As the evening draws in on one’s life, thoughts inevitably turn to what it has all meant, what is next and also how one will be remembered. Politicians, business tycoons, and celebrities all fret over their reputations and for what, if anything they can do about it.
For some, the climb up the greasy pole has left a large number of envious enemies waiting to see them fall from grace. Others spend a great effort trying to ensure that they will leave a great legacy and be remembered for all the good that they did.
There are three standard ‘solutions’ to the problem of death and immortality. The first is religion. There are many possible brand choices with a variety of, albeit rather vague, promises of eternal life. Some say you return to this world, others hold the promise of paradise. Some still talk of hell-fire and damnation. Some are more clear than others about eternal life. Most suggest that the world is a relatively just place and that you will be remembered for all that you have done: both good and bad.
The religion solution also seems to have some costs. It is not good enough, it seems, on one’s death bed to renounce the materialism, selfishness and hedonism that have characterised one’s life up to that point. Also this metaphysical solution speaks little to one’s legacy.
The second is genetic. By having children one can guarantee the survival of some genes is guaranteed. Further, children can be shaped from an early age to share their parent’s values, vision and virtues. The next best thing is to form a tight family unit, hoping that the wider clan will protect one’s legacy.
Many a business person will describe the folly of this approach. You roll the dice with children. All parents “believe” in genetics for their first child, but give up the idea when the second one appears so different. It is very rare that family businesses last more than three generations. Relatives fall out with each other. As has been observed “God gave us our friends and the Devil our relations”.
In fact, given the number of ‘confessional books’ around and the number of repressed memory court cases it may seem that children are a distinct handicap, not only in not following the parental path but also in protecting one’s memory.
So that leaves the third solution. This is legacy management before death, hoping to cheat the grim reaper’s ability to induce amnesia in the living. Politicians agonise about how to do this as do enormously successful business people who have time and money to spare after they have put all their affairs in order.
First there is the book. We know history is written by victors. For some, e.g. Prime Ministers and Presidents, it is not only a course requirement but also a very serious source of income. It is so important to some politicians that they start writing in effect, the day they are elected. They remember well the old saying: you keep a diary and later it keeps you.
Hence the self-serving, egotistical and one-sided nature of hagiographic autobiographies. History is written by the victors; though with some autobiographies it is a matter of very selective facts are recorded by ghost writers.
Business people, even if relatively famous, are not always so lucky with their published works. Unless they appear on television a great deal, fewer people will buy the thoughts and life of the CEO of Acme Widgets, however much money was made.
The book solution is too daunting for many who cannot really write. The ghost-written solution sometimes works but the whole thing seems bland. It’s no wonder then that second hand shops are so full of very dull, hardly read, never reprinted books of the great and the good from the past.
Next there is architecture. You can build a monument to oneself. It worked for Christopher Wren and Gustave Eiffel . But even iconic buildings can be pulled down and blown up. The building approach also takes a lot of money too. Also often it guarantees little more than the memory of a name, let alone what the person believed in or stood for.
What about the scholarship fund? AKA Rhodes Scholarships, Nobel Prize Winners, Templeton prize winners. Or you can lend your name and money to charitable institutions. Leonard Cheshire Homes, McMillan nurses. This is perhaps the preferred solution of the super-rich. Bill gates, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffet have chosen this method. What do they have in common? A lot of money.
But even this method is not immune to fashion. Some universities still have great problems with scholarships to be awarded to the “top woman student”. Times and fashions change: the legacy becomes an embarrassment.
How about the endowed chair in a university? Or better a whole business school named after one. This is getting more populat, where even the most obscure business school from “Nowhereville, Fly-Over State” University is endowed by the local entrepreneurs who did well. An expensive option. What if all you can afford is an institution in the bottom division?
Perhaps there is a paradox or even a parable in this whole issue. The harder you try to ensure your legacy the less successful you will be. People will smell a rat; suspect manipulation. The bad news is what you should have learnt in Sunday School. It is only a long virtuous and selfless life that guarantees a just reputational reward. Alas that is not totally true either.
Best then to live in the present and not attempt to shape the future.