The Great Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie 1835 - 1919

Andrew Carnegie Image Source bbc.co.uk

Industrialist, Andrew Carnegie worked on the principle that his great wealth, acquired through American steel production, should always benefit society. He believed however, that simply giving money away was not the way to tackle social degradation in the long term.

I think Carnegie must have had a great trust and faith in people. Carnegie invested heavily in universities, he placed libraries and museums in communities where access was all-inclusive, and he made available scholarships and free tuition so that lives could evolve into something more educationally enriching. Carnegie's aim, for the greater good, was that society be made up of informed and questioning people; and that the majority of people who accessed the facilities and courses that he had funded over the years, had a better chance at fairing better in life through education and self improvement. Resulting in citizens becoming more empowered, more equipped you could say, to tackle the trappings of poverty.

Being a rich man, Carnegie, would have had empathy for those living an impoverished life. He wasn't blind to poor people and their daily struggles, but alongside those struggles came people insecurities, anxieties, and wrongful perceptions, which often resulted in bigoted, bitter and prejudiced behaviour. Reading between the lines it seems this problem played on Carnegie's social conscience. Perhaps he could visualise a fairer society coming about through helping people to help themselves. The way to do it was to open up opportunity for people to improve their mental ability to enable them, in turn, to debate problems arising in their communities at an intellectual level in order to solve them. 

It was through the provision of academic and community education, that Carnegie's projects aided people to acquire the ability to learn and gain a better impression as to why some political ideas and theories had collapsed and why others were deemed as a success for example. To identify where mistakes and successes had been made in the past. To understand why mistakes and noteable successes happened the way they had done. For sure, Carnegie, wanted people to be more mind-enhanced educationally in order to understand better, and to make good judgements and wiser decisions. His aim was to help empower people through the acquisition of knowledge based information. Maybe he hoped and wished for people to gain the ability to balance their opinions through informed thinking and then to use it in effective ways, and, ultimately, see societies be improved by the efforts and the input of the people themselves.

Carnegie Hall (A concert venue) New York City  built by Andrew Carnegie
Image Source: https://www.newyorkpass.com

It has been well documented the many great philanthropist gestures and moves Carnegie made in his lifetime, and his strong views on the rich and what they should do with their wealth. Nevertheless, it is the 'immeasurable' many that he probably helped the most. - those people with the inquiring minds and a thirst for embetterment. 

Yesterday (Sunday 11th August) BBC Radio 4 marked the centenary of Carnegie's death by exploring The Gospel of Wealth pamphlet, an article Carnegie set out. Ex British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown (a UN Special Envoy on Global Education) asks why Education is, arguably, no longer viewed as the most important means of addressing the world's challenges - a principle Carnegie so strongly believed in. Brown presents a strong case in saying how relevant it seems to be in modern times to reinvigorate what Carnegie stood for.