considering the years people have been volunteering yet most problems have only worsened why seek activism?

Question

consider all of the programs,civic groups,etc all clammering to do this or that for the past 100 years yet what really has been accomplished-not much.
It certainly does nothing at the end of the day for you.

yes I too had noble do good intentions as a volunteer probation officer working with in troubled youth,and in the many other civic groups I would become involved in over the past 35 years.
I would encounter those much older than I who had done likewise many years before me,and who had come to the same conclusion-its all in vain.

Answer 1

Well, if people stopped all together helping others, can you imagine what kind of state we would be in then? Kinda scary. And when people volunteer, they don't do it for themselves, they do it to help others.

Answer 2

I agree with you. However, you should not take the full blame upon yourself for the failures of the system. Activism is a good thing and does help, but you can't change things in any kind of significant way until the people at the top fix the loop holes in the system. And they are not about to do that on their own exertion.

We have the tools at hand to make the system work the way that it was first designed to, before big-business and organized religion hijacked American values. Work to bring truth and honesty to the business and political world, and rid ourselves completely of organized religion, and the world will work better for us all, in my opinion.

Answer 3

Sooooooo much has been accomplished in the last 100 years, just in the USA alone, and much of it has been accomplished through the tireless work of volunteers and community activists:
-- most women don't die in childbirth (which was NOT the case even 100 years ago).
-- the number of deaths in infancy in the last 100 years has been cut hugely.
-- the number of sweatshops in the USA has been reduced dramatically since the Industrial Revolution.
-- while racial discrimination certainly still exists, slavery has ended, black people don't have to sit in the back of the bus in the South and there are no more lynchings.
-- the number of people who die from eating unclean food has been reduced dramatically since the Industrial revolution
-- most women can (and do) choose their life path (Dads and brothers and husbands no longer choose it for them)
-- the quality of life for elderly people has improved HUGELY in the last 100 years, particularly for the poor *and* elderly
-- literacy rates have improved dramatically, and as literacy improves, so does most other areas of a person's quality of life
-- we have more national and state park land than 100 years ago
-- many rivers and lands that were filthy 100 years ago have been cleaned up
-- the number of children who died from a variety of childhood diseases 100 years ago (polio, whooping cough, etc.) has plummeted

And on and on and on... is there more to do? Indeed. There always will be. But when I talk to my 90 year old grandmother about what life was like during the Depression and in many of the years since, I'm astounded at how much better things have gotten for so many people -- and much of it through the work of volunteers.

And that doesn't even touch on what one gets *from* volunteering his or herself... but I'll stop there. I don't think you are someone who can be convinced, despite the mountain of evidence contrary to your statements.

Answer 4

If you consider that, you also have to consider that some groups that are seeking to be active in one way or the other is not really that affective and there is no way to realize how bad some conditions would be without the activism. Those active in a soup kitchen, for example, are preventing possible death by starvation of many people so while you may not see their condition get much better, you can see that it could be far worse - death by starvation for the people that are helped.

Answer 5

look at it from this angle, what would things be like if there hadn't been any activism/volunteering. Its a lot easier to be cynical, depraved, mean etc. Have you ever noticed that if you do something nice, righteous, charitable, you usually feels embarassed and maybe even turn beet red. But if you do something shi tty, like ignore someone's plight, you feel a little twinge of guilt, but easily ignored or rectified with a little bit of self denial/justification. Helping someone has got to be worth more than harming someone. I try to justify it with one good act has to be worth 3-5 bad acts. Maybe im right, maybe im wrong, if im right, thats great, if not, at least i tried.

Answer 6

No, Steven...I honestly believe that you're wrong about this.

It isn't that "nothing" is done at the end of the day. It's that the days...and the needs...follow each other so relentlessly.

Compassion should follow just as relentlessly.

As petty as that justification for the existence of humanity may be...it's all we've got.

Answer 7

Have you considered that perhaps the victories have been silent ones? Perhaps the problems society has now would be even worse if people had not volunteered and become activists?

One child who feels loved, one who stays in school, one who learns to read DOES make a difference.

Answer 8

Key secondary question is to ask what the volunteers get out of it.

Maybe that will provide some insight?