Katha Pollitt: The Kindness of Strangers

It's hard to believe, but there was a time not so long ago when charity was going to save the world. The right argued for a "compassionate conservatism" that would transfer the care and feeding of the poor from government to churches, while liberals, who saw government funds for good works shrinking, increasingly relied on the kindness of foundations and NGOs. Bill Gates, George Soros and other titans became masters of a burgeoning nonprofit universe, donating huge sums for healthcare, education, antipoverty programs and the bolstering--or creation--of "civil society" around the world. Bono was its troubadour and Slate, with its annual list of the sixty most munificent donors, was its scorekeeper. Bill Clinton, who famously proclaimed "the era of big government is over," was its impresario.

That philanthropic agendas might be skewed by pet enthusiasms or whims or ego was but a detail. Indeed, Warren Buffett was regarded as a mystifyingly self-abnegating saint because he gave $31 billion to the Gates Foundation instead of starting his own. Another detail: the use of philanthropy to mute criticism. Philip Morris used big donations to the arts to prettify its tobacco-stained corporate image. Rick Warren won acceptance, even from some progressives, for his work in Africa, even though that work also includes heavy proselytizing and alliances with pastors who stage condom bonfires and preach that faith in Jesus will cure HIV.