An American Christmas Carol…
“This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!" cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. "Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And bide the end!" "Have they no refuge or resource?" cried Scrooge. "Are there no prisons?" said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. "Are there no workhouses?”
“If they would rather die,… they’d better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
- A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
By JM Hamilton (12-26-2020)
There may never be a more popular book written about predatory capitalism. Written at roughly the close of the first industrial revolution and the beginning of the Victorian Era, Charles Dickens' book, A Christmas Carol, has it all: a greedy – banker – miser, ghosts and more ghosts, brutal poverty, a Christmas backstory, rapacious capitalism, denial, a love story gone bad, and of course, hope & redemption. Published in 1843, the book is as resilient & relevant in its messaging today, as it was throughout the 19th and 20thcenturies. And the author, Dickens, had real life experiences with poor houses, poverty, and crushing labor practices with which to draw upon. Experiences that became a familiar theme within the Dickens’ canon.
Christmas Carol came to mind because I found myself wondering, what would happen if the three ghosts visited the personification of America today? What if the three ghosts visited the Ebenezer Scrooge of our times, Donald Trump… the billionaire president, who campaigned on helping ordinary Americans, but in reality, only helped himself and his ultra-wealthy donors? Trump is also something of a businessman, whose parsimony & venality – like Scrooge - was, and remain, legendary.
Would Roy Cohn, lawyer & mentor, now deceased, visit Trump like Jacob Marley? Or maybe Trump’s idols would come calling… say Nixon or Reagan, wreathed in chains, dragging cash boxes, and shrieking & screaming warnings.
What of the first ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Past? Would the ghost show Trump America’s ill-fated founding… complete with indentured servitude, slavery, and the slaughter of indigenous Americans? Would the apparition take Trump to the slaughter of vast herds of buffalo with a singular purpose, to inflict genocide & starvation upon the original Americans? Would Trump and the great spirit visit Andrew Jackson’s Trail of Tears? Perhaps the Ghost of Christmas Past would show Trump slaves with severed limbs … limbs severed by their masters, so that they could no longer run away. Maybe the ghost would hook Trump up with Christians – who fled England to avoid religious persecution – only for these same zealots to conduct their own jihad, upon entering the New World?
Surely such a spirit would fly Trump back to the early industrial revolution with child labor, mangled limbs, obscene work hours, even more wretched working conditions, and of course, wealthy New England textile owners counting their profits.
And the Ghost of Christmas Present? Obviously, such a ghost would want to show Trump the refrigerated morgue trucks, and the thousands and thousands of American dead… thanks to Trump and the US Congress playing down the pandemic, or failing to adequately warn Americans (Congress, of course, was too busy managing their stock portfolios; besides notifying Americans of the coming plague might have harmed their trades). Would the ghost break through to Trump after visiting the tear-stained cheeks of brave frontline healthcare workers, as they attempt to save lives, while worrying about the health of loved ones and their families?
Might the Ghost of Christmas Present show Trump vast billionaire fortunes compounded exponentially to obscene valuations, as taxpayer funded backstops, debts, and welfare for the rich are being laundered in the stock market (thanks to Federal Reserve & congressional policy)? And in the process bequeathing ordinary Americans endless decades of austerity, poverty, and foreclosure upon the American Dream. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of small business owners watch their hopes vanish, and burn, from lack of support from the US government during the pandemic.
Would Jack Ketch, and his good buddy, US Senator from Wisconsin, Ron Johnson, both be lurking near?
And who can forget the twins, contained within the Ghost of Christmas Present’s great coat: The phantom wraiths, Ignorance and Want. Forever stamped upon a, seemingly, cursed America … always trillions for empire and endless war but never enough money for an affordable & quality higher education. And always, a bull market in extreme poverty, no less so than in Charles Dickens' England. What is the number? Twenty? Twenty-five percent of American children living in poverty & despair (the modern-day equivalent to Tiny Tim on an industrial scale)?
All of this misery & suffering is nothing less than a public policy failure, orchestrated by an oligarchy looking to rid itself of surplus labor & population?
And the final apparition, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come… pointing to a darkened grave, unkept, unloved, & un-mourned?
America’s fate?
The United States’ riches looted by a rapacious oligarchy. Her vast potential squandered upon endless wars and war profiteers. The nation’s exorbitant privilege wasted upon endless Wall Street bailouts & colossal debts used to finance tax avoidance by the exceptionally wealthy.
America’s epitaph: Privatized profits – for a privileged few; Socialized losses – a burden carried by all Americans, but the privileged few.
The fate of all empires, an unmarked grave and an unread footnote contained w/in a dusty history book. Would POTUS Trump be moved?
Of course, the best part of A Christmas Carol is that Scrooge does feel remorse, he reaches for redemption. And he does appear capable of turning it around with genuine acts of kindness. But not before Scrooge embraces denial and excuses, and he pushes back against a, seemingly, endless tide of apparitions, facts, and history. Like Scrooge, in order for America to redeem itself, it must confront its ignominious past and present; it must permanently retire the myth of American exceptionalism and seek out rebirth and redemption w/ genuine acts of aid, contrition, and redemption, particularly for the least among us.
America must turn its back on a predatory version of capitalism & neoliberalism that has repeatedly failed, that only affords state aid and extraordinary welfare for the exceptionally wealthy, & ruin and scraps for everyone else; America must become a country where we look out for one another… and our government’s efforts are pivoted & redirected towards that endeavor.
What Dickens’ book most reveals is how capitalism has changed very little, since early Victorian times; and in fact, if anything, it is growing far more abusive, and driving an ever-growing body count.
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2020
