People complained about how the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) had said they were trying not to be like the “government of Effective Altruism” but then they kept acting exactly like they were the Government of EA for years and years.
Yet that’s wrong. The CEA was more like the police force of effective altruism. The de facto government of effective altruism was for the longest time, maybe from 2014-2020, Good Ventures/Open Philanthropy. All of that changed with the rise of FTX. All of that changed again with the fall of FTX.
I’ve put everything above in the past tense because that was the state of things before 2022. There’s no such thing as a “government of effective altruism” anymore, regardless of whether anyone wants one or not. Neither the CEA, Open Philanthropy, nor Good Ventures could fill that role, regardless of whether anyone would want it or not.
We can’t go back. We can only go forward. There is no backup plan anyone in effective altruism had waiting in the wings to roll out in case of a movement-wide leadership crisis. It’s just us. It’s just you. It’s just me. It’s just left to everyone who is still sticking around in this movement together. We only have each other.
People complained about how the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) had said they were trying not to be like the “government of Effective Altruism” but then they kept acting exactly like they were the Government of EA for years and years.
Yet that’s wrong. The CEA was more like the police force of effective altruism. The de facto government of effective altruism was for the longest time, maybe from 2014-2020, Good Ventures/Open Philanthropy. All of that changed with the rise of FTX. All of that changed again with the fall of FTX.
I’ve put everything above in the past tense because that was the state of things before 2022. There’s no such thing as a “government of effective altruism” anymore, regardless of whether anyone wants one or not. Neither the CEA, Open Philanthropy, nor Good Ventures could fill that role, regardless of whether anyone would want it or not.
We can’t go back. We can only go forward. There is no backup plan anyone in effective altruism had waiting in the wings to roll out in case of a movement-wide leadership crisis. It’s just us. It’s just you. It’s just me. It’s just left to everyone who is still sticking around in this movement together. We only have each other.