So much of what is presented through the media in this time of pandemic seems designed to depress us further, while little is offered as a cause for optimism.
An example of the negative news is frequently repeated commentary on wealth disparity throughout the world. All of us have heard of the staggering claim that 85 per cent of the world’s wealth is owned by the top 10 per cent of the population or that the top one per cent of the population has half the world’s wealth.
Even if such claims are somewhat questionable, most of us still wonder how such a thing is possible. It seems as if we have time travelled back to the time of European aristocrats, when millions of people lived in a world of abject poverty while a tiny few lived in conspicuous luxury. Despite our awareness of this situation, it is still possible to find reason to believe that all is not bad. The duality is apparent in two Netflix documentaries.
On the negative side is the documentary Capital. I want to make it clear that I know virtually nothing about the “dismal science” of economics, so I am willing to concede that many of the claims and theories in the film are likely to be questioned by those who are better informed.
However, one of the assertions certainly resonates with me, and that is that many of the super-wealthy seem to feel no obligation to share their wealth with the less fortunate. As they board their multimillion-dollar yachts and sail off to their island paradises, they ignore the grinding poverty that is the lot of millions whose labour has made their wealth possible.
In fact, the film recounts an experiment showing that people who have done nothing to earn their acquired wealth feel they earned it by their own efforts and good fortune, thereby exonerating them from concern for others less fortunate. One of the ironies is that millions of less-wealthy individuals support charities and good works every year. The film argues that most of the wealthy do not, although there are exceptions. One of those exceptions is the subject of another Netflix documentary, Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates.
Everyone is aware that Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, became a billionaire in his twenties. Most are also aware that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has devoted billions to charitable works.
The three-part documentary presents a biography of Gates while at the same time showing how as a philanthropist he has funded three major and worthy humanitarian projects: one to produce toilets for places in Third World countries where sewage pollutes drinking water, one to attempt to eradicate polio, and one to come up with an energy source which does not increase carbon emissions, but which is self-sustaining, economical, and safe.
The biographical part of the series presents an intriguing and appealing portrait of a genius, the quintessential nerd in high school who was hired by a school to solve its complicated timetabling problem and went on to pursue his passion for computer programming, leading to the eventual founding of Microsoft.
The result reveals a man who is able to dedicate himself to reading masses of books, which most of us would give up on after a few pages, as he tirelessly pursues knowledge that he seems able to absorb and analyze almost effortlessly.
Admirable as all of this may be, the documentary glosses over the sad reality that Bill Gates and his wife, who claims to be a Catholic, have dedicated millions to promoting artificial contraception in Third World countries, a point directly addressed in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.
In a 2012 article, Giulia Galeotti said Gates’s remarks defending the funding had distorted the teachings of the Church and were a betrayal of the faith she professes.
It is apparent therefore that even the most well-intentioned and highly motivated can be mistaken in their actions.
While, clearly, Melinda Gates needs drastically to change her and her husband’s actions in this matter, much of what the couple is attempting to do is wholly admirable. Bill Gates comes across as a decidedly likeable human being, aware of his own shortcomings, and totally without conceit, yet well aware of being not only exceptionally gifted but fortunate in his comfortable upper middle-class background and especially in the understanding and motivation he received from his parents.
Especially important for the documentary is his determination to put much of his wealth towards promoting human good. His undeniable philanthropy means that he not only decides where to spend his money but, thanks to his extraordinary intelligence and knowledge, is able to steer research in directions which are worth pursuing. Much of the documentary rivetingly shows how he does this with the three projects indicated. The irony is that he is largely unsuccessful.
The campaign against polio does not realize its goal of disease eradication, though the reasons for this are largely sociopolitical; the toilets are actually produced but prove too expensive for mass distribution; the nuclear reactors are not put into production as the enterprise is halted when the relationship between the U.S. and China deteriorates.
Despite this, somehow one gets the feeling that Gates and his wife will not give up on these projects – or others – as they attempt to leave the world a better place than it would have been without them.
In these days when it is easy to be tempted into cynicism or frustrated anger at the injustices of the world, particularly the gap between the haves and the have-nots, it is at least a little comforting to know that there are people of social conscience like Bill and Melinda Gates.
Inside Bill’s Brain is an interesting and entertaining documentary series, which in these largely depressing times gives one cause for hope that out of all the problems that beset us, there will come good.
One also hopes the example of Bill and Melinda Gates, at least in those areas where they are acting morally for the good of all, will spill over to more of the wealthy, while inspiring the rest of us who are less well-off to do even more to make the world a better place.
