The Servant
Remen states that “Fixing and helping create a distance between people, but we cannot serve at a distance. We can only serve that to which we are profoundly connected.”
I think that Remen is trying to get people to understand that fixing and helping can actually be based on selfish intentions, whereas serving is whole-hearted and genuine. I can actually relate to this idea because in high school I was in student leadership and my senior year I SERVED as student body president. With the experience and skills that I have acquired over the years being in student leadership, this was the ultimate test for me. I read the book ‘The Servant’ which helped me to influence my fellow student leaders the ideals of service leadership. When in a leadership position or in any type of position that requires a great amount of responsibility, it is important to practice the art of service. With this mindset and way of life, all tasks have a deeper meaning and purpose and this is something that I had a hand in instilling to my fellow peers. Being a ‘servant’ is thinking about the bigger picture and how your service is impacting those around you as well as yourself and I believe this is what Remen is trying to get across to us. We must do things with purpose and if there is no purpose behind it, there is no use in doing it. Which brings me to Illich’s points….
“I do have deep faith in the enormous good will of the U.S. volunteer. However, his good faith can usually be explained only by an abysmal lack of intuitive delicacy. By definition, you cannot help being ultimately vacationing salesmen for the middle-class "American Way of Life," since that is really the only life you know.”
It is good to have good intentions and Illich does not doubt this. However, people who come to ‘help’ and ‘fix’ Mexican people who are in need of basic necessities or whatever it may be, does not signify that they understand and KNOW the Mexican people. Meaning, the lack of cultural sensitivity that these volunteers have is extremely insulting to Illich. Just because these Mexican people are struggling, doesn’t mean these volunteers understand exactly who they are and the experiences they have gone through and take that to ‘help fix them’ and ‘develop them’ as Illich has stated. This is where it all ties together.
These volunteers act like they KNOW exactly what these people need, but they do not. And in this way, it makes them look arrogant and even ignorant which is a result of their lack of cultural sensitivity. Serving others with the purpose of of understanding people and their needs instead of knowing that they need to ‘fix’ them is truly important to understand.
Connecting this back to the idea of discourse amongst people, I think that Illich is specifically talking about how these American volunteers do not respect their differences instead they are trying to instill this new culture and new values that they aren’t familiar with and making them think that these things will ‘fix’ and ‘help’ them, when in reality, it is not. The lack of respect of their differences relates to the idea of discourse. For example, the ideals that Donald Trump, a GOP candidate, is preaching about. How we should eliminate illegal immigrants and fear every person who is of Islamic descent is a perfect example. Mr. Trump does not respect the differences in culture. He is not here to SERVE others and make them better, but is here to ‘fix’ what is supposedly wrong and ‘help’ these people by sending them back to where they came. Mr. Trump is trying to control all these different peoples in belief that it will ‘fix’ our problems in our country and ‘help’ our country to thrive. No. It will not. (https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/immigration-reform)
What I also learned from the book “The Servant” was that authority is stronger than power. Authority is when people listen to you because they want to. They have the will to do the things that they are told to do because they believe that what they are doing has MEANING and has a PURPOSE. Serving others is genuine as opposed to ‘helping’ and ‘fixing’ can be draining and in the long run, people might eventually hate that they are doing a particular thing because there is not purpose behind it.
When there is no purpose in what you are doing, there is no point in doing it. People will have eventually lose motivation to do certain things because they are either just doing it, just for the sake of doing it or they ‘have’ to do it. When you are a servant to others, a servant leader in my case, you are drawn to the bigger picture. You are doing what you are doing for others and not for yourself and you know this because your attitude does not change. The burning passion in your heart and mind never goes away. And I have taken these lessons with me when I was in high school, up until now in my life in general. And I will take this with me to my community service partner as well as in my community. Also, you must always mean what you say and do what you say. You must understand and empathize when it comes to people. Think about how they are feeling in their current situation. Understanding the idea of what if I were in his or her shoes, how would I feel. I feel that people fail to do this at times and it is difficult to do. But with the sense of purpose, comes the understanding and they go hand in hand.
We also must be open to change and different perspectives. Always keeping an open mind because again, everyone is different. Everyone thinks and feels differently and we must be sensitive to this.
Serve with a purpose.
