George Lucas is one of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s recent signatories in their campaign to ‘save the world’ (I now regard these guys as genuine heroes).
Lucas is renowned for his generosity previously stating “I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education. It is the key to the survival of the human race.”
The two wealthiest men in the world started the The Giving Pledge in June 2010. The official website which can be accessed by the linked provided below out lines the aims and objectives of the pair to address some of the ills that plague the world.
http://givingpledge.org/#enter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_Pledge
But is the drive to save the world derived from the same source that allowed them to dominate the commercial world? Darwin and Dawkins would argue that the great philanthropic undertakings of Bill Gates can find its incentive in competitive self-interest. Many evolutionary psychologists suggest individuals seeking power find being nice as a means of achieving status. A hundred years ago the two richest men in the world, Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller, competed to become richer than one another then began competing to give it all away faster than one another!
Kim R Hill and Keith Kintigh of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University published an article called, Can Anthropologists Distinguish Good and Poor Hunters? Implications for Hunting. In the paper they wrote they analyzed data of more than 14,000 hunter days during twenty-seven years of monitoring the Ache tribe of Paraguay. They concluded that it was difficult to determine individual skill levels of hunters by looking at the returns they made. But what was clear was a strategy of giving and distributing the spoils of a hunt brought the hunter great prestige. I suppose it's only when the hunter starts to distribute the food he killed you actually realize how great a hunter and provider he actually is.
It could be interpreted that the actions of “Big Men” like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller is the act of supreme hunters reinforcing their hunting prowess by distributing their kill with overwhelming generosity. Warren Buffett (worth $52 billion and rising) announced in June 2006 (aged seventy-six) his intention to giving away the rump of his wealth he spent a lifetime hunting. Bill Gates also announced in June 2006 he’ll be taking a back-seat in Microsoft and scheduled a 2008 retirement to concentrate on the ‘great give away’. Bill and Warren are preceded by the likes of John D Rockefeller, George Peabody and Andrew Carnegie who all tried to give away virtually all their money before their deaths.
Much was made of Bill Gates increased his contributions to charity soon after fellow billionaire Ted Turner criticised his lack of philanthropy. Turner is a multi-billionaire media mogul and chairman of the United Nations Foundation.[1] He has a habit of calling out rich guys and challenging them to donate more money. In 1997 Turner pledged $1 billion to the United Nations Foundation an organization he set up himself. Turner’s $1 billion contribution to United Nations rescued them from debt and disrepute in 1999. This made Turner a very “Big Man”.[2]
In early 2009 Ted Turner challenged actor Ashton Kutcher in an online race to raise money for mosquito nets using his Twitter community. Turner applauded his adversary saying “Congratulations Kutcher, your Twitter followers really came through for you …But World Malaria Day is only the beginning. We need to send more nets and save more lives. And you don’t have to be Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey to make a difference you just need $10. If 10,000 more people joined the United Nations Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign, I’ll have you and Demi over for lunch at Ted’s Montana Grill in Atlanta. Hope you like Bison Burgers…”
[1] Incidentally Ted Turner inherited his father’s billboard company when he was twenty-four after his father shot himself dead and Ted also often speaks would often speaks about his own suicide or being murdered. The debate as to whether suicide 'hereditary' continues. Did Ted Turner inherit entrepreneurial genes along with his preoccupation and possible predisposition to suicide?
[2] I recall an interesting exchange between P Diddy and his former mentor Andre Harrell on TV. Harrell had been invited on to P Diddy’s TV show Making Da Band. He unfortunately couldn’t hide his excitement and joy at some of the performances of those being auditioned (it’s a kind of reality TV show). This was at odds with P Diddy’s requirement a solemn and unexpressive countenance during performances from his assistants. “Big Man” is a colloquial phrase often used in the urban community to show respect when dealing with or making a sensitive point. P Diddy must have tried to quiet down Harrell a couple of times using the phrase “Big Man” like ‘calm down and relax ‘big man’ when Harrell turned around and said to P Diddy “ you’ve got one more Big Man”. Which meant ‘I know you’re being respectful but I’m getting fed up of you’. It was amusing enough for the broadcaster to use it as a trailer for the on-coming series.
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