“philanthropist”

Just noticed this news item:

“Philanthropist Bill Gates is still the richest person in America, followed by investing guru Warren Buffett, according to an updated list of leading billionaires.“

It may not always be easy to reinvent yourself; that takes careful thought and good decisions. But this passage is a reminder of how quickly it can happen. I can still clearly remember a time when Gates was viewed as the archetypal hoarder of money, accruing wealth for the sake of accruing it.

Even at the time, I thought that was a bit harsh on Gates for a simple reason– he was still pretty young. And young people who are making tons of money generally want to keep on making tons of it for the foreseeable future. Why? Because that’s what young people are quite often like. They first want to see how far they can go on the path of self-development. With certain striking exceptions, genuine concern for community is something that seems to develop later, perhaps because shadows of mortality begin to descend, or perhaps because the limited satisfactions of self-fulfillment eventually become apparent.

In any case, Bill Gates can now be called a philanthropist with a straight face, and I suppose he deserves it by now. It doesn’t take too much time in a new persona to get people to believe it, as long as it’s one where you belong.