Cet article examine comment les fondations philanthropiques assurent à la techno-élite Américaine les moyens essentiels pour leur poursuite de « l’immortalité symbolique » (Lifton et Olson 1974). Récemment on a vu beaucoup d’intérêt dans « l’industrie de l’immortalité » : la façon que la technogentsia poursuit l’immortalité à travers les technologies comme la pharmacologie radicale, le clonage de l’esprit (mindcloning), et même la cryogénie. Pour comprendre la façon dans laquelle la techno-élite du XXIe siècle poursuit l’immortalité symbolique, il faudrait porter notre attention à la philanthropie : c’est à travers l’établissement de leurs fondations philanthropiques que ce puissant groupe privilégié cherche à assurer la vie éternelle.
As anthropologists and psychologists have long observed, among the human species, there are many routes to pursuing immortality. In some societies this takes the form of bearing offspring to assure that the vitality of the lineage reproduces beyond one’s passing. In others, it involves religious beliefs in the hereafter. Communing with the natural world or participating in transcendent collective experiences can also provide human beings with the sense that some part of the self will endure beyond their biological termination. Generating creative works that stand the test of time, provides yet another pivotal means through which human beings extend their presence after life. And yet, perhaps because it seems so this-worldly and mundane, far less attention has been paid (pun intended), to how human beings strive for immortality through the financial donations they leave behind. This article explores how philanthropic foundations provide the techno-elite in the United States with a key means of pursuing “symbolic immortality” (Lifton and Olson 1974). Lately, there has been much interest in the “immortality industry” and the way the technogensia are pursuing immortality through technologies such as radical pharmacology, mindcloning, and even cryogenics. To understand the way the 21st century techno-elites are pursuing symbolic immortality, attention must be turned to philanthropy ; for one of the primary ways this powerful and privileged group seeks to ensure ever-lasting life is through the establishment of their philanthropic foundations. As such, in this essay, is explored how philanthropy- (the love of mankind), and immortality (the desire to live for forever) are becoming ever more imbricated in the politics of life and death in 21st century America.
