A Christmas Carol and thoughts on Capitalism

A week ago I saw “Capitalism: A Love Story,” Michael Moore's new documentary film. I thought that this might lead me to put more thoughts into the place of capitalism in the world. Now, on its own Moore's movie wasn't very inspiring, but together with Disney's new version of “A Christmas Carol” I was given a spark of thought on the issue.

“A Christmas Carol” in all of its forms is one the most popular stories that is also a scathing critique of capitalism, or at least its form in the 1800s. It shows a man so obsessed with the accumulation of wealth that he has come to despise all people, including himself. His nighttime visitation by the Christmas ghosts leads to an epiphany and he becomes a humanitarian; but this is fiction. Scrooge is merely a cartoon of capitalists and his change of heart is unrealistic.

Also, this capitalism of the 1800s is much more dire than that of today (at least in Western nations), as living conditions have vastly improved for most people and the political and social setting has changed a fair bit since then.

In this new version of “A Christmas Carol” Scrooge states in one scene that everything he's done has been out of fear of becoming poor himself (I don't know if this was in the original Dickens version or not). However, while Scrooge may care about his own financial status, it is to the detriment of that of other people. He doesn't care about the livelihood of others, even people he knows. Ultimately he doesn't see other people in the same light as himself. They are not really human to him. This view is cured by the end of the story and Scrooge becomes happier as he sees other people as being important.

This is really the key here I think, the notion that some people are less important than others, notably oneself. Many people (often including myself) would condemn capitalism or money or greed as being the root of many of society's current problems, and while these things may contribute to the situation (or at least how our situation has manifested) I now think the main factor is in this disparity of self and others – that there ARE different sorts of people and they should (or at least can) be treated differently.

I constantly see this view manifest in myself, and wonder if it is a part of our innate human nature. Usually i am uncomfortable around other people, but the other day as I was walking home, I thought of the people I passed as actually being fellow human beings, and suddenly I felt much more comfortable.

If capitalists, managers, employees, customers and everyone else involved in the capitalist society really thought of the other members as being equally important and fellow to oneself then maybe our situation would seem so dire. But then the question is how to bring about what would be a great social change. And I don't know if there even is an answer to that, but we can hope and we can still celebrate our fellow humanity. Merry Christmas!