As society becomes more globalized, we necessarily become neighbors, but do not necessarily become neighborly.
Martin Shkreli, the 32-year-old CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, has recently brought to light this side effect of globalization by raising the price of a drug that treats AIDS as well as a host of other diseases pertaining to the immune system from $13.50 to $750.
Shkreli has a colored past. Originally a hedge fund manager, he left the practice for biotech companies because “there wasn’t enough money” in hedge funds. Shkreli has consistently skirted charges of insider trading and fraud while openly admitting that he lives to exploit others.
Most recently he has come into the public eye by buying the only copy of the rap group, the Wu Tang Clan’s album, “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” for a record-setting $2 million while simultaneously being investigated for tax evasion and misappropriation of funds by the Federal government.
Shkreli rightly deserves his title as “the most hated man in America.” But his disregard for mankind points to a deeper problem with our culture that not even Shkreli’s sharpest critic, Wu Tang’s own Ghostface Killah, recognizes. Shkreli’s self-proclaimed self interest is not an isolated case; rather it is the predictable product of a culture that does not prize charity.
The root of the problem with charity lies in our cultural aversion to objective truth. Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Evidence for this trend is everywhere. For example, when a group of ISIS terrorists attacked a crowded theater in Paris last year, many people put a French flag filter over their Facebook profile pictures in sentimental solidarity with the victims of the attacks. It is true that many others personally reached out to the people of Paris, offering prayers and donations to ease the victims’ loss. But this number pales in comparison to the much wider segment of Facebook users who did nothing but offer a trendy sentiment and, within a few days, move on with their lives.
The truth of the matter is that now more than ever, technology has put us in close quarters with each other. And yet, though our world has become more global, we have not learned to treat each other with the love and respect we were designed to give.
The human being is made for gift. Since we owe our existence to infinite charity, it is within our nature to give back. When we exploit our fellow man — whether it be for financial profit or personal gratification — we not only do wrong, we actually undermine the very purpose of our existence.
People like Shkreli are easy targets because of their prominence in the public sphere. But, he’s only one case of this cultural problem. Though we still call out isolated incidents like his, our cultural failure to prize truth keeps us from recognizing our day to day failures in charity.
