When I first read Anand's 2015 @AspenInstitute speech that eventually became #winnerstakeall, it was a revelation of speaking truth to power - a self-reflective critique of elite social entrepreneurship, given at an institution committed to incubating elite change agents. 3/x
-
Show this thread
-
In the same vein as
@peterbuffett's 2013 op-ed on the "charitable industrial complex," it challenged change agents to consider the right hand vs. left hand problem. What does it mean to build capitalist wealth with one hand and use it to alleviate poverty with the other? 4/x3 replies 6 retweets 41 likesShow this thread -
I discuss this question constantly with my students, who often venerate social entrepreneurship and the market principles of effectiveness and efficiency in social welfare. They're taught to run nonprofits like businesses, or increasingly to circumvent the sector altogether. 5/x
1 reply 5 retweets 30 likesShow this thread -
This is the age of sector-agnostic social change. Students become management consultants, not social workers. They enter finance, tech and corporate strategy and then give their wealth away. But
#winnerstakeall blows this duality apart by saying charity is not justice. 6/x1 reply 14 retweets 38 likesShow this thread -
Put another, more blatant way: can you really be a social justice warrior and live in a $5 million house? Can you give millions to address poverty at the same time you run a hedge fund? 7/x
1 reply 10 retweets 39 likesShow this thread -
Part of
#winnerstakeall's brilliance is to turn the mirror on all of us, myself included, the would-be change agents, beneficiaries of elite institutions and upbringings, embedded in our own privilege. We speak and live the narratives and the contradictions he illuminates. 8/x1 reply 6 retweets 38 likesShow this thread -
And it's painful to confront. As Will Kymlicka might put it, am I a walking contradiction? Am I giving philanthropically with one hand, while simultaneously supporting policies or generating wealth from sources that compromise or cancel out the virtuous ambitious I aim for? 9/x
2 replies 8 retweets 31 likesShow this thread -
The pain of confronting this truth, I imagine, undergirds traditional resistence to critiques of philanthropy, as Dom Helder Camara once said: "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." 10/x
1 reply 19 retweets 58 likesShow this thread -
In
#winnerstakeall,@AnandWrites casts a gauntlet that is especially provocative alongside work by@DavidCallahanIP@EricaKohl@BenSoskis and forthcoming by@robreich@KAGoss@MaribelMorey1 - an emerging conversation that will redefine the norms of the field. 11/x3 replies 3 retweets 22 likesShow this thread -
In short,
@AnandWrites has delivered clarion call that will be a fixture on my syllabus and bookshelf. For a much more nuanced and in-depth review, read@bensoskis at https://www.philanthropy.com/article/The-Rich-Might-Not-Be-Great-at/244378 …@Philanthropy. 12/125 replies 6 retweets 31 likesShow this thread
This is so kind and meaningful to me. There are immigrants to countries, but there are also immigrants to fields. As a reporter of books, I am always an immigrant to the field I choose. And it is heartwarming when the natives in the field welcome the contributions of a newcomer.
-
-
Your contributions have made, and will make, all of our work better. Thank you.
0 replies 0 retweets 0 likesThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.