Publius:Most quixotically, as we all are cognizant of- Dickens was himself attempting to craft a metaphor in the Christmas Carol. It is most trivially obvious to even the most uneducated and least erudite (ie, Ed) that Dickens was attempting a dialectic between more materialistically gratificational behavior and more externally empathic behavior (think the delayed gratification proposed by Socrates). Tom, being a scatologically minded individual with a determined vector to the right, has a pre-determined propensity to posit the metaphor as trivial and wrong- However, I digress.
The epiphenomenon of this dialectic is manifested within our antagonist-protagonist (ie scrooge) as what some might think of as the call of Dasman, ie shame vis-a-vis a 'Tiny Tim'.
[So basically, Scrooge is confronted with the result of his greed and realizes he is being a dick and feels bad about it, and Ed and Tom are poopy heads.]
-Publius
[insert pithy quote here from moderately obscure thinker]
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