The George C. Scott version is my favorite. Millions of republican voters will watch Scrooge this year and never see in themselves what the moral of the story is.
"The poor you will always have with you..." is a quote from Jesus that gets tossed around a lot.
Usually it's quoted as a reason to not bother helping the poor. People ignore the other half of his statement: "And you can help them whenever you wish."
Or they interpret it as giving them license to not help the poor since they don't wish to help the poor.
The verse Jesus quotes from is, however, Deuteronomy 15:11.
Deuteronomy 15 opens with a command for debt reform every seven years. Every seventh year, debts were to be forgiven and everyone started fresh. It wasn't entirely progressive. It only applied to Israelites. But the core of the idea is that no one should be trapped in a cycle of debt.
The fourth verse goes on to say that "there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, 5 if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today."
Then verse 7 commands people to give and lend freely to those in need.
As in, if people did that, then poverty wouldn't exist. If folks opened their wallets and storehouses, everyone would have enough.
"10 Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to."
Now we get to verse 11:
"11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land."
Almost as if the author acknowledges that greedy fuckheads will always exist and resigns themselves to the fact that poverty will never be fully alleviated because of it. Still, he ends with a command to people to be generous and giving to the poor.
There are other verses in the Torah that seem to also recognize that people would fail to obey that command and so taxes were placed on produce so that the poor would have, at least, a meager survival chance.
Anyway, humanity hasn't changed at all since 2,500 years ago. Poverty still exists because of greedy fuckheads with power and the story of a poor family relying on charity to spend a night in someone's barn while the wife gave birth has been reinterpreted to give gifts to the already comfortable, put up the giant inflatable Nativity set from the Home Depot, and get angry at coffee store employees for not giving you the right cultural greeting.
If Jesus is still around, he must be seething and furiously twisting leather cords into a whip.
OT: Speaking of 2028 and the Russo-Republican Party's laughable fantasies, I'll point out the recent and unretouched photo of the Pedophile-in-Chief that Jeff ran on the 30th:
Last spring, while visiting London, I stayed in a hotel near the Charles Dickens Museum. The Museum is located in Dickens' first home, where he lived with his wife and first child and wrote Oliver Twist. It is located just north of the City of London. Dickens needed visuals to fuel his imagination, and where he lived gave him easy access to them -- the City, the Courts, the dark and cramped places of the poor, the great charitable organizations like the Foundling Hospital and the Charterhouse (an old folks home which has operated since the 16th century). It was incredibly moving to walk where he went and to see what he saw.
The first version I saw was the Mister Magoo animated special and not knowing the story it was based on I thought “wow, this is pretty deep stuff for Mister Magoo”.
Fun fact—the guy Dickens modeled Scrooge on was stingy when it came to spending on himself (wore threadbare clothes, lived in a modest house, rarely spent anything on himself) but was reportedly generous with others, known for lending money and never asking for it back and giving things away. Sort of a combination pre-ghosts and post-ghosts Scrooge.
My first Christmas Carol, also. However, I have a fondness for the George C. Scott version due to the great performances of David Warner as Cratchitt and Roger Rees as Fred.
The George C. Scott version is my favorite. Millions of republican voters will watch Scrooge this year and never see in themselves what the moral of the story is.
I like Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. The music is done by Jule Styne, who also did Funny Girl.
Let us not forget to mention the lyricist who also was Styne's partner on "Funny Girl", Bob Merrill.
Yeah, that was fun!
Scrooge had a soul, but the assholes running the country don't have souls, so are incapable of change for the better, as Scrooge was.
"The poor you will always have with you..." is a quote from Jesus that gets tossed around a lot.
Usually it's quoted as a reason to not bother helping the poor. People ignore the other half of his statement: "And you can help them whenever you wish."
Or they interpret it as giving them license to not help the poor since they don't wish to help the poor.
The verse Jesus quotes from is, however, Deuteronomy 15:11.
Deuteronomy 15 opens with a command for debt reform every seven years. Every seventh year, debts were to be forgiven and everyone started fresh. It wasn't entirely progressive. It only applied to Israelites. But the core of the idea is that no one should be trapped in a cycle of debt.
The fourth verse goes on to say that "there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, 5 if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today."
Then verse 7 commands people to give and lend freely to those in need.
As in, if people did that, then poverty wouldn't exist. If folks opened their wallets and storehouses, everyone would have enough.
"10 Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to."
Now we get to verse 11:
"11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land."
Almost as if the author acknowledges that greedy fuckheads will always exist and resigns themselves to the fact that poverty will never be fully alleviated because of it. Still, he ends with a command to people to be generous and giving to the poor.
There are other verses in the Torah that seem to also recognize that people would fail to obey that command and so taxes were placed on produce so that the poor would have, at least, a meager survival chance.
Anyway, humanity hasn't changed at all since 2,500 years ago. Poverty still exists because of greedy fuckheads with power and the story of a poor family relying on charity to spend a night in someone's barn while the wife gave birth has been reinterpreted to give gifts to the already comfortable, put up the giant inflatable Nativity set from the Home Depot, and get angry at coffee store employees for not giving you the right cultural greeting.
If Jesus is still around, he must be seething and furiously twisting leather cords into a whip.
In times like this, when the unreconstructed hold unitary control of government, we have to look to the hurters, not the helpers.
Gilded Age 2.0 is definitely a bad time, and it's eve more galling since we should've learned the lessons of the past.
OT: Speaking of 2028 and the Russo-Republican Party's laughable fantasies, I'll point out the recent and unretouched photo of the Pedophile-in-Chief that Jeff ran on the 30th:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-180190007
An expression that makes you think "agonal breathing."
"Death warmed over," to use the Southern expression...
One can hope.
No wonder the GOP is pushing their "Lebensborn" program so hard...
My favorite and only required xmas watch (other than Die Hard) is Scrooged. I'm not a fan of all the serious versions.
My required Christmas watches are "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians," the MST3k version, and "The Lion in Winter."
I watched The Lion in Winter for the first time last year. Fantastic movie, I don’t know how I missed it for so long.
Last spring, while visiting London, I stayed in a hotel near the Charles Dickens Museum. The Museum is located in Dickens' first home, where he lived with his wife and first child and wrote Oliver Twist. It is located just north of the City of London. Dickens needed visuals to fuel his imagination, and where he lived gave him easy access to them -- the City, the Courts, the dark and cramped places of the poor, the great charitable organizations like the Foundling Hospital and the Charterhouse (an old folks home which has operated since the 16th century). It was incredibly moving to walk where he went and to see what he saw.
The first version I saw was the Mister Magoo animated special and not knowing the story it was based on I thought “wow, this is pretty deep stuff for Mister Magoo”.
Fun fact—the guy Dickens modeled Scrooge on was stingy when it came to spending on himself (wore threadbare clothes, lived in a modest house, rarely spent anything on himself) but was reportedly generous with others, known for lending money and never asking for it back and giving things away. Sort of a combination pre-ghosts and post-ghosts Scrooge.
My first Christmas Carol, also. However, I have a fondness for the George C. Scott version due to the great performances of David Warner as Cratchitt and Roger Rees as Fred.
The Magoo version is quite good, and more faithful to the book than a lot of the adaptations. And the songs are by Broadway giant Jule Styne!