"Volunteer" Hours

[Guest]

Community service hours are now often required to graduate. They are ironically called "volunteer" hours as if the students are being given a choice. I have no problem with volunteer work but this is bullshit. It's just another way for the State to mold students into "good citizens."

It's like how governments and schools don't allow certain opinions. At my school it's a rule that you have to respect everybodies opinion. That's a load of crap. If you want to deny other's freedom then I will blatantly tell you that your opinion is fucking stupid and you should be horsewhipped for being such an idiot. I was reading this article by a conservative and I actually agreed with part of it. It said that liberals are idiots because they base every decision on whether or not it is nice or not to do it to somebody. I disagree with that sentiment in general but it certainly does apply to how the State wants us to behave. "Don't talk to that person that way, it's not nice." or "How dare you deny the suffering of the Holocaust! Shame on you, you bad person."

Volunteer hours are just an extension of the desire to mold students into good, obedient citizens. Like I said, I have no problem with volunteering. I do have a problem when an agent of the government tries to change people by ordering them around. Forcing students to do community service justs cuts into already dwindling free time. It's bad enough that students have to deal with school, they also have to deal with school taking over their free time. It used to be just homework but for the last decade or so, most students have had to do community service. I have to do forty hours which isn't that much but it's still forty hours too much.

[Happy Camper]

While I like to volunteer, I refused to give my vounteer hours to my schoo, insistent that it was ridiculous. 100% agreed there.

Regarding the whole being nice thing, that's a pretty accurate point. While I like people to generally respect each other and get along and such, I have encountered the problem lately of people not accepting "tough love" anymore. Personally, I wish I got more tough love as a kid. Now when I'm pretty sure it's what someone else needs and I call it how I see it, people act like I'm being a bitch when really I'm just not willing to give them a bullshit answer. It's like honesty isn't appropriate these days, you have to somehow fudge your answer in order to not offend people. Then we wonder why people get offended so easily. That's how it works these days.

[Bob Dole]

Just volunteer for some group that most people won't agree with.

[Will]

I completely agree with everything that Kirby and Happy Camper just said, but I want to add that the conspiracy behind schooling probably isn't conscious anymore. (I read about this somewhere else.) At this point people are just going along with the school system because it's expected, normal and proper. School seems a lot like a hazing to me.

FightforRight Wrote:Just volunteer for some group that most people won't agree with.

That is such a good idea! I want to try that now!

[Guest]

I agree that there is no conspiracy to create people that are good for the economy but you can't deny that people are trying to create good citizens. There is no conscious attempt to deny freedoms or anything it's just a byproduct of trying to get people to follow laws and authority. For us who are radical this is bad because we have certain... opinions about authority and law. For most people though law and authority is mostly a good thing.

I'm either going to do what FightforRight suggested or just fake the whole thing. I'd do it this year and even if they found out, I still have grade 12. Seriously, what are they going to do? Give me detention?

[modest mouse]

FightforRight Wrote:Just volunteer for some group that most people won't agree with.

Why?

[Bob Dole]

It's protesting the forced volunteering and helping out a cause that you care about at the same time. Do service hours for some anarchist group, or NYRA. Something like that. It's kinda a "taking an unfair law and shoving that law up it's own ass" approach. I got the idea from Jesus.

[thoughtmaker]

"shoving that law up its own ass." that made me lol

i often point out the contradiction in terms when somebody says 'volunteer' hours. i usually get this kind of response: uhhh durrr, just do it anyways. i wish they would just call it what it is, free, forced labor. hell, from their perspective, it is a pretty sweet deal. got some shit need doing? just get the teenagers to do it. if we tell them it's compulsory, they'll do it for free!

another thing that pisses me off is that everywhere i turn, people tell me, "respect authority, respect authority" why the hell should i? oh please tell me why i should respect someone who, because of their 'status', think they are above me and can tell me what to do? the day they start respecting me, is the day when i'll do the same back. they don't have to believe i'm their equal, but they should treat me like it. it's called tolerance. we have it for every race and religion you can think of, but when it comes to age, they can piss on whomever they like.

and yes, school is just to churn out 'better' citizens, but it's not the only thing that does. our whole society does it. think for a moment, that school never existed. grades were no longer relevant to getting a job, and we spent our youth the way wanted. we'd still have the government breathing down our necks and being 'nice' would still be a part of every day life. people would still conform like they have always done. does anyone want to work? sure maybe if you're lucky you enjoy you're job, but wouldn't you still like to do it on your own time? for the majority though, work is just another of life's big shits it decides to dump on you. people waste their lives in offices and for what? money? yes that is reason, but it stems from a much bigger problem. people are too afraid to live the way they want. they are afraid of leaving the majority. for the most part, they have good reason to be scared. the world as it is, is becoming one where money and status are more important than happiness (wait, it already is) and if one tries to live to be happily, he either ends up ridiculed, or starves to death.

one man cannot do much. it is like someone fighting for hitler. that soldier does not agree with what is happening, but what can he do? on one hand, he can risk telling others how he feels in the hopes of maybe recruiting people to rise up against hitler, but because he knows he is afraid, he also knows the others will be afraid. they will most likely rat him out. his other option is to sit back and watch the murdering of countless people.

in the end, to change the world you must change the world and in our lifetimes, it will probably be a lose-lose situation.

sorry went off on a bit o' a rant there.

[Cosbydaf]

"Required volunteering?" WTF?

That's almost as bad as the "mandatory privilege"!

They don't even try to hide that it's bullcrap anymore, do they?

[Rebelnerd]

seriously. you know society's fucked when schools make you do something that is often used as a punishment for misdemeaners. next we'll probably have school chain gangs...

[SoulRiser]

Happy Camper Wrote:It's like honesty isn't appropriate these days, you have to somehow fudge your answer in order to not offend people. Then we wonder why people get offended so easily.

I hate to admit it, but I do that a lot to try and avoid pissing people off. I mainly do it because I suck at arguments, so I prefer to avoid them. But I need to snap out of that...

But at least I have a reputation for being sarcastic, so I can often get away with telling people the blatant truth right to their faces. And they think I'm joking

[Will]

Kirby Wrote:I agree that there is no conspiracy to create people that are good for the economy but you can't deny that people are trying to create good citizens. There is no conscious attempt to deny freedoms or anything it's just a byproduct of trying to get people to follow laws and authority. For us who are radical this is bad because we have certain... opinions about authority and law. For most people though law and authority is mostly a good thing.

I'm either going to do what FightforRight suggested or just fake the whole thing. I'd do it this year and even if they found out, I still have grade 12. Seriously, what are they going to do? Give me detention?

I can arrange some volunteer work with the Intergalactic Awesomeness Association.

Happy Camper Wrote:It's like honesty isn't appropriate these days, you have to somehow fudge your answer in order to not offend people. Then we wonder why people get offended so easily. That's how it works these days.

I see you have also read On Bullshit. (For people who haven't read it, it starts out with a definition of "bullshit" and then examines society's acceptance of bullshitting.)

[Dark Soul X]

Kirby Wrote:Community service hours are now often required to graduate. They are ironically called "volunteer" hours as if the students are being given a choice. I have no problem with volunteer work but this is bullshit. It's just another way for the State to mold students into "good citizens."

It's like how governments and schools don't allow certain opinions. At my school it's a rule that you have to respect everybodies opinion. That's a load of crap. If you want to deny other's freedom then I will blatantly tell you that your opinion is fucking stupid and you should be horsewhipped for being such an idiot. I was reading this article by a conservative and I actually agreed with part of it. It said that liberals are idiots because they base every decision on whether or not it is nice or not to do it to somebody. I disagree with that sentiment in general but it certainly does apply to how the State wants us to behave. "Don't talk to that person that way, it's not nice." or "How dare you deny the suffering of the Holocaust! Shame on you, you bad person."

Volunteer hours are just an extension of the desire to mold students into good, obedient citizens. Like I said, I have no problem with volunteering. I do have a problem when an agent of the government tries to change people by ordering them around. Forcing students to do community service justs cuts into already dwindling free time. It's bad enough that students have to deal with school, they also have to deal with school taking over their free time. It used to be just homework but for the last decade or so, most students have had to do community service. I have to do forty hours which isn't that much but it's still forty hours too much.

BULLSHEYIT!

[haza]

i agree our school always trys to do that to and waist our outside hours but everyone makes up an exques not to do it

[Eidolon]

haza Wrote:i agree our school always trys to do that to and waist our outside hours but everyone makes up an exques not to do it

I just don't do it.

[Dark Soul X]

Eidolon Wrote:

haza Wrote:i agree our school always trys to do that to and waist our outside hours but everyone makes up an exques not to do it

I just don't do it.

They have a saturday school "academy" at my school. I never go.

[haza]

lol my friend jsut said im not prepared to volounteer and it SHUT the principal down so bad then she said you have to do it. and he said only if you call it enslavery hours

[BlackMita]

I’m just going to ask someone nice if they can write down I have 40+ hours. That’s what a lot of the less “academic” at my school do. I only have 3 hrs recorded now, and I’m in grade 12… I don’t have the time to finish. Community hours are a damn nuisance.

Hello btw (I just joined this forum).

[Happy Camper]

wsgosset Wrote:

Happy Camper Wrote:It's like honesty isn't appropriate these days, you have to somehow fudge your answer in order to not offend people. Then we wonder why people get offended so easily. That's how it works these days.

I see you have also read On Bullshit. (For people who haven't read it, it starts out with a definition of "bullshit" and then examines society's acceptance of bullshitting.)

Good call, I have read that.

I'm guilty of bullshit as well SoulRiser. I have to make a really conscious attempt to tell the truth and it's only because bullshit has got me in so much trouble lately that I've seen the consequences and I'm trying to break the habit.

I fixed the quote -wsgosset

[Will]

BlackMita Wrote:I’m just going to ask someone nice if they can write down I have 40+ hours. That’s what a lot of the less “academic” at my school do. I only have 3 hrs recorded now, and I’m in grade 12… I don’t have the time to finish. Community hours are a damn nuisance.

Hello btw (I just joined this forum).

Do you want to do some work (or just some "work") for the Intergalactic Awesomeness Association?