Few finer examples than Andrew Carnegie, a man who famously wrote in a memo to himself as a young man: “The amassing of wealth is one of the worse species of idolatry. No idol more debasing than the worship of money.” He vowed that he would put whatever money he would make to good use rather than accumulate and hoard it, as to remain too wealthy would be “to degrade himself”.
Though a fabulously wealthy man, Carnegie felt it was the duty of the rich not hold on to their money but to enrich society instead. He felt everyone should be able to read:
"A man's reading program should be as carefully planned as his daily diet, for that too is food, without which he cannot grow mentally."
To this end, Carnegie set up a foundation, and this Carnegie Foundation built 2500(!) public libraries around the world, to be accessed by all. He was an anti-imperialist, hated religious dogma and he felt knowledge was power, and thus knowledge and the power that it resulted in should not be hoarded by the few, but accessed freely by the many.
I can think of no man who more fully embodied the saying: “Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.” He didn’t just give away his money; he invested his money in the future of humanity. Carnegie grew up dirty poor and gave back to the world because he knew what it was like to have nothing. At the time of his death, over half of all libraries in America were built and fully paid for by him.
No comments:
Post a Comment