely throughout our marketplace, and find the joy that can only come from giving expensive purchases to others (at least, before you get your credit card bill).

An honest look at this characterization of Scrooge reveals two things: first, that Scrooge’s unhappiness does not come from his rejection of buying stuff for others, but from somewhere deeper. Second, and relatedly, this is not the character as created by Dickens. Why is Dickens’ Scrooge miserable? Because he’s anti-consumerist? Probably not. There’s a trivial sense in which Scrooge is not an anti-consumerist, since there wasn’t really any notion of consumerism in Dickens’ time, but that’s missing the point. The concept of anti-consumerism does not successfully back-apply to Scrooge, no matter how we bend the concept. He’s not an anti-consumerist, he is a miser.

(read the whole thing)

Post A Comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend | Link