A Merry and Happy Christmas One and All

It’s Christmas!! As Noddy Holder’s "pension plan" announces to us every year from the end of November to the New Year.

And it is Christmas, so despite the world not necessarily being the way we would like it to be and practically all of us not being what we should be, and that ramps up by a factor of 10 when talking politicians and fanatics.

Despite that, even for the secular, Christmas reminds us that we have the potential to be better than we are. Rousseau’s perfectibility of man if you like. That we could be better if we would.

For Christians it is a chance to remember, celebrate and give thanks that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

So for a moment let’s turn our attention away from how spectacularly well politicians and people in general are getting it wrong and think on how they sometimes get it right and that it could actually be worse. And how it might be made better. It’s a wonderful life.

It is an interesting thought that the big, huge stuff.. constitutions, political systems, Yes we need to get those right. But if we get the small things right that builds the big picture. Jimmy Stuart’s George Bailey: “I know what I'm gonna do tomorrow, and the next day, and the next year, and the year after that.”

A little like comparing a top down command economy to the market. The market isn’t an entity. It is countless small actions adding up.

Imagine for a moment if we all just made a little effort to be a tiny bit more polite and considerate, a little more forgiving, slower to anger and irritation – every day. What might that add up to in the long run?.

For those of you who love individualism liberty think of it as charitable giving that costs no cash. For the coercive and authoritarian think of it as a tax on the freedom to be an ass likely to fall more heavily on everyone else - and that you can benefit from by promoting..

Any system we live by should ideally naturally reward such behaviour and discourage the opposite, preferably gently but persistently.

Merry Christmas One and All.