Adding on to my previous thought bubble, this is a good read for those of you interested in volunteerism. I don’t agree or disagree, but the address is thought-provoking and definitely heated.
To Hell with Good Intentions - by Ivan Illich
Some passages I found most interesting:
You are ultimately-consciously or unconsciously - “salesmen” for a delusive ballet in the ideas of democracy, equal opportunity and free enterprise among people who haven’t the possibility of profiting from these.
All you will do in a Mexican village is create disorder. At best, you can try to convince Meixcan girls that they should marry a young man who is self-made, rich, a consumer, and as disrespectful of tradition as one of you. At worst, in your “community development” spirit you might create just enough problems to get someone shot after your vacation ends and you rush back to your middleclass neighborhoods where your friends make jokes about “spits” and “wetbacks.”
Suppose you went to a U.S. ghetto this summer and tried to help the poor there “help themselves.” Very soon you would be either spit upon or laughed at. People offended by your pretentiousness would hit or spit. People who understand that your own bad consciences push you to this gesture would laugh condescendingly. Soon you would be made aware of your irrelevance among the poor, of your status as middle-class college students on a summer assignment. You would be roundly rejected, no matter if your skin is white-as most of your faces here are-or brown or black, as a few exceptions who got in here somehow.
Come to look, come to climb our mountains, to enjoy our flowers. Come to study. But do not come to help.
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