After spending what seemed an eternity…getting through the logistics of ‘posting a new blog’, and finding it as puzzling as ‘anticipating’ what is in store with this new year, one question rears itself mysteriously with the kind of foreboding associated with Scrooge’s alleged parsimony; and that is, ‘what need for an oracle?’ In a multi-channel, 24/7, information sated age, where every(and any) good or info is available at the click of a mouse and the caress of an android device, it appears the services of pre-ordination are an extra in the mechanisations of modern living. Now rather than that being the portent of doom that an ill-formed instinct suggests, the ‘void’ in ‘interpersonal relations’ that such a spectre portends is reassessed when put into ‘true context’, such as that which was experienced by myself amongst other over Xmas, when, for example, encounters with other curious souls produced moments of profound enrapture and enrichment fulfilling Xmas’s remit for penitence and continuing. And so I think it is safe to say, early in this commencement of this ‘new’, that sticking with the temporal in outlook and disposition, (as surely would be done by great sages through the years, amongst whom I am beholden to include ebenezer), the fortune of such chance encounters has the capacity, and ability, to salve ‘past misapprehensions’ and can allow the pieces of the jig-saw to fit.
The case for the defence(of scrooge)
It is short-sighted to regard the great ‘ebenezer’ as merely just a money obsessed ‘city banker’. True, he may have been impressed with their taste for acquiring as much as they could, and would have probably put a penny or two in their collection basket as they sent it around asking for more(he does seem to have come from the same era as that other great mis-understood, Oliver twist’). But even he would have realised the avaricious nature of the modern day bankers, and noticed how stacked it is in his/her favour, so as to condemn any ‘resistance’ to them as being futile and ineffective(student fees protest, iraq-war protest).
In the face of such brazen, blatant greed, the great emancipator would have furnished anyone who cared to listen with the practical wisdom with which he had unfortunately attracted his unfortunate reputation. He, surely, would have advised against throwing more money at the problem, would have advocated against any banker, other than himself, being given more of a bonus(a cheeky ‘chance’). And he definitely would have advised the government to get in touch with ‘money supermarket.com, or gocompare’, or it’s city equivalent, to find more efficient and cost effective bankers to do a better job of MAKING, rather than LOSING, money.
What, the evidence shows scrooge stood for , more than just the acquisition of money, was a practicality in the face of an expanding economy and diverging society, searching for ways to provide children with better futures away from the ‘gin palaces’ they were inhabiting, a pragmatism in the face of advertising that reared itself to it’s full height at Christmas, and most of all, advice in money, a ‘money for dummies’ course if you like.
How could anyone such as this be other than a saint, the Patron of Hardworkers, a modern day st Joseph of our times, birthing ‘forgiveness and second chances!
bah,…..whatever!
EXCUSE ME PLS, BUT I NEED TO GET THROUGH!
So, hello..pardon my manners(they are vital) but never having ‘blogged’ before this is going to be an ‘end-of-year’ bull in a china shop job. Having set out to trumpet the virtues of the great christmas motivator( and grand
humanity benefactor), Ebenezer Scrooge, and learning that an element of seasonality is involved with writing blogs, the aim of starting the campaign to ‘redeem the scrooge’ is started in earnest in preparation for next year where it is hoped that rather than being seen as anti-christmas, and thus responsible for native misery, he was a fount of wisdom and foresight, still in this day and age with capacity to inspire, modernise, teach and lead.
A man of less reach than is afforded the modern blogger, with more than self-promotion(advertising) as a means to making money, his lasting legacy has to be his work for children and relationships where his abiding message of ‘waste not’ surely is the way forward.
Over the next days more light hopes to be thrown on this campaign by which time, at the end, the hope is that a reputation is resurrected and Scrooge is replaced among the pantheon of great figures of fiction who were able to influence the greater society.
until next time!
