NOT using the
panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in
Helsinki, Finland in August 2017 (to which I be unable to go (until I retire
from education)), I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree
with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. But not
today. This explanation is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes
reviewing movies, sometimes reviewing books, and other times taking up the
spirit of a blog an old friend of mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…
The waves of
horror as non-profit organizations predict the death of charity because people
can no longer write their donations off on their taxes has reached tsunami proportions:
It also seems that
granting tax break for “philanthropy”, while the law will celebrate its Centennial
this year, has hardly had a unanimously benevolent history and been without
criticism: http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/readings.nsf/ArtWeb/972168BEA0B68D8585257B160048DD4A?OpenDocument
In fact, I never really
thought about how “benevolence” might have a powerful political impact. Stupid
me…
I am reminded of
the reason my daughter withdrew from working toward a full International Baccalaureate
Diploma. There were a few reasons, but one was that while she had done hours of
volunteer work of her own accord, there were too many hours that she’d done that
were for our church. The Program wasn’t interested in people volunteering for
causes they supported. The Program wanted volunteers for the causes THEY
supported.
Another name for
forcing individuals to work for a cause not their own in order to meet the requirements
of an educational reward is conscription. Indentured servitude might be another
phrase. Her question was, “Are you volunteering for something if it’s something
that is required?” In other words, isn’t “mandatory volunteerism” an oxymoron?
She didn’t get the
Diploma.
National Honor Society
also has such requirements as well – along with doing volunteer work for causes
a student personally believes in, they are required to “volunteer” for causes
that the organization has deemed worthy.
Another thought,
is philanthropy limited to wealthy civilizations? According to Wikipedia, there
doesn’t seem to be any record of philanthropy prior to Europe in the 17th
Century. Also, there appears to be a distinctive difference between philanthropy
and charity, with philanthropy being much better than charity: “Philanthropy
has distinguishing characteristics separate from charity; not all charity is
philanthropy, or vice versa, though there is a recognized degree of overlap in
practice. A difference commonly cited is that charity aims to relieve the pain
of a particular social problem, whereas philanthropy attempts to address the
root cause of the problem—the difference between the proverbial gift of a fish
to a hungry person, versus teaching them how to fish.”
Charity has a far
more ancient history dating back to (quite possibly) the dawn of recorded
history; certainly since the Pharaohs instituted the construction of the
pyramids (NOT a charitable act, BTW). The infographic below notes that
charitable giving has been growing since then and has become foundational to
western society.
So, why do I bring
this up here? Aside from the fact that charitable giving is likely to survive
the elimination of the tax credit and that there is something to be said for reducing
the influence of donors over organizational policy…
I bring it up
because I’ve never seen mentioned anywhere in a science fiction story or novel the
possibility that aliens or alien civilizations might consider charitable and
philanthropic giving – perhaps even SACRIFICIAL giving – to be the mark of
mature civilization, one that indicates that the society in question has
overcome its biology with mind.
Maybe aliens haven’t
contacted up because we are, as a planet, as a species, entirely too selfish? I mean, English speakers
can read a book called, THE SELFISH GENE (by Richard Dawkins, world-famous
atheist, author, and speaker) in which he expands and popularizes the ideas of
WD Hamilton, to wit: “Despite the principle of 'survival of the fittest' the
ultimate criterion which determines whether [a gene] G will spread is not
whether the behavior is to the benefit of the behaver, but whether it is to the
benefit of the gene G ...With altruism this will happen only if the affected
individual is a relative of the altruist, therefore having an increased chance
of carrying the gene.”
I’m adding this
new answer to the list of answers to the Fermi Paradox (simply stated: “…a
simple question that anyone looking out at the night sky has probably asked
themselves: Where is everybody?...it’s a big universe, so why can’t we see life
anywhere but here on Earth?”) https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/what-is-the-fermi-paradox
I’ve written on Fermi’s Paradox before (http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2017/06/slice-of-pie-post-ideas-is-this-like.html)
So maybe aliens
are waiting for us to start giving selflessly and when it seems that an
unselfish gene has entered the pool, we’ll be contacted by an advanced civilization…
Just so you know,
I have a story in mind that might explore this.
Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charity_(practice),
http://blog.winspireme.com/a-brief-history-of-charitable-giving-infographic
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