Volunteer-style charity work forfeits the power to define public issues
Evidence
The *‘thousand points of light”-style volunteer, in contrast, simply tries to fix predefined social problems, and coolly avoids seizing the power to define political issues. The potential power generated in the friction of the public sphere is absent from a ”thousand points of light” volunteer-style involvement. This is a cultural kind of power, the power to open up public contexts for citizens to question, challenge, debate; the power to become a different kind of person, to create new meanings and ask new questions; to inspire. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 137
Categorization
- XREF: Distinguishes problem-fixing from polity-defining authority — connects to Annihilation of Caste notes on charity theatre displacing structural change. — connects to: Volunteer groups lack respect for open-ended discussion of unresolved issues — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 221; Even politically engaged volunteer groups avoid discussing the substance of public issues — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 213; Charity’s ethical immediacy suspends politics and systemic change — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 34 (+8 more)
- ADDENDUM: Relevant to my sacrifice reading: small benevolent acts can displace rather than enable the power to set public questions.
Broader Connections
- Volunteer groups lack respect for open-ended discussion of unresolved issues
#expands(0.92) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 221 - Even politically engaged volunteer groups avoid discussing the substance of public issues
#expands(0.90) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 213 - Charity’s ethical immediacy suspends politics and systemic change
#expands(0.90) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 34 - Volunteers themselves restrict political talk to preserve their civic faith
#expands(0.86) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 192 - Volunteers spontaneously raised environmental and racial concerns rather than avoiding them
#contradicts(0.85) — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”, 64 - Volunteers suppress political talk because it would sink their feeling of empowerment
#expands(0.85) - Volunteer groups suppress politically troubling topics to protect group cheer
#expands(0.85) — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”, 96 - Volunteers silence political problems to keep the empowering feeling alive
#expands(0.84) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 182 - Volunteer groups suppress political talk even though members privately care
#expands(0.82) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 192 - Volunteering correlates with political engagement, not alienation
#contradicts(0.80) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 432 - A folk theory that talk changes nothing underwrites civic apathy in volunteer groups
#complicates(0.75) — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”, 93