September 25, 2010 7:08 AM

No good deed goes unpunished, eh?

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.

  • Buddha

I know nothing about Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. I care even less. He’s a fabulously wealthy 26-year-old who was smart enough to turn an idea into something that 500 million people use. Good on him. He’s already made more money than most mere mortals can conceive of. This being America, we just LOVE to see people fall from their self-created pedestal…and so the process of trying to bring down Zuckerberg has already begun in earnest.

If you listen to news reports, Zuckerberg is either a brilliant wunderkind, a savvy and tech-wise marketing genius, or Evil Incarnate. Every move, every utterance, and every thought is parsed to the Nth degree for significance and meaning. It’s silly, it’s pointless…but it’s oh-so-American, isn’t it?

On Wednesday, it was announced that Zuckerberg plans to donate $100 million to public schools in Newark, NJ. At first blush, this should be cause for celebration, a scion of business tapping into his sense of social responsibility (and his bank account) and giving back. Hey, $100 million will buy a lot of history books and mystery meat, no?

Or is Zuckerberg REALLY being purely altruistic and charitable??

It certainly didn’t take long for the media sniping to begin. Earlier this week, I was treated to MSNBC’s Chris Jansing opining before she threw to a commercial, “ARE ZUCKERBERG’S MOTIVE REALLY ALTRUISTIC??” Right; perhaps his evil plan is to entice hot young New Jersey high school girls into becoming his sex slaves? Perhaps he wants to buy New Jersey and turn it into the world’s largest server farm? Or maybe he’s just a huge fan of Jersey Shore??

Look, I understand that Zuckerberg may be the very personification of Evil Incarnate. If he is, then I’m confident that in time he’ll be exposed, shamed, and exiled to Elba. For now, my only concern is with the $100 million dollars he’s giving to Newark’s schools. Why is that not cause for celebration in and of itself? Why must we look for the black lining in this cloud?

Why? Because we’re Americans, and we begin by assuming other Americans to be evil, selfish, and dismissive of others…perhaps because that’s what we would be doing if we were in Mark Zuckerberg’s shoes. It’s a pretty sad commentary on the state of our culture, eh? Truly, no good deed goes unpunished….

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on September 25, 2010 7:08 AM.

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