Both my daughter Laura and oldest son Carl have played in the Merrimack Repertory Theater's annual A Christmas Carol in the past. The theater is in Lowell. So the connection for me is personally historic.
But it makes sense, and I have often thought of Dicken's story when visiting the mills and museums around here. Historically speaking, the industrialization, making things for markets instead of people, and bringing the makers of goods under the employ of capitalists instead of being done by respected craftpeople, was something relatively unplanned for in our Constitution. It was talked about, Hamilton wanting it here, and Jefferson wanting to keep all that in Europe while we would remain pastoral communities.
This clashing is still not over with. We have the wisdom of democratic representation and judicial processes written into the Constitution. It seems, however, that because the industrial revolution had not yet taken place, we have greed and selfishness being allowed to reign in the capitalist system that has come about. A Christmas Carol demonstrates the issue with the capitalist Scrooge before having wisdom, and Scrooge after. This was peculiarly essential to Lowell at the time he visited.
Both my daughter Laura and oldest son Carl have played in the Merrimack Repertory Theater's annual A Christmas Carol in the past. The theater is in Lowell. So the connection for me is personally historic.
ReplyDeleteBut it makes sense, and I have often thought of Dicken's story when visiting the mills and museums around here. Historically speaking, the industrialization, making things for markets instead of people, and bringing the makers of goods under the employ of capitalists instead of being done by respected craftpeople, was something relatively unplanned for in our Constitution. It was talked about, Hamilton wanting it here, and Jefferson wanting to keep all that in Europe while we would remain pastoral communities.
This clashing is still not over with. We have the wisdom of democratic representation and judicial processes written into the Constitution. It seems, however, that because the industrial revolution had not yet taken place, we have greed and selfishness being allowed to reign in the capitalist system that has come about. A Christmas Carol demonstrates the issue with the capitalist Scrooge before having wisdom, and Scrooge after. This was peculiarly essential to Lowell at the time he visited.