Received: from sobek.Colorado.EDU (sobek.Colorado.EDU [128.138.151.62]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.7.6/8.7.3/CNS-4.0p) with ESMTP id QAA06309 for ; Mon, 21 Apr 1997 16:27:40 -0600 (MDT) Received: (from bjohnson@localhost) by sobek.Colorado.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5/Unixops/Hesiod/(SDM)) id QAA28596; Mon, 21 Apr 1997 16:27:38 -0600 (MDT) Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 16:27:38 -0600 (MDT) From: Johnson Brett Edward To: sociology grad students Subject: Solve the world's problems by getting rid of community service! Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Last weekend when I was in Hellems Hall I found a very disturbing flier. It was put out by the "Coalition of students against servitude". They are a group of college students inspired by the writings of Ayn Rand who are morally OPPOSED to community service. They feel that it is wrong to try to create a sense of duty to help other people. They feel that altruism is the state of being a parasite--you benefit from other people's suffering. Selfish behavior is considered productive, creative behavior. The group is outraged about Clinton's "Service Summit" in Philadelphia on April 27-29. There are especially outraged at Maryland's mandatory community service requirement to graduate from high school. Well, it looks like Durkheim hit the nail on the head when he feared the evolving condition of the individual in modern society. This is egoism at its extreme. [Un]fortunately I'll be able to use this in my class on the self in modern society. Here are some quotes from the flier taken from "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand: "I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life....No matter who makes the claim, how large their number or how great their need." "But the man who enslaves himself voluntarily [a community servant] in the name of love is the basest of creatures." You can also get more information about this national group at: http://www.aynrand.org/no_servitude brett johnson univ of colorado-boulder "It's so easy to laugh, it's so easy to hate; but it takes strength to be gentle and kind." morrissey