Disney’s ‘A Christmas Carol’: Charity Vs. Big Government

Updated 2 months, 4 weeks ago

Source: http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/

Generally after a story has been told as a book, play, musical, numerous animated, live, made-for-TV films, and Muppets movie, its content is completely exhausted. But Disney’s latest, “A Christmas Carol,” by writer-director Robert Zemeckis of “Forrest Gump” and animated films “Beowulf” and “The Polar Express,” resurrects the classic tale through vibrant visuals while sticking to the classic story.

Briefly, “A Christmas Carol” is the story of Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey), a miser who hoards ...

his money and pays his single employee, Bob Cratchit (Gary Oldman), the bare minimum. Scrooge lives alone in a huge, dark mansion, leading a lonely life. When his nephew Fred (Colin Firth) invites him to Christmas dinner, Scrooge berates him for being happy when he has so little money. When local charity representatives ask for support, Scrooge tells them that he supports the poor through paying taxes. “Are there no work houses? Are there no prisons?” Scrooge asks. To him, taxes are all the dues he owes to society.

Seven years after his business partner Jacob Marley (also Oldman) died, on Christmas Eve, Marley’s ghost returns to visit Scrooge and warn him about the consequences of a life selfishly lived. The money Marley hoarded in life is now chained to him in death, weighing upon him as he wanders the world without rest. Marley foretells the coming of three ghosts to show Scrooge the error of his ways. The rest of the film chronicles the visit of those ghosts and their lasting impression on Scrooge’s life.

Visually the film stuns as it takes 3D flight through London streets. It captures Christmas in all its fun, beauteous glory, but also Hell on earth in its haunting future. From the end of the Ghost of Christmas Present through the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, the film’s darkness make the early November, post-Halloween release more fitting than an early December, pre-Christmas one would be. The story occasionally lags as Zemeckis shows off what he can do with animation and 3D. While the vocal acting is good, the animation can’t quite portray the more emotional moments.

But the main message—keeping the Christmas spirit alive through joyful, selfless giving—rings true. And in today’s culture of big government takeover, it is a lesson that grows increasingly important daily.

Toward the end of the Ghost of Christmas Present’s visit, he shows Scrooge two scrawny children hidden beneath his cloak. They are Ignorance and Want. “They are man’s,” the ghost tells Scrooge. The ghost attacks Scrooge’s philosophy that it is the responsibility of government-run work houses and prisons to care for the disadvantaged in society.

It is important to note that Scrooge, though he does not care at all about the fate of the poor, notes that it is indeed someone’s responsibility to do something. It just isn’t his beyond what he gives in taxes. It is the government’s role. This ideology separates conservatives and liberals, and is important to note as Congress considers health care and unemployment benefits legislation.

In Dickens’ time, prisons and work houses were dismal government-run institutions programmed to discourage the poor from remaining so. Prisons were terrible in those days—see other Dickens works for evidence of that—and work houses, as City University of New York professor Gertrude Himmelfarb notes in her article, “Welfare and Charity: Lessons from Victorian England,” were meant to be demeaning and degrading to encourage the poor to look for dignified work.

This harsh government action seems uncivilized today, but it was really a correction to the original Poor Law system, which had made relief too easily available, encouraging laziness and increasing the number of poor in England. As Himmelfarb notes, “public authorities cannot really judge the merit of individual claimants for relief.” This deceives recipients into believing that they have a right to relief, removing the incentive to work. It also creates animosity between the poor recipient and the taxed donor.

But charity is different, and it is charity, not government welfare, that Dickens supports. As editor Jonah Goldberg notes in a brief article on National Review Online, often those who oppose government welfare are more charitable than those who support it. While welfare and charity attempt to accomplish similar goals, they have one striking, fundamental difference: freedom. Welfare from a government entity draws funding from involuntary taxation. This guaranteed income leads to greater administrative cost, less effectiveness, and low selectivity. Charity relies on free will, and is generally more effective because funds are given willingly to causes that donors care about. Charities can specify to whom funds are given, and also what the recipient must do to receive funds, eliminating the entitlement philosophy.

It’s interesting to note that liberals, who often accuse conservatives of supporting the wealthy, do less on their own to support the poor. Arthur C. Brooks, of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, writes in his study on religious faith and charitable giving, that conservatives, especially Christian conservatives—who tend to oppose big government and support the Republican Party—charitably contribute much more time and money than secular liberals, even when giving to non-religious, secular social interests. By looking at European countries as models, Brooks finds “a link between secular views and strikingly low levels of charitable giving and volunteering.” His findings suggest that the further the Democratic Party tends down the secular, liberal, big government path, the greater this disparity will become.

Helping the poor is a worthy goal. But our Founding Fathers did not intend the government to fund it. Nor is it healthy for the government to try. Dickens knew that, as did a great Tennessee representative from the 1800s. For a brilliant reason why governments should stay out of welfare issues, see Edward S. Ellis’ writings on Colonel David Crockett. It’s a worthy read, and though it’s a little long, at least it isn’t H.R. 3962.

77 comments on this story

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Showing 63 relevant reactions out of 77.

The Conservative Message of A Christmas Carol : Washington Memo 3 months ago on Wordpress

[...] propaganda, vilifying the rich and glorifying a sacrifice for the common good. But as Darin Miller argues at Big Hollywood, it’s really no such thing. In fact it’s quite the opposite: A [...]

Patrick Chester 3 months ago on Wordpress

Odd I thought it was best demonstrated by a loud incoherent troll blathering and flinging insults who then starts admonishing the people mocking him to shut up lest they be seen as a fool.

Probably fits under hypocrisy as well, though the person in question is shielded by not having any standards save what supports Teh Narrative.

Have you had your fill of attention, little one? ... See all content Hide content

Patrick Chester 3 months ago on Wordpress

They are achieving the perfect blend of communism, socialism and capitalism that you conservative closet-homos are too afraid to try, for fear of upsetting your banking industry masters, doing what they had the blasphemous nerve to call "God's work" this week.

More like because it's fascism.

mmc2068 3 months ago on Wordpress

ALLAMERICAN needs to stop eating p-e-n-i-s in bed. Yes him do. Because him even more shellshock from him in closet.

mmc2068 3 months ago on Wordpress

LOL You mean the ones you right wingnuts already committed bestiality with?

mmc2068 3 months ago on Wordpress

Irony is better demonstrated by upper and middle class showbiz types cutting off their nose to spite their face by supporting policies that benefit only the superwealthy.

mmc2068 3 months ago on Wordpress

I'll give you Russia, but why shouldn't China be held in high regard, especially as of late? They are achieving the perfect blend of communism, socialism and capitalism that you conservative closet-homos are too afraid to try, for fear of upsetting your banking industry masters, doing what they had the blasphemous nerve to call "God's work" this week.

They ought to ... See all content Hide content

ALLAMERICAN 3 months ago on Wordpress

You sound like your shell shock. Stop eating peanuts in bed.

Patrick Chester 3 months ago on Wordpress

Boy, you really look up to China and the Soviet Union.

Patrick Chester 3 months ago on Wordpress

Here's a hint: it's better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt.

Darn, there goes another irony meter.

jic 3 months ago on Wordpress

Shouldn't you be hiding under a bridge somewhere, harassing passing goats?

palmtree 3 months ago on Wordpress

"This harsh government action seems uncivilized today, but it was really a correction to the original Poor Law system, which had made relief too easily available, encouraging laziness and increasing the number of poor in England."

Wow a conservative actually defending the harsh work houses as described by Dickens. I sure hope the republican party follows your lead in this. "Bring ... See all content Hide content

3 months ago on Intensedebate

"This harsh government action seems uncivilized today, but it was really a correction to the original Poor Law system, which had made relief too easily available, encouraging laziness and increasing the number of poor in England." Wow a conservative actually defending the harsh work houses as described by Dickens. I sure hope the republican party follows your lead in this. "Bring back ... See all content Hide content

mmc2068 3 months ago on Wordpress

Here's a hint: it's better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt.

mmc2068 3 months ago on Wordpress

You right wing traitors certainly didn't back up your claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Yet we're still there.

Wonder why that is?

Oh yeah. Oil and Israel, both far more important than America and all of Western Civilization to you people.

mmc2068 3 months ago on Wordpress

You mean the America that is going through another Great Depression?

Or the America that once existed, but was all but destroyed by white conservative Judeo-Christian closeted homosexual men?

mmc2068 3 months ago on Wordpress

No. YOU leave. I'm going to stay right here, pointing out the ineptitude and treason of right wingers and closet-conservative, liberal suburbanite car-addicts, ESPECIALLY the ones who live in Southern California.

mmc2068 3 months ago on Wordpress

Please. Our addiction to cars and middle eastern oil isn't because of plastics. It's the 150 million cars on the roads, you idiot.

mmc2068 3 months ago on Wordpress

Answer me this, ladykrystalmethsmoker: why do us Latinos, Native Americans, blacks, Asians (and struggling, non-Jewish middle class white, for that matter) have to foot the bill for Israel? More aid than is sent to all other nations, combined! Even if a case could be made that white European-Americans bear some sort of indirect responsibility for the Jewish holocaust, why make racial minorities pay ... See all content Hide content

EdSki 3 months ago on Wordpress

The Fifth Element was on a couple of weeks ago. A lot of weird stuff, but I love it!

Pogria 3 months ago on Wordpress

boff, you're not strange Ed.

Definitely within what I consider "normal", parameters.

I love Die Hard also.!!!

While we're on Bruce Willis, major knee tremblers are "The Fifth Element", and "Last Man Standing".

oooaaarrrggghhh!

Polarstar Princess 3 months ago on Wordpress

Gingerbread Jimmi is calling all children ages 5-8 and 9-12 to The 1st Annual Gingerbread Jimmi House Competition and Display on Nov 23rd, 2009 at the Park City, Utah Library ( 1255 Park Avenue ) by 6pm. Come join in the fun and a chance to win fabulous prizes! All entries will be on display from Nov 23rd, 2009 – Jan 3rd, 2010. Gingerbread Jimmi is total MAGIC!!!

3 months ago on Intensedebate

Gingerbread Jimmi is calling all children ages 5-8 and 9-12 to The 1st Annual Gingerbread Jimmi House Competition and Display on Nov 23rd, 2009 at the Park City, Utah Library ( 1255 Park Avenue ) by 6pm. Come join in the fun and a chance to win fabulous prizes! All entries will be on display from Nov 23rd, 2009 - Jan 3rd, 2010. Gingerbread Jimmi is total MAGIC!!!

ladykrystyna 3 months ago on Wordpress

How about the tens of millions of his own people that Mao killed? That Stalin killed? The thousands that died at the hands of Latino Communists/Socialists/Statists in Central and South America and Cuba? The millions in the Killing Fields?

Out of tens of thousands of years of human history – both unwritten and written – and you want to have a pissing contest about what group of ... See all content Hide content

1redcent 3 months ago on Wordpress

First, I'd like to thank you for sending me into my library to pull a few old favorite books, that I hadn't looked at for many years, to joggle my memory. This made for lovely evening of reading, for me, and I now plan on rereading two of them.

I was just about to post this, which was far longer, when the site wouldn't let me and told me that my time had run out. So I logged ... See all content Hide content

EdSki 3 months ago on Wordpress

Coolness!

I look forward to your quotes. We can pick this up over at the open thread, or continue here if you like. Either way is fine with me.

About the best way I've come up with so far to describe how I view politics, removing all the labels, party affiliation, and other scrub brush, is it seems to come down to two main themes that seem to cover pretty much everything.

Supremacy ... See all content Hide content

Guest101 3 months ago on Wordpress

"You've never read the book, nor seen any of the movies or cartoons made from it, have you?"

I psychically matched them, and made "Scrooge" a miser term? Which version is gospel?

"Scrooge had but ONE employee."

He had a partner and is old and "rich". Is there a Lost Cartoon Chapter specifying always just one business with one ... See all content Hide content

3 months ago on Intensedebate

"You've never read the book, nor seen any of the movies or cartoons made from it, have you?" I psychically matched them, and made "Scrooge" a miser term? Which version is gospel? "Scrooge had but ONE employee." He had a partner and is old and "rich". Is there a Lost Cartoon Chapter specifying always just one business with one employee, and he was ghosted ... See all content Hide content

TrueBlueMormon 3 months ago on Wordpress

Better stop using everything plastic then…..petroleum is pretty involved in the production of everything you bleeding heart libtards use. How about a mud hut along the river then you could feel good about yourself !!

Jamie61 3 months ago on Wordpress

You are so right. It seems like each version takes a part that another version leaves out. It is a great story and I am more angered when they try to add to it. Leave the dialog alone and just do the movie. However, the times being what they are, I doubt they would do it like how we would want it. There are some religious elements that would not be considered "politically correct." Remember ... See all content Hide content

Jamie61 3 months ago on Wordpress

I agree with you, Carolyn. One of my best memories is watching that version every year with my mom. Mom died in 2005, but I still watch it and think about her when I do. It is a great moment for me.

3 months ago on Intensedebate

I have watched more versions of "A Christmas Carol" than I can count, but every single one of them comes up short. It is an almost perfect story, and the mistake that is invariably made is for the screenwriter or director to add and subtact too much Dickens. Why are the Muppets the only ones to include Dickens' most interesting character, The Narrator? Why is the eerie, morphing figure ... See all content Hide content

thisisdannyg 3 months ago on Twitter

this conservative's take on Dickens' "Christmas Carol" makes for a hilarious stocking stuffer, http://tinyurl.com/yjed2cn

3 months ago on Intensedebate

The case is simple. It's not about private vs. public as political factions keep attempting to see, it's about stingyness vs. fairness and generosity. That's kinda what "Scrooge" came to mean. Scrooge was shorting his workers and so made it up to them with a lavish party, not a Privately Administered job training program. The work houses and prisons were unaffective hellholes ... See all content Hide content

3 months ago on Intensedebate

"It is only on account of your great love that the poor will forgive you for the pain you cause them." St. Vincent de Paul. This might seem an odd statement by the founder of a well-known charitable organization, but St. Vincent recognized the effect of even necessary, personal charity on its recipients. It is a crime against the human spirit to enslave any group to dependency. Trivia: the ... See all content Hide content

3 months ago on Intensedebate

I hope this movie does illustrate the benefits of CHARITY and the motivations to be charitable instead of just sending out a blanket message of feel sorry for the poor and do ANYTHING to help them. But with how CG'd out and explosive as the film looks, I feel like any sort of message will be diluted anyways by Scrooge flying around to loud noises and being frightened of spooky ghosts.

KatyinIndy 3 months ago on Twitter

Disney’s ‘A Christmas Carol’: Charity Vs. Big Government http://is.gd/4Pdsk #tcot #gop #hhrs #sgp #tlot

3 months ago on Intensedebate

Best Scrooge: Alastair Sim 2nd Best: Mr. Magoo Best re-telling of the tale: Lord Buckley

3 months ago on Intensedebate

A Christmas Carol is one of our most beloved books; in our house, we read it every year, starting on Dec. 20 and finishing on Christmas Eve. I love the Alastair Sim's personification of Scrooge the very best, followed by George C. Scott's performance. My hesitation with seeing this movie is that the emphasis, at least from the previews I've seen, seems to be on the visuals mentioned ... See all content Hide content

3 months ago on Intensedebate

Big Government is the negation of Liberty. Regardless of what party is in power.

jordheybarden 3 months ago on Twitter

Disney's 'A Christmas Carol': Charity Vs. Big Government: Big Hollywood (blog)

When his nephew Fred.. http://bit.ly/2oXgVD

3 months ago on Intensedebate

Big government takeover, Darrin Miller? Really? Where the Hell was your smug righteousness when big government began waging a billion dollar a day oil war? Where was it when big government began spending 10 times more on roads for the half of Americans living in the suburbs while the other half living in the urban centers make do with far less mass transit and road funding? Where was it when big government ... See all content Hide content

3 months ago on Intensedebate

Objectivists make a valuable distinction between "benevolence" (a guiltless, commendable generosity) and "altruism" (the superstition that the individual has no right to his own happiness but an obligation to sacrifice for the good of others). Seen without whatever dopey socioeconomic ideas Dickens may have had, the story of Scrooge is essentially that of someone learning benevolence ... See all content Hide content

3 months ago on Intensedebate

I don't think Dickens would have been at all in favor of a classless society - the kind the "social justice" pleaders seem to desire. I think what he really wanted was for people of wealthy, powerful classes to be more compassionate to the poor - to stop treating them like animals in order to make a profit, to help them live less dreadful lives, to educate them and make them more useful ... See all content Hide content

Fabulo123 3 months ago on Twitter

Disney's 'A Christmas Carol': Charity Vs. Big Government - Big Hollywood (blog): guardian.co.ukDisney's &#3.. http://bit.ly/1lOgzb

3 months ago on Intensedebate

Dickens may or may not have been a socialist, or even a communist, I don't know. But when it came to selling his writing he was a capitalist through and through. By the way, my favorite incarnation of this story was "Scrooged." I'm pretty sure they hired the Solid Gold dancers for it.

3 months ago on Intensedebate

Social justice is neither social nor justice. You want to see social justice as defined by government, look no further than Mugabe's Zimbabwe. That's what you get when government decides to implement social justice. Ten million dollars for a loaf of bread.

3 months ago on Intensedebate

You're right! This "rick" person is not tossing enough pennies.

3 months ago on Intensedebate

A liberal's idea of charity is government charity; a conservative's idea of charity is personal charity. Case in point: Comrade Obama would rather reduce the tax on charitable giving to charities such as the Salvation Army, religious-run charities, and dole it out to his own worthy charities such as ACORN, the NEA, and Planned Parenthood.

3 months ago on Intensedebate

Para[phrasing Clemenceau, "Social" justice is to justice what military music is to music.

3 months ago on Intensedebate

Although Dickens' work has often been used by socialist douchebags to advance their agenda, no where in any of his novels does he espouse socialism or condemn capitalism. Nor does he advocate the government redistribution of wealth. The main theme that runs through Dickens' work is that "social justice" is the result of compassion prevailing over greed. Think about that the next ... See all content Hide content

3 months ago on Intensedebate

"Dickens didn't believe the rick should toss out a few pennies to help the poor at Christmas -- he believed in social justice. He saw that the entire political system was designed to keep the rich rich and the poor poor." It's rather ironic that it is the democrats who keep the poor poor. They belive in tossing out a few pennies in the form of welfare to keep the poor not only poor ... See all content Hide content

3 months ago on Intensedebate

wr1 is probably right that Dickens was an economic ignoramus, as he himself no doubt is. For one thing, Dickens might have grasped that poverty,child-labor, etc., was far more widespread in the pre-capitalist era than in the early stages of capitalism, when Dickens lived. If Dickens had wanted to reduce poverty, even further, he would have supported the economic system with the best record of doing ... See all content Hide content

onecent 3 months ago on Wordpress

Bad governments account more than anything else for poverty. That's been the story of commodity rich Africa for centuries. The Chinese were all dirt poor before the Communists added capitalist concepts to their economy.

Even in affluent countries there will be the poor among us. There are people because of bad personal habits – drugs, high school drop outs, kids out of wedlock ... See all content Hide content

3 months ago on Intensedebate

Bad governments account more than anything else for poverty. That's been the story of commodity rich Africa for centuries. The Chinese were all dirt poor before the Communists added capitalist concepts to their economy. Even in affluent countries there will be the poor among us. There are people because of bad personal habits - drugs, high school drop outs, kids out of wedlock at a young age, ... See all content Hide content

Vainamoinen 3 months ago on Wordpress

Helping the poor is a worthy goal. But our Founding Fathers did not intend the government to fund it.

Systemic monetary handouts to people makes them bitter and resentful, and simultaneously, binds them in chains and carefully leads them to a hellish existence that is difficult to overcome. Helping people be self-productive is the only way to successful solve problems of "want" ... See all content Hide content

3 months ago on Intensedebate

Helping the poor is a worthy goal. But our Founding Fathers did not intend the government to fund it. Systemic monetary handouts to people makes them bitter and resentful, and simultaneously, binds them in chains and carefully traps them to a hellish existence that is difficult to overcome. Helping people be self-productive and self-reliant is the only way to successful solve problems of "want" ... See all content Hide content

quivive 3 months ago on Wordpress

American’s are the most charitable in the world. It is a testament to our character. When we give intelligently we not only help the down on their luck but we better ourselves. When we give it is not institutionalized. It is a hand up not a hand down. When the government takes over charity we become desensitized to the down trodden. I saw a clip of the movie it appears to be a compelling interpretation ... See all content Hide content

3 months ago on Intensedebate

Disney’s ‘A Christmas Carol’: Charity Vs. Big Government | Secolul 21 ~ 21st Century 3 months ago on Wordpress

[...] the original: Disney’s ‘A Christmas Carol’: Charity Vs. Big Government This entry is filed under America – Blogs, Big Hollywood. You can follow any responses to this [...]

wr1 3 months ago on Wordpress

It's obvious that you have never read a word Dickens wrote. To paraphrase Woody Allen, if Charles Dickens came back from the dead and read this post, he'd never stop throwing up.

Dickens didn't believe the rick should toss out a few pennies to help the poor at Christmas — he believed in social justice. He saw that the entire political system was designed to keep the rich ... See all content Hide content

3 months ago on Intensedebate

It's obvious that you have never read a word Dickens wrote. To paraphrase Woody Allen, if Charles Dickens came back from the dead and read this post, he'd never stop throwing up. Dickens didn't believe the rick should toss out a few pennies to help the poor at Christmas -- he believed in social justice. He saw that the entire political system was designed to keep the rich rich and the ... See all content Hide content

Fabulo123 3 months ago on Twitter

Disney's 'A Christmas Carol': Charity Vs. Big Government - Big Hollywood (blog): guardian.co.ukDisney's &#3.. http://bit.ly/28WtRy

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