Even if you don’t know anything about crypto, you’ve probably heard of Sam Bankman-Fried and the meltdown of his crypto exchange FTX.
You have plenty of opportunities to spend your outrage budget on what happened, crypto, greed, politics, political donations, mainstream media, and capitalism.
But so far, I think we’re missing the real opportunity.
SBF (clearly, we’re all on an acronym-name basis with him, aren’t we?) has stated his purpose in getting wealthy as “effective altruism.” Effective altruists believe that making and then using gobs of money to influence the world is a noble goal as long as you’re very, very smart.
This is utter bullshit.
It’s one of the most pretentious, condescending, and narcissistic philosophies I could imagine.
“I’m rich. Therefore, I’m smart. Therefore, I know best. Stand aside and watch me make this world a better place — the way I think it should be.”
Altruism, at its core, isn’t about outcomes or amounts. It’s also not about some objectively correct vision of the world.
Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Mark 12:43-44
The real opportunity here is to shine a light on true effective altruism.
Altruism is about the giver. It’s about you, your humanity, and how much you care about your fellow humans.
