Ignorance and Want

Ignorance and Want

Even before watching the 1951 version of "Scrooge" this year, a favorite tradition, I was thinking about the scene in the photo above, where two children are found clinging to the inside of the Spirit of Christmas Present.  The Spirit tells Scrooge, they are Ignorance and Want.

This scene, came to mind after listening to a recent interview Bruce Springsteen gave with David Remick for the New Yorker podcast, Episode 58,  during which Springsteen said the following, about some of the voters in 2016, looking for hope in the presidency of Donald Trump:

Well I think if you look at the history of Youngstown or any of the places you've mentioned, you see that, basically I've written about the last 40 years of of de-industrialization. Globalization hit a lot of people very, very, very hard and their concerns , problems and issues were never addressed by either party, so there's a sea of people out there who are waiting and hoping…It's a con job, but I completely understand why a voice like that would be appealing.

It was refreshing, after all the finger-pointing to hear someone offer an explanation, without pointing fingers, understanding that there really is "a sea of people out there" waiting, hoping, and wanting.

Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol nearly 175 years ago, in large part, as a social commentary, an alternative to the social pampjlet he originally planned to write, highlighting the plight of children and families living in poverty, as the Industrial Revolution ramped up in both the United States and Britain. What would Dickens think to learn that nearly 2 centuries after his novella, one-third of the children in the wealthiest country in the world live in poverty?

As Scrooge said to Marley's ghost, "But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," so perhaps this is all just collateral damage of capital, unfettered markets doing there own thing, the winners and losers?  Marley responded, "Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business."

Business as usual, as Springsteen suggested has left a lot of folks out in the cold, with real issues and concerns that neither party has historically addressed, only one of which, is that we permit, in this country, one in three children to live in poverty.

In A Christmas Carol, nearing the end of his time with the Spirit of Christmas Present, the Spirit opens his robe at his feet to reveal two neglected-appearing children. In answer to Scrooge's inquiry of who they belonged to, the Spirit replied:

They are Man's,...And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. 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.

 Ignoring Want surprised many of us this past November at the Electoral College vote tally, when the slim margin of victory for the popular vote was overruled by our republic's Electoral Collage process to grant the presidential election to Donald Trump, who knew, if nothing else, there was a void to fill.

"Most of all, beware the boy (Ignorance)..." Whether or not it will be a 'con job', as Springsteen suggests may require the perspective of his actions as a president. One thing is certain though, today as much as 175 years ago, as the Industrial Revolution was just gaining momentum, we ignore Ignorance and Want at our peril. The Spirit of Christmas Present continued, "Deny it. Slander those who tell it ye. Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end."