Book review: Strangers Drowning
by Vesa Hautala.
Strangers Drowning by Larissa MacFarquhar is a book about people who go to extraordinary lengths to be altruistic. The book presents the stories of nine ”do-gooders”, a term which MacFarquhar uses ”because in a literal sense that best describes what they are”, but also to draw attention to and to hopefully disarm the dismissiveness associated with the term. The stories are punctuated by essayistic interludes that examine reactions to the phenomenon of (extreme) altruism. There is obviously a lot of overlap with both Christianity and Effective Altruism. Some of the do-gooders in the book are involved with the EA movement and some are religious, but none of them are currently both.
Stories of Extraordinary Altruists
MacFarquhar’s subjects come from diverse backgrounds and engage in a wide variety of altruistic activities.
Dorothy Granada works on women’s health in Nicaragua.
EA Aaron Pitkin (some of the names are pseudonyms) advocates for farm animal welfare.
Julia Wise and her husband donate a large share of their income and Julia switched from social work to working in EA.
Baba Amte founded a sanctuary for lepers in India and his son Prakash brought healthcare to an isolated tribal group living in central Indian jungles.
Kimberly Brown-Whale braved many dangers as a missionary, set up homeless ministry in her church in the US, and donated one of her kidneys.
Ittetsu Nemoto is a Buddhist priest specialising in suicide prevention.
Paul Wagner donated a kidney to a stranger.
Susan and Hector Badeau adopted 20 children to provide a home for children born with disabilities abroad or stuck in the foster care system in the US, inspired in part by their faith in God.
Stephanie Wykstra worked in EA and lost her faith in unlimited altruism.
The stories are obviously inspiring. Even from an EA perspective where we are used to a high level of commitment and altruism, some of these stories are remarkable. The “do-gooders” display almost superhuman levels of selflessness, dedication, and care. They show what human beings can be capable of once we really set our sights on helping others and are willing to put our own comfort aside.
The Challenges of Extreme Altruism
Still, the book was a somewhat uncomfortable reading experience for me. Partly this was because many of the people appearing in the book have gone through gruelling and dark things. But partly it was because some of them went to unhealthy physical or psychological extremes.
Aaron Pitkin tried to cut his sleep to 3-4 hours. To keep himself alert and to get exercise without sacrificing work time, he walked on a treadmill while working, tethered in place with elastic chords.
Stephanie Wykstra’s husband Geoff was working to develop ways to create the ideal world from first principles and let Stephanie know that he thought her work at GiveWell was nice but not impactful enough.
In her earlier years, Julia Wise had a breakdown about a four-dollar candy apple depriving others of an anti-malaria bednet and had to wrestle with herself about whether she was allowed to have children (though she has gotten into a much better headspace since then). There were also many examples of other kinds of strained relationships.
It felt like the interludes leaned on the discomfort by exploring various criticisms of "do-gooders" that have been presented throughout the ages. In the 18th century, Bernard Mandeville became famous for claiming altruism was a relic from the past in a new economy where selfishness was the force generating progress and prosperity. In the 1960’s, biologist George C. Williams concluded that morality was a random accident of evolution. Psychoanalysts of the mid-20th century found the psychological roots of altruism suspect, and so on. On one hand, it was very strange to read about people criticising something so obviously good and wholesome as looking out for the welfare of others beyond your close ones. But on the other hand, against the backdrop of the stories, it was very hard to escape the conclusions that there indeed are pathological forms of altruism. Perhaps EAs are not always so aware of this; at least I don’t recall seeing much discussion about it in the EA community, even though there’s lots of discussion about EAs having burnouts and mental health issues.
Despite these darker elements, it was humbling to read the book as a Christian because it shows many non-Christians doing things that resonate deeply with the very core of Christian ethics, love for our neighbour. Perhaps stories like those in MacFarquhar’s book can spur Christians into taking the radical altruism built into their tradition more seriously.
Christian Reflections on Radical Altruism
I believe Christianity also has something to offer for radical do-gooders. EA, and other movements promoting significant altruistic action, can become all-consuming when they are the primary source of meaning in a person’s life. This can result in, for example, neglecting close relationships, as in some of the stories in Strangers Drowning. It is possible to do a lot of altruistic things, even effective ones, and at the same time be a really bad person from a Christian perspective – unforgiving, proud, unfaithful, abusive etc. Anchoring do-gooders in a wider worldview that has other sources of meaning and other moral content besides the do-gooding, such as obligations to family, may help in preventing some of this, even if it’s not a cure-all – after all, Christian have also been guilty of similar things despite their moral views. In addition, Christianity has a long history of managing extreme altruism communally. People selling their possessions and giving the proceeds to the poor, for example, happened in a community setting in the Jerusalem church in Acts 2, and later some radical altruism was channelled into monastic communities.
In the end, I was left wondering about stories of Christian EAs. Although the book presents the stories of diverse individuals who engage in various forms of altruism, none of them were both Christians and involved in the EA movement at the same time. This made me wonder how stories of Christian EAs would have been portrayed in the book. EACH has been publishing stories of Christian EAs, but it would be interesting to see how they would have been depicted by MacFarquhar.