I have been naturally reflecting on giving and thankfulness of late and in that spirit, I want to say a few things.
First off, I am incredibly thankful for the time given by readers of this blog. I highly value that there are countless other things one could be doing besides working through my (often too long) meanderings, I just hope that you find the time and effort spent here worth it.[1]
Against Philanthropy
In the first chapter of Walden, Thoreau wrote:
“If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.”
On this day of thanksgiving, I think his words of caution around doing good are worth exploring a bit more. One thing I believe our culture as a whole may be overly thankful for is (**big gulp**) philanthropy. Let me explain:
Many major philanthropic foundations are simply PR stunts. Ivy Lee, the father of public relations and inventor of the press release, was hired by John D. Rockefeller Jr. following the Ludlow Massacre to help clean up his public image. Only one year earlier, the Rockefeller Foundation charter had been formally granted, and soon Lee was using the foundation’s works to humanize the image of the world’s richest man.[2]
Fast forward eight decades, and you have the Gates Foundation, which, at its inception seemed to simply be an attempt to buy back good will after Bill’s name had been dragged through the mud for monopolistic practices in the 90’s. The Gates foundation has been chastised for decades because, though it claims to be a philanthropic venture, it is often utilized for the personal aims and investments of the Gates family. And while the noble goals of the philanthropy are likely quixotic at best; it should also be noted that the foundation’s trust has effectively zero stipulations on which companies it invests in. This leads it to regularly put billions of dollars towards prisons, fast food, the weapons industry, pharma companies, and fossil fuels among other crowd favorites. Further, the foundation may actually be causing more harm than good in the areas and causes (like polio, HIV, and malaria) that it claims to be aiding.
Institutionalized help
Any who, I don’t want to ruin Bill Gates’ thanksgiving especially after the recent death of his good friend. My qualms aren’t with the BMGF, or any specific philanthropy per se. I think the manner in which philanthropy, especially institutionalized philanthropy, is structured is an issue because these institutions are tied not to the outcomes of the receivers of assistance, but just the external appearance of the whole affair.
Think of this in two-tiers:
As mentioned, many philanthropies are PR stunts. Any philanthropy, if it is to survive, perpetuate, and grow (i.e. attract donors) needs to look good. And this keeping up of good appearances demands legibility – it demands a form of communication of its effects that are rational, objective, measurable, and statistically scalable. The philanthropy must be able to get across the awesome impact it is having on the world and is conscribed to these manners of doing do. This further necessitates a teleological aim and additional system, bureaucracy, and institutionalization.
It is common (at least in my circles) that when making a decision on giving, people look to take a data driven approach, or look for the biggest bang for their buck. Think of Scott Alexander’s obsession with effective altruism.
I have mentioned at length before how teleological aims constrain human growth and interdict many freedoms of the spirit. But to put the matter bluntly, philanthropy is never an instance where the receiver is actually given more freedom and liberties, primarily he or she is given more resources but also many more constraints.[3]
Human spirit is squandered when restraint is added from an exogenous source – in general you cannot help people without hindering them and in many ways making them dependent. Parents know that children must learn lessons and overcome obstacles themselves. Thoreau’s point above is another highlight of this. We have known that God helps those who help themselves at least since the time of Sophocles & Aesop. These insights are nothing new.
Scaled Down
Let me take a breath – I am getting very high and mighty here and I do not want to come off as speaking down to people – especially those who in their hearts are well intentioned and caring.
At bottom my critique of giving is a critique of scale and abstraction. We deal today with far away conceptions of people and the idea of the masses rather than the actual individuals in our lives.
A week ago, I was at a bar when a homeless man came in and sat next to me. He had a Corona and a tequila shot, and we chatted – not being a native of the neighborhood he had some questions about the local area. As he was getting up to leave, I instinctively reached for my wallet to give him a few spare bills. But I halted, I got an unnerving feeling that this would be somewhat insulting to the man – Was I really helping him by passing along $5, $20, even $100 dollars? Wouldn’t truly helping him have entailed something more, something much deeper? It would have meant time and effort to establish a relationship, it would have entailed digging out the wants, needs, and desires of the person in front of me – in short it would mean discovering his humanity.
This is a much bigger ask than passing off money – or generally following the data on the most effective manners of giving.
The damning thing is I couldn’t pull myself to do it. I shook hands with the man, bid him adieu, but stayed at the bar and let slip an opportunity for true giving. This was my own very real moral failing; I neither shy away from this nor take it lightly.
When my father was the same age that I am now, he was a homeless drug addict who would panhandle for money and commit petty theft to get by. I love my father dearly, but could I have helped him then? Had he sat next to me at some bar, could I have connected with him?
This past year has been full of incredibly humbling experiences for me - each of them a reminder of the many ways I can work to become a better man, and for every one of them I am thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving & God Bless
[1] In this spirit this piece looks to be as concise as possible, please excuse the brevity of thought especially in the latter portion. It (hopefully) does not reflect a shortness of reflection.
[2] As an aside, I can’t stress enough how revolutionary the times between the Civil War and WWII were in the ideas of social interaction, influence, and control. Not a value judgement per se but something I always find jarring looking back at this time…. Further don’t get me wrong I’m not against the rich (see here) just stating facts.
[3] As I see it this is the genius insight behind Maimonides dictum that the highest forms of giving are from anonymous sources, preferably towards anonymous receivers…