A Blind Eye

My work on a memoir about my wife’s and my journey in philanthropy was interrupted by a New York Times article titled The Billionaire’s Backlash Against a Philanthropic Dream.

 

The story began in 2010 when Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett proposed The Giving Pledge, inviting billionaires to sign a pledge to give at least half their net worth to charity, preferably during their lifetimes. It seemed like a noble idea. 40 original signers grew to 250 signers worldwide.

 

It was inspiring to know that at least some of the world’s wealthiest people were committed to using their wealth to relieve suffering and to address the problems that humanity faced, most of which we had created. This was a counterweight to the forces that stepped on the downtrodden, creating inequality, injustice, suffering, and needless death. It was a saving grace in a world marked by conspicuous cruelty and greed.

But over the past two years, generosity stopped being fashionable. Many of the wealthy denizens of Silicon Valley have renounced the Pledge as a charade designed to sanitize excessive wealth and the people who possessed it. Charity had become an inconvenience that interfered with empire building and the quest for power. For some, the money was better spent buying influence with those at the levers of the power to make them even wealthier. It was simpler just to turn a blind eye to the suffering, the ravaging of the environment, and existential risk.

And those on the political right condemned most charitable causes as being too “woke,” a word that has been turned upside down as something to ridicule. Originally shorthand for an awareness of social injustices, the term, for me, encompasses compassion, concern for the suffering of others and a desire to lessen it, basic morality, and adherence to the Golden Rule. How did this become a slur and its adherents outcasts from the halls of power. When did greed, cruelty, and xenophobia become fashionable?

We are at a critical crossroads. Civilization can careen down a road to injustice, inequity, death, and destruction, allowing the rot in government to bleed into the private sector, leaving no succor for the downtrodden and little hope for our collective survival. Or it can recover its moral compass and use its vast resources to feed the hungry, heal the sick, and provide security and comfort for all.