Philanthropy and the Benevolence of Psychopaths

Jan 28

Why do we grant people who revere technology and despise human nature the role of “protecting” humanity? It’s mystifying that we entrust so much to people who amassed billions on the backs of the workers they exploited to climb to the top of the food chain.

Margaret Ann Alice sheds some light here.

Margaret Anna Alice Through the Looking Glass

Anatomy of a Philanthropath: Dreams of Democide & Dictatorship

“Tyranny is a habit which may be developed until at last it becomes a disease. I declare that the noblest nature can become so hardened and bestial that nothing distinguishes it from that of a wild animal. Blood and power intoxicate; they help to develop callousness and debauchery. The mind then becomes capable of the most abnormal cruelty, which it reg…

9 months ago · 242 likes · 143 comments · Margaret Anna Alice

If you’re the type of person who’s brimming with lovingkindness and thinks everyone is sunshine and daisies like you, you’re due for a crash course on tyrants and their enablers.
Maybe you think the idea that philanthropaths are trying to liquidate a hefty portion of the populace is preposterous and anyone who says so is a misinformation-superspreading conspiracy theorist.
What’s a philanthropath? A philanthropath is a psychopath masquerading as a philanthropist.

“The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.”

― Joseph mengele

Part of the problem is that your lovingkindness has been weaponized and used against you. You don’t think like a sociopath or a psychopath, so a “Get-rich-quick iatrogenocide scheme” (for example) is utterly unfathomable. As it should be. You can’t conceive of anyone exploiting trust and compassion in service to the destruction of humanity. And anyone who would conceive of such a scheme counts on your unwillingness to believe it.

And right now, the truth is so ugly that it’s deemed hate speech. We can’t even talk about it. So it’s even more difficult to learn what’s true.

Meanwhile, do you ever stop to notice that the people who have decided what’s good for us spend ALL of their time trying to convince us without ever stopping to ask us what we think?… that all of their generous donations go towards their own versions of the “greater good”?

As I revisit everything I thought I once knew, I’m beginning to wonder whether we’ve been primed for this for decades. Maybe longer. The conditioning goes deep.

Here’s my latest trip down the rabbit hole…

I have a beautiful and generous friend who is exceedingly nurturing. She frequently extends herself (to my mind) beyond the limits of self-care. (We’re both working on this.) As she shared her latest rescue mission I found myself thinking of Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree and I told her so. I also told her I couldn’t stand that book. Because I can’t.

I’ve since been thinking about why.

If you haven’t read The Giving Tree, it’s about a tree who loves a little boy who wants and wants. In an attempt to fulfill the boys wants, the tree gives of herself over the course of his lifetime until she is reduced to a stump.

And the tree was happy.

(was it though?)

It reminds me of the World Economic Forum’s WEF and “You will own nothing and you will be happy.”

Douglas Kruger breaks down what that really looks like here.

I’m not the first to take issue with The Giving Tree (or the WEF). In 2019, Adam and Allison Sweet Grant wrote an essay entitled, We Need to Talk About “The Giving Tree”. From the article:

To some readers, the tree’s act of sacrifice seems noble, like the unconditional love a parent gives to a child. But if you assume the story is about generosity, it’s easy to learn the wrong lesson…
Self-sacrifice is not sustainable, and it isn’t healthy either. Research shows that people who care about others and neglect themselves are more likely to become anxious and depressed… Self-sacrifice is a risk factor for burnout and declining productivity…
Generosity is not about sacrificing yourself for others — it’s about helping others without harming yourself. It’s not about giving to takers — it is giving in ways that nurture more givers. It’s not about dropping everything any time someone needs you — it is prioritizing your needs along with theirs.

Pop (Goes the) Culture

We’re getting a lot of mixed messages about self sacrifice and self care. This was published in the New York Times in 2020. I wonder if the same essay would be published today. “Helping others without harming yourself” hasn’t exactly been the message if the last several years. COVID promoted a considerably more “take one (or two, or 5) for the team” kind of vibe. COVID asked us to be the tree.

That tree imagery really got to me. I didn’t think much of the boy, who thought nothing of reducing a tree to a stump. Who let’s someone make that level of sacrifice?

So, of course, I needed to learn more about Shel Silverstein. Maybe more details about his life could help me make sense of it…

Turns out that Silverstein had zero interest in making sacrifices for children. He was a father of two with apparently no intention of parenting either of his children.

Shel Silverstein had at least two children, including a daughter named Shoshanna who stayed with her mother until she passed from cancer. Since Silverstein had no intention of being a father, he sent Shoshanna to live with an aunt and uncle. At the age of 11, she passed without Silverstein really getting to know her. He was said to have always felt guilty for not spending more time with his daughter and dedicated A Light In The Attic to her memory.

He spent a lot of his time at the Playboy mansion with Hugh Hefner, Bill Cosby and apparently hundreds of women. You can read more about Shel Silverstein here, here and here.

This keeps happening.

I understand that we’re all human and no one is perfect, but what gives with the depravity of our cultural icons? How is it that we fall so readily under the spell of actors and paid influencers who have no interest in practicing the values they promote in their own lives? Why are we letting these people shape our culture?

And how long has this been going on?