I am not sure we know the psychological and/or biological origin of human philanthropy. However, I believe that Thornton Wilder
accurately identified the baleful sociological impulse that sustains
and drives human philanthropy. In his 1967 novel, the Eighth Day, he
indelibly defined human philanthropy for me as a malevolent sociological
impediment, an anodyne most supreme, a delicately insidious sop to
human conscience. Written almost fifty years ago, the following words
from his book, The Eighth Day, ring as true for me today as the day I
first read them:
"Philanthropy is the roadblock in the path of social justice. Philanthropy is like an infected rain from heaven; it poiseneth him who gives and him who takes
...No rich man ever gave away a penny that he could find a use for. Never has and never will. By separating themselves from a little money the rich feel justified in making a lot more. Spiders draw just enough silk out of their bowels to catch those half-dozen flies they need to feed themselves and their loved ones, but the rich make silk and silk and silk. Nothing can stop them. Their houses are stuffed with it. Their banks are stuffed with it, and it's not out of their bowels they make it, but out of the bowels and lungs and eye-balls of others. The little coins that fall from their tables make churches and libraries. Churches! That's where the soothing syrup's stored. There's no marriage tighter than that between the banker and the bishop. The poor should rest content in the situation in which God has seen fit to place them. It's God's will that they work a lifetime over a sewing machine or in a mine
..a poison-bloated cloud. Everyone can see it. It's fed by the unequal distribution of wealth. It poisons the child in the cradle. It befouls the home. It's so dark in the courthouse you can't see a truth two feet away. The most sacred thing in the world is property. It's more sacred than conscience. It's more untouchable than a woman's reputation. And for all its importance, no one, NO ONE, has ever attempted to put a qualifying value on it. Property can be unearned, unmerited, extorted, abused, misspent, without losing one iota of its sacred character - its religious character." Thornton Wilder. The Eighth Day.
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-psychological-and-biological-origins-of-human-philanthropy/answer/Tirumalai-Kamala
"Philanthropy is the roadblock in the path of social justice. Philanthropy is like an infected rain from heaven; it poiseneth him who gives and him who takes
...No rich man ever gave away a penny that he could find a use for. Never has and never will. By separating themselves from a little money the rich feel justified in making a lot more. Spiders draw just enough silk out of their bowels to catch those half-dozen flies they need to feed themselves and their loved ones, but the rich make silk and silk and silk. Nothing can stop them. Their houses are stuffed with it. Their banks are stuffed with it, and it's not out of their bowels they make it, but out of the bowels and lungs and eye-balls of others. The little coins that fall from their tables make churches and libraries. Churches! That's where the soothing syrup's stored. There's no marriage tighter than that between the banker and the bishop. The poor should rest content in the situation in which God has seen fit to place them. It's God's will that they work a lifetime over a sewing machine or in a mine
..a poison-bloated cloud. Everyone can see it. It's fed by the unequal distribution of wealth. It poisons the child in the cradle. It befouls the home. It's so dark in the courthouse you can't see a truth two feet away. The most sacred thing in the world is property. It's more sacred than conscience. It's more untouchable than a woman's reputation. And for all its importance, no one, NO ONE, has ever attempted to put a qualifying value on it. Property can be unearned, unmerited, extorted, abused, misspent, without losing one iota of its sacred character - its religious character." Thornton Wilder. The Eighth Day.
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-psychological-and-biological-origins-of-human-philanthropy/answer/Tirumalai-Kamala
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