The above image was made with stable diffusion using the prompt 'a person pulling levers inside of a machine.'
I got some pushback recently against my recent post In Defense of the Rich. In this piece, I characterized my well-to-do acquaintances as possessing a strong sense of social responsibility as demonstrated by their civic involvement and philanthropy. Yesterday at the coffee shop, a friend pointed out that he viewed this activity differently. He saw it as purely self-interested rather than something stemming from social responsibility.
My friend might have a point. The socially responsible actions I see may indeed be motivated by self interest. From tax breaks to the improvement of social status among peers, there are plenty of selfish reasons for the wealthy to use their wealth for the betterment of society. The thing is, I'm not sure it matters that much.
In fact, I'm not at all convinced that motivations are even relevant when it comes to public activity. Our laws give great weight to motive. But I think that the actual impacts of our actions, for better and worse, are far more important than our reasons for producing those actions. If a person donates to Doctors Without Borders for tax reasons, the needy receive essential medical care. If a pesticide company executive keeps the company profitable to financially provide for a large family, many people may be poisoned.
In neither instance do motives matter. In an interpersonal sense they might, but not in a public sense. And both examples could involve the same person, motivated by money to do both small good and great harm.
Actions have consequences, but many people reflexively avoid taking responsibility for their actions. The common phrase "just doing my job" exemplifies this responsibility avoidance. This is deeply programmed into society. It's profoundly disempowering because it takes away the ability to own our choices. Just doing my job also shields power abusers from the negative impacts of their decisions.
Positions of power within society are all positions within unaccountable systems. These systems operate by their own rules. The humans who occupy positions within them are interchangeable. The motives of these humans are beyond irrelevant.
In a personal sense, our reasons for doing things do matter. But the importance of these reasons is greatly diminished as our actions begin impacting others. When that impact is positive, we feel good, and we should. When it's negative, we feel bad, and we should.
This feedback is a critical part of how we learn and grow. Too often, the systems we work within shield us from this feedback. Society is suffering for it, and no one is responsible.
Read my novels:
- Small Gods of Time Travel is available as a web book on IPFS and as a 41 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt.
- The Paradise Anomaly is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Psychic Avalanche is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- One Man Embassy is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Flying Saucer Shenanigans is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Rainbow Lullaby is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- The Ostermann Method is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Blue Dragon Mississippi is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
See my NFTs:
- Small Gods of Time Travel is a 41 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt that goes with my book by the same name.
- History and the Machine is a 20 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on my series of oil paintings of interesting people from history.
- Artifacts of Mind Control is a 15 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on declassified CIA documents from the MKULTRA program.
Interesting to see you deepen the conversation about this topic. Socially responsible actions of the rich are likely motivated by self-interest. I agree that motivations may be irrelevant. Yet a main point of your post In Defense of the Rich that stood out to me was challenging the idea that rich people are the enemy as a general standpoint, rather than focusing on the covert elements within our corrupt financial system. This paragraph from that post really does it for me:
Something I also like to think about is noticing when justice and accountability are honored in society. It's rare, but it does happen (this might be a good WTK newsletter topic). Like the Biden v. Missouri is pretty big. And I'm sure there are others that I can't think of now. What made these successes possible? And how can we build and create more of those moments? In ways that address the intersectionality of all abuses and harms pervading society and politics (not just for the left or right wing as an example). Hope that makes sense.
I get what you're saying. Highlighting and replicating successes is definitely important. Missouri v Biden is big. I feel like maybe a distinction should be made between the abuses produced by the normal operations of the system and abuses in excess of this, to better identify systemic vs individual solutions.