Billionaire Bill Gates is straightforward and clear: He says he will give away virtually all his wealth for charitable causes over the next 20 years. He says a total of $200 billion will go toward causes that help save and improve lives around the world. “By deciding to spend all this money in the next 20 years, we can get a lot more done and save tens of millions of lives.” He has three main goals: stopping the deaths of mothers and children from preventable causes, eradicating deadly infectious diseases, and putting more countries on a path to prosperity by focusing on improving education. Gates wants to solve problems, what for him are moral problems. He shows empathy because he understands how mothers feel when a child is sick or dying; he understands how education increases self-esteem and achievement motivation. But Gates’ motivation to help goes further because it is based on moral empathetic strength—an understanding that fixing some problems is just the proper, decent, and honorable thing to do.
Billionaire Elon Musk also speaks of empathy, but shows little understanding of what it means. He speaks in convoluted, confusing terms and equates empathy with self-destruction: “I believe in empathy, like, I think you should care about other people, but you need to have empathy for civilization as a whole, and not commit to a civilizational suicide. I heard a podcaster talk about suicidal empathy. Like, there’s so much empathy that you actually suicide yourself. So, we’ve got civilizational suicidal empathy going on. And it’s like, I believe in empathy, like, I think you should care about other people, but you need to have empathy for, for civilization as a whole, and not commit to a civilizational suicide. The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy. You need to think it through and not just be programmed like a robot.” Unlike Gates, Musk sees empathy and charity as burdens on society, and efforts to lighten those burdens is akin to self-destruction. This twisted thinking allows his mind to demean and discard compassion and generosity as worthy pursuits.
Psychology and Stress 