“To Hell with Good Intentions”
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“To Hell with Good Intentions” by Ivan Illich
The author examines in depth problems with any volunteer work, especially of that which is based internationally. He clearly outlines the main difficulties you may encounter when doing national and international volunteering. It begins with a very personal approach, he clearly doesn’t think that it is a very good idea for North Americans to volunteer in Latin America, due to the lack of ability to communicate properly. Volunteering may seem a good idea at the time but can after all do more harm than good in some certain situations and also you may come across people who are not be great full for any assistance.
I think that the author is trying to make younger people, especially students, more aware of the difficulties that would be a head of them when they go to foreign countries to do voluntry work, but he is not saying not to do this type of work but possibly do it somewhere where you can speak the language, somewhere closer to home. At the end of the article/speech is a powerful statement saying that they would welcome people to go to such an area like Latin American for recreational activities, but not to do volunteer work as they would do more harm than good.
One of the main problems in this piece of work is that this was written in in 1968 in comparison todays world and circumstances and changed. Parts of the speech are outdated and should be looked at in the historic context of that year. It is also written in a personal style and it come across as though it was written in a personal experience and it is a bit discouraging for those who want to go an do these activities.
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You do a good job at the
You do a good job at the individual level but miss the structural.
you say
I think that the author is trying to make younger people, especially students, more aware of the difficulties that would be a head of them when they go to foreign countries to do voluntry work, but he is not saying not to do this type of work but possibly do it somewhere where you can speak the language, somewhere closer to home.
You have missed the political overtones. This is significant. You point out that this was written in 1968. What was going on in Latin America in 1968 that may have inclined Illich to encourage well intentioned and likely unwitting missionaries for the United States to turn around and go home?
Saying that an article is old is inadequate. Freire is old, Dewey is old, Christ is old. You need to state how the context has changed such that the argument made has different relevance. What is there in this article, specifically, that ties it so firmly to a previous generation that you need not pay it heed?
How is the rhetorical style troubling given that you know it was delivered to a bunch of peace corps volunteers on their way into Mexico?
I expect a deeper level of analysis here.