Gates, Giving and God
As Gates steps down from active role in Microsoft, one wonders as to what makes him give much of his wealth off to the ones that are less privileged. As we try to hypothesize and speculate on the reasons, one has to remember that his act is not without precedent. In the early part of this centaury, the then richest man in the world, Rockefeller set about the task of remaking himself into a philanthropist.
There is an amazing parallel there, folks who have built their lives on the principles of capitalism which believes in meritocracy and virtue of individual greed, once they reach the pinnacle of their achievements seek to find meaning and contentment in the diametrically opposed idea of communism which seeks to reward not by merit but by mercy.
It is worth analyzing the impetus for the change in Gates which caused him to easily transition off into being a philanthropist. Religion was not the motivating factor going by what he said in an interview.
“Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.” – Bill Gates
Unfortunately, it has never seemed to Gates that religion is not about what he can do on a Sunday morning, but rather the least of it is about what God can do on a Sunday morning.
I was reading about Gates in Fortune Magazine the expert of which is below. It is here that I got to understand where the most logical impetus, for Gates' decision had probably come from.
“And there's the poignant letter his mother wrote in 1993 to his fiancée, Melinda French, cluing her in to the Gates family credo: "From those to whom much has been given, much is expected." (Mary Gates would die the next year.) That letter, in turn, led to the self-conscious irony in the slogan he and his wife hit upon for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: All lives have equal value.” - Fortune
It is this that I seek to analyze here.
The words of a mother always have a profound effect on her children. Of all things that a mother-in-law would have wanted to tell her soon to be daughter-in-law if this had taken so much precedence, it is reasonable to assume that this noble thought should have pervaded much of the conversations between mom and son.
Even though Gates may think of religion to be inefficient, he has to accept the necessary change the premise that would make his mom's platitude sensible ‘From those to whom much has been given (by God), much is expected (by God)’. Gates may blithely jettison religion out of his life. But he cannot jettison God out of the noble thought of his mother, without making it a not so sensible affirmation existing only for the sake of the affirmation.
Someone may argue that humanism could replace God in that sentence. But to do that one has to hypothesize that human logic and reason can agree to that idea that a non-person can give and expect something in return. Such a hypothesis is too wild a speculation to be considered as a reasonablse platitude to necessiciate fullfilment. For an ideal to be made to give and to expect there ought to be a personality behind it who has the ability to give and to get. And that person is God.
Even that ideal of justice, that one should do all one can to alleviate suffering in the form of malaria or other diseases which Gates is determined to eradicate, cannot make sense unless there is Someone who gives the ideal the value of Truth. Without the value of Truth any proposition stands as an affirmation made in void. And that Someone who has the ability to make an ideal True is God.
Thus the fundamental impetus for Gates to give off much of his wealth is God. After all, religion is not just about Sunday mornings.
There is an amazing parallel there, folks who have built their lives on the principles of capitalism which believes in meritocracy and virtue of individual greed, once they reach the pinnacle of their achievements seek to find meaning and contentment in the diametrically opposed idea of communism which seeks to reward not by merit but by mercy.
It is worth analyzing the impetus for the change in Gates which caused him to easily transition off into being a philanthropist. Religion was not the motivating factor going by what he said in an interview.
“Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.” – Bill Gates
Unfortunately, it has never seemed to Gates that religion is not about what he can do on a Sunday morning, but rather the least of it is about what God can do on a Sunday morning.
I was reading about Gates in Fortune Magazine the expert of which is below. It is here that I got to understand where the most logical impetus, for Gates' decision had probably come from.
“And there's the poignant letter his mother wrote in 1993 to his fiancée, Melinda French, cluing her in to the Gates family credo: "From those to whom much has been given, much is expected." (Mary Gates would die the next year.) That letter, in turn, led to the self-conscious irony in the slogan he and his wife hit upon for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: All lives have equal value.” - Fortune
It is this that I seek to analyze here.
The words of a mother always have a profound effect on her children. Of all things that a mother-in-law would have wanted to tell her soon to be daughter-in-law if this had taken so much precedence, it is reasonable to assume that this noble thought should have pervaded much of the conversations between mom and son.
Even though Gates may think of religion to be inefficient, he has to accept the necessary change the premise that would make his mom's platitude sensible ‘From those to whom much has been given (by God), much is expected (by God)’. Gates may blithely jettison religion out of his life. But he cannot jettison God out of the noble thought of his mother, without making it a not so sensible affirmation existing only for the sake of the affirmation.
Someone may argue that humanism could replace God in that sentence. But to do that one has to hypothesize that human logic and reason can agree to that idea that a non-person can give and expect something in return. Such a hypothesis is too wild a speculation to be considered as a reasonablse platitude to necessiciate fullfilment. For an ideal to be made to give and to expect there ought to be a personality behind it who has the ability to give and to get. And that person is God.
Even that ideal of justice, that one should do all one can to alleviate suffering in the form of malaria or other diseases which Gates is determined to eradicate, cannot make sense unless there is Someone who gives the ideal the value of Truth. Without the value of Truth any proposition stands as an affirmation made in void. And that Someone who has the ability to make an ideal True is God.
Thus the fundamental impetus for Gates to give off much of his wealth is God. After all, religion is not just about Sunday mornings.