“Charity … is the opium of the privileged; from the good citizen who habitually drops ten kobo from his loose change and from a safe height above the bowl of the leper outside the supermarket; to the group of good citizens (like yourselves) who donate water so that some Lazarus in the slums can have a syringe boiled clean as a whistle for his jab and his sores dressed more hygienically than the rest of him; to the Band Aid stars that lit up so dramatically the dark Christmas skies of Ethiopia. While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary.” [My emphases]
Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian writer. I am grateful to a contributor to another blog I read for this quote.
Achebe’s quote is clearly based on Karl Marx’s opt-quoted, and usually misquoted, view “Religion is the opium of the people.” The full quote is…
“Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”
The next paragraph is even more interesting…
“The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun.” [My emphases]
What Marx is saying about religion is that it is a protest against the conditions that make an escape into opium necessary. Unfortunately, I don’t think that is what Chinua Achebe meant when he compared charity to opium. The fact is some of the privileged in our society really do appear to get high on their own charity.
Readers of this blog will know the time bitterly opposed (possibly to the point of crankish obsession) to three things…
i/ neoliberalism: a brutal economic system that measures the worth of everything and everyone according to monetary value and reserves 99% of the proceeds of economic growth for <1% of the population;
ii/ identity politics: the handmaiden of neoliberalism. Usually espoused by ultra-privileged pseudo-leftists who are doing very nicely out of the current economic system, thank you very much. An ideology that divides people into ever smaller and mutually antagonistic groups based on the most superficial of differences;
iii/ religious totalitarianism: a scourge the countries of Europe spent centuries escaping from, only for the apostles of neoliberalism and identity politics to encourage a new version of the same vicious ideology. Is it hyperbole to describe the religious fanaticism of our times as fascism? After all these people believe they are the master group, glory in violence, hate women and gays and are deeply anti-Semitic.
I’m afraid that charity has become the tool of the ruling class. I’m not against charity as such; if you want to start a charity for three-legged donkey or to refurbish your local Scout hut, go for it. However, I object to what should be government-funded services, particularly medical services, having to pass around the begging bowl. Hospitals should be properly funded from taxes and if there is not enough money then taxes should be raised.
I object to the fact that many large charities do not get their money from donations but government grants, ie: from the taxpayer. I further object to the obscene salaries paid to the bosses of these organisations (figures from 2017)…
Consumers’ Association £300k-£310k
Marie Stopes International £260k-£270k
Save the Children International £261,309
Cancer Research UK £210k-£220k
British Red Cross Society £180k-£190k
Age UK £180k-£190k
Shaw Trust £180k-£190k
National Trust £170k-£180k
Royal Mencap Society £170k-£180k
Crime Reduction Initiatives £170k-£180k
Alternative Futures Group £170k-£180k
British Heart Foundation £173,300
Leonard Cheshire Disability £160k-£170k
Macmillan Cancer Support £160k-£170k
Marie Curie Cancer Care £160k-£170k
NSPCC £160k-£170k
Addaction £160k-£170k
Turning Point £165,000
Save the Children £162,220
Charities Aid Foundation £150k-£160k
Barnardo’s £150k-£160k
People’s Dispensary For Sick Animals £150k-£160k
Sense, The National Deaf blind and Rubella Association £150k-£160k
Royal Horticultural Society £150k-£160k
Zoological Society of London £150k-£160k
Historic Royal Palaces £151,037
Action for Children £140k-£150k
Salvation Army £140k-£150k
National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux £140k-£150k
Royal National Lifeboat Institution £130k-£140k
Royal British Legion £130k-£140k
Royal National Institute of Blind People £130k-£140k
Scope £130k-£140k
National Autistic Society £130k-£140k
St John Ambulance £130k-£140k
Alzheimer’s Society £130k-£140k
United Response £120k-£130k
Dogs Trust £120k-£130k
Voluntary Service Overseas £120k-£130k
National Schizophrenia Fellowship £120k-£130k
And failed Labour leadership contender David Miliband, who flounced off to New York after being stabbed in the back by his gormless brother, is currently pulling in a salary of £450,000 as head of refugee charity International Rescue.
I am particularly irritated by the vast pay awarded to the head of the Red Cross as this was the charity my late grandmother was involved with for more than thirty years and which treated her so shabbily towards the end of her life. These people are drawing these huge salaries for what is essentially administrative and/or secretarial work.
Like the ultra-privileged journalists who attempt to cloak that privilege by claiming victimhood based on identity, so many of the super-rich use charity to disguise the fact that they are doing very nicely out of the current economic system. From alleged serial tax cheat Bonio to the multitalentless Beckham woman with her OBE for ‘charity’ work, the super-rich do love to parade their munificence. I laughed out loud when reading the news this morning to see actress Keira Knightley was at the Palace to receive an MBE for, you guessed it, ‘charity’ work. They do love the tawdry baubles of the Establishment these theatrical types. Anyone remember that doyen of the BBC, ‘Sir’ Jimmy Savile? He did a lot of good work for charity too.
I’ve often remarked that neoliberalism stairs my inner Lenin. The recent gilets jaunes protests have stirred my inner Robespierre. Nauseating charity appeals from super-rich ‘celebrities’ stir my inner Pol Pot.
Mike's Place 
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