Volunteerism
by Chris on Feb.27, 2008, under Rants
Volunteerism is one of those interesting ‘isms’. It’s probably one of the most well-regarded ‘isms’ by more people, but I admit that much like my reaction to charity, I have a decidedly contrary view of this practice.
And, it appears, I’m not the only one. Here’s “To Hell with Good Intentions by Ivan Illich,” a transcript of a speech given in 1968 to a volunteer organization. I came across this by way of, as always, Metafilter, where a discussion on the validity of volunteering was taking place. This was spurred by an interesting article decrying modern celebrity aid programs as development porn and calling out volunteerism as paternalistic behaviour… which is how I have always sort of felt.
Poke about. It’s a good debate.
