A sick Gilded Age burn
Won't you come and wash away the rain
The Invisibles, Grant Morrison
We have some really special billionaire villains these days, but our rising disdain toward wealthy donors is more of a return to form than many might realize. I love this quote from John D. Rockefeller’s first failed attempt to charter his foundation at the start of the 20th century, a response from labor leader Samuel Gompers:
“The one thing the world would gratefully accept from Mr. Rockefeller now would be the establishment of a great endowment of research and education to help other people see in time how they can keep from being like him.”
That is a sick Gilded Age burn, and honestly kind of a good idea, but it also shows how our warm Bono feelings toward philanthropy during the late 20th are an aberration. And yet, Rockefeller eventually established his foundation, and throughout much of history some kind of philanthropy has played part in providing public good. One smart framework for how to parse this conflict comes from the same book I got that quote from, Philanthropy in Democratic Societies. In a later chapter, authors pose a split between what they call disruptive philanthropy, when wealthy donors undermine and compete with the public sector, and contributory philanthropy, which complements the public sector and ultimately enlarges the public goods provided by the state. Charter school philanthropy is one example they give of the disruptive kind which is bad fyi.
But I actually wanted to talk about black holes today. I recently interviewed Avery Broderick, a theoretical physicist who played a role in producing that metal as hell black hole picture everyone loves:
I talked to him for an article about the Perimeter Institute, the research center he works at in Ontario. Perimeter was initially funded by the guy behind BlackBerry who just really wanted to start an independent center focused entirely on theoretical physics which is not otherwise really a thing as far as I can tell. It has all kinds of cool features that make it unique and it’s pretty famous now, but what interested me in it is the involvement of the Canadian and Ontario governments. Between half and two thirds of its funding comes from government these days, and as a result goes through all sorts of regular review and oversight, and also maintains several partnerships with universities and does a bunch of outreach with K12 schools. It strikes me as a good example of contributory philanthropy in the sense that, even though a donor with a specific interest started it up, it’s now grounded in the public sector and larger scientific community.
My favorite part of working on this article (aside from getting to talk to Canadians, which is always a joy, they say zed instead of z) was toward the end of my conversation with Avery, who is a brilliant scientist, and got almost sentimental about funding for a minute.
The private funding allows the flexibility that makes a place like Perimeter unique, but the public support “provides an imprimatur from our community that we are doing good things.”
He says, “It kind of prevents us from believing our own hype too much, right? You go out and you get a reality check from your peers.”
There’s also something grounding about funding coming from members of the public, who might otherwise spend that money on a movie with their kids, he says.
“I think that realization imbues a duty to do something worthwhile, that when we receive public monies, we are beholden now to everybody to justify why that was a useful expenditure,” he says. “I do reflect on that. I hope my colleagues reflect on that. I think they do.”
Scrutiny of wealthy donors is important for many reasons, including the harms of wealth concentration, reputation laundering, and billionaire influence. But beyond that, it offers us a chance to think about the more intrinsic importance of how we pay for the things we care about.
Yes there’s the danger of tainted funding, like Epstein and Sackler money. But we also gain something kind of beautiful when we all have a stake, even in work like astrophysics. As an international project, lots of people all over the world paid to get that picture of a black hole, including you probably. And to the scientists behind it, it matters that people, not just a person, are invested in their work.
Links
Renewable energy is growing, but the increase in fossil fuel burning is crushing that progress. A reminder that market-driven expansion of wind and solar has limitations. We gotta actually you know stop burning fossil fuels.
Jia Tolentino’s Grub Street pretty much convinced me that I’m not living life to its fullest. Can’t wait to read her book.
NYT (boy nobody likes them right now!) has a climate newsletter, and a recent edition suggested political or grassroots organizing donations may be a better route than buying personal carbon offsets (although offsets are also fine). Basically we are still way short on political will and systems change.
YouTube is optimized to bring the worst out in humanity.
At long last, Boston got some new Orange Line trains this week. They must be so clean and wait for iiiiitttt ok no longer clean.
Democratic candidates have similar long term climate targets, but only one appears to be serious about the short term action needed to get there.
Reading
I’ve been on a 1980s black and white indie comics kick lately, and I’ve cracked the Bacchus omnibus, volume one, by Eddie Campbell. Bacchus is the long-running pet project of the writer and artist probably best known for drawing From Hell.
This is you when you get this newsletter.
Watching
Westworld Season 2. I read someone call this show HBO’s Lost and that is a good way of putting it. They really make you work for it but there are some good payoffs, like a brutal scene featuring this feudal Japan version of Wu-Tang’s C.R.E.A.M.
Last night, Jamie (borat voice my wife) and some friends organized a fundraiser and night of action for immigrant justice. Turnout was great and Jamie presented a moving overview of the abuses happening at the southern border. It’s totally fine that you couldn’t make it don’t sweat it but if this is something you are concerned about, consider giving to the following groups that benefitted from the event.
Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network (BIJAN/Beyond)
Border Kindness/Bondad Frontera
National Immigration Law Center (NILC)
And that’s all for this week good luck out there. Take care of your loved ones. Go for a nice walk maybe with a dog. Be kind to yourself.
Tate