Strangers Drowning

Strangers Drowning: Grappling With Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Overpowering Urge to Help is a non-fiction book by Larissa MacFarquhar about the stories of extreme altruists – what MacFarquhar calls “do-gooders,” who go far beyond the typical range of expectation or desire to help others, many of them relative or complete strangers. Through a series of profiles of individuals who have gone above and beyond what a typical person would call necessary or even rational, MacFarquhar examines what drives these do-gooders to behave as they do, and why others reject them as crack-pots, religious junkies, or madmen rather than looking at how these behaviors make them question choices in their own lives.

MacFarquhar, a writer for The New Yorker, begins with an investigation of a number of people who are, as she notes, utilitarian in their mindset and have a strong desire to do good in the world. The combination of these traits means that the people MacFarquhar profiles are more intensive in their charity than most – they see their lives as series of utilitarian choices, where they are striving to do the most good for the highest number of people. Unfortunately, this leads to many ambiguous moral and ethical questions about the choices they've made, and we continue to make. It also doesn't necessarily lead to happiness for anyone, particularly not the do-gooders themselves.

MacFarquhar interviews subjects with a wide variety of causes or charities to which they have dedicated their lives. One couple, for instance, has adopted twenty orphaned children, despite the fact that they aren't particularly wealthy. Many of these children have profound disabilities; their care and the money it costs to raise them is much higher than for an able-bodied or neurotypical child. A number of people donate their organs, including important organs like kidneys and pieces of the liver, to those in need – not someone they know, but complete strangers who are on long organ donor lists. When asked why they decided to donate their organs, the people who had undergone the surgery typically said they just felt like it was something they ought to do. One couple started a leper colony for the sick in India who had been ostracized by the people around them for fear of contagion. Other people have strict principles about what it means to give to charity – they give everything they can to those who need it more, even if it means eating out of dumpsters or going without food for a night.



In between profiles of these extreme do-gooders, MacFarquhar provides interludes in which she examines how people like this – altruists – have been perceived over time by a number of moral and ethical philosophers, and in contemporary American society today. She quotes Kant, Nietzsche, Darwin, and others, most of whom remain relatively skeptical, if not downright critical, of those committed to the idea of moral uprightness or dedicating their lives to charity. MacFarquhar quotes Kant, who says, “It was fortunate that so few men acted according to moral principle, because it was so easy to get principles wrong, and a determined person acting on mistaken principles could really do some damage.”

Overall, despite the incredible work that many of these people have done, MacFarquhar remains skeptical of the choices they make. Partly, this is because some of those choices aren't as black and white as the do-gooders want to believe. For instance, she asks, is it better to get a job in the public sector doing good work that helps others but doesn't pay well, or to get a high-paying but not as ethically satisfying job where you make a lot of money that you can then donate to a wide variety of charities? The extremity of the situations in which the people in MacFarquhar's profiles find themselves also raises important questions for her and for readers. Is it really ethical, for instance, for two people to adopt twenty children with special needs, when they don't necessarily have the monetary or emotional resources to take care of all of those children the way, say, one parent could have if they had remained in a foster home or adoption agency?

Overall, MacFarquhar's book is not only a book of profiles but also a book of moral questions, portrayed by those who have made contradictory choices. The challenge is to determine where one stands in these tough moral dilemmas, and to reflect on one’s own choices, desires, and how to do good without acquiring the reputation of being a do-gooder.