Clarifications

Reading Heschel this morning I realized I might have been harsh the other day in decrying the tech elite. Let me clarify.

The problem is surely not that they are all bad people. Far from it. The problem is that they work so much and earn so much and -- like everyone, are subject to the limitations of 24 and 7. That's why democracy and the public bourse are ultimately better ways to fund public goods, even as they are also imperfect. Mistakes are always being made, constantly. 

I also thought a bit more about Bill Gates and his problems with women, from hanging out with Epstein to allegedly misusing his position of power with both Microsoft and the Gates Foundation to have relationships with women.

I too was a skinny nerd and my self-image was formed in that crucible. While things got better for me through puberty and braces and sports, I was never able to entirely shed my negative self-image. So when I got to college and was apparently considered attractive on the marketplace of sexual partners, I never really quite believed it. I misbehaved, got punished, and punished myself. 

Let us recall that Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg never finished college and never had an opportunity to grow through a life phase where they did a bunch of stupid shit and then realized they were assholes. They were off on the way to becoming billionaires before they had passed through puberty.

I have written before that I think the scene from Moonstruck where Olympia Dukakis says that men chase women because they fear death is the very apogee of cinematic insight. The correct solution to this problem is to figure out a way to fear death less, rather than to chase women. Philantropy instead of philandery seems like a good start.