dougs digs

once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right

5.01.2005

Voluntary Work





Voluntary Work

Dr. Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna
(aka - Che Guevara)

" At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality. "


Our goal is that the individual feels the need to perform voluntary labor out of internal motivation, as well as because of the social atmosphere that exists. The two must go hand in hand. The atmosphere should help the individual feel the need to do voluntary work. But if it is simply the atmosphere, if it is simply moral pressure, then this just perpetuates what is known, for better or worse, as the alienation of man. Because then voluntary work is no longer something that comes from within oneself, something new, something done freely and no longer as a slave to work.

As we enter a new society, work cannot be considered the dark side of life but rather the opposite. Our educational task in the coming years is to transform work into a moral necessity, an internal necessity. We have to rid ourselves of the erroneous view—appropriate only to a society based on exploitation—that work is a disagreeable human necessity. We have to bring out work’s other aspect, as a human necessity within each individual.

Thoughts for May Day, when workers of the world still unite.

Source: Ernesto “Che” Guevara, from "Economics and Politics in the Transition to Socialism"


|| doug, 10:55

3 Comments:

Yeah, but he also wrote this--

"Hatred (is) an element of the struggle, a relentless hatred, impelling us over and beyond the natural limitations that man is heir to and transforming him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold killing machine. Our soldiers must be thus; a people without hatred cannot vanquish a brutal enemy. We must carry the war into every corner the enemy happens to carry it: to his home, to his centres of entertainment; a total war."
--'Message to the Tricontinental'

I don't see how the two messages can coexist.

Paul.
Anonymous Anonymous, at 2/5/05 10:37  
Paul -

No doubt, Che "lived and died by the sword".
However, does that mean he was void of love and ethics ?

The same question could be justifiably asked of "Christian" leaders both past and present who have espoused to a moral code that clearly denounces violence and murder, yet hypocritically have the blood of thousands if not millions on their hands.

Che was not a saint by any stretch of the imagination, possibly was more of a mad man. Did he 'do good' while 'doing bad' . . . history would say yes. Can the same be said of the aforementioned "Christian" leaders . . . some yes and the verdicts are still out on others.

Interesting (and confusing) dichotomy, thanks for putting it out there.

Be Well,
Doug
Blogger doug, at 2/5/05 17:11  
"Did he 'do good' while 'doing bad'?"

I'm trying to get my thoughts around this one. Do you think that God puts us in circumstances where we will fail no matter what choice we make?

Concerning Che: There was good that he did. We cared for the poor, working in several lepar colonies and was a doctor who healed people. But, there was a point where his idealogy forced him to make a choice of paths. He said he was in the mountains of Cuba and had a backpack full of medical supplies and a box of ammunition and couldn't carry both. He chose the ammunition. I think that was a turning point in his life that he never returned from. What's the point for our lives? We can't let our actions go against our beliefs even in support of our beliefs.

Ever seen 'The Mission'?

Paul.
Anonymous Anonymous, at 3/5/05 09:44  

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