Give back to your community!

[Tree Frog]

What the hell did I take???

 

The statement " giving back to the community" is used by many in our society (very prominent in public school). If we break down the statement:

 

Giving back- Insinuates I have taken something. 

 

Community is defined as :

 

Community- "the people of a district or country considered collectively, especially in the context of social values and responsibilities; society."

 

To me this statement means that I have taken resources from the people therefore I am socially obligated to return those resources in someway. Sure, I am forced to use public services, but those services are in returned payed for by taxes. So I am still unclear what I have taken, since the community takes from us. 

 

This statement could be compared to the social Marxism (if it isn't already) because I steal from the little guy (insert some guilt here) and must return the resources to them that I have stolen. 

 

I believe in charity, I think that if someone once to voluntarily help another human out is great. However once force or an idea that "I have stolen from people therefore I must redistribute wealth" gets involved I strongly oppose. 

 

Has anyone else come across this statement? And found it surprisingly Marxist? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[NameName]

I have come across that statement and too came to the conclusion that it is pretty marxist. It doesn't respect the individual and labels you as someone who has stolen from society and now owes society back, like you said. And it's not true.

 

Reminds of this week I recalled having been preached the message in Kindergarden "Sharing, sharing, sharing". I remember now that there was this ass**** and I was told to stop defending myself from him stealing my stuff and just share and forgive him. This is not a good thing to teach kids, but it's very marxist.

 

There's a whole bunch of marxist messages in a lot of society, especially growing up as a kid in public school.

 

Reminds me of this book I saw the other day, this should be a better message for your kids:

http://childrenscapitalism.launchrock.com/

[Kevin Beal]

It doesn't mean you've taken anything, it means something has been offered to you and you've accepted it.

 

It's not a moral issue, you haven't stolen anything. It's both an invitation to support something you care about and a reminder that you are getting something of value. If someone gives you free home grown tomatoes every morning that are fucking great and you tell other people how great they are, it would be nice if at some point you gave back to the tomato grower who gave you so much value.

 

The message has been consistently "pay what you think it's worth" since the beginning. It's not a charity. It's a freemium model.

 

And you could argue that you are using up server resources. It costs money to host the resources you consume, mp3s, the boards, etc.

 

But I'm curious, why don't you give back?

 

Also, your post reminds me of nazism. You know, because of the similar phrases nazis used and stuff... wtf?

[adaywillcome]

When I read his post I understood Tree Frog to be talking about this thing out in the culture where people, particularly rich and successful people, talk about giving back when they had to do a lot of negotiating and mutually beneficial thing to get to their position. I think taking issue with that sort of giving back sentiment is very different from not wanting to give back to the FDR community.

 

I will say this particular topic is interesting coming from an apparent non-donator though.

[Andrew79]

Jeffrey Tucker takes the phrase on here.

[nathanm]

I know the phrase, but how has it been used and in what context?

[cynicist]

It's interesting that you view it as having stolen something. My perspective has always been that if you are given something then it's nice to reciprocate, so 'giving back to your community' to me would just mean 'please reciprocate'.

 

I think taking issue with that sort of giving back sentiment is very different from not wanting to give back to the FDR community.

 

It's funny because he makes it clear he is talking about the guilt-ridden societal context of the phrase, and yet my first thought after reading the title and opening sentence is that he was talking about the FDR community. It then further surprised me that he didn't acknowledge any other use for the phrase...

[Brentb]

When I hear "give back to the community" I think of those psychos that shoot up schools and theaters - they're giving back what they got from the community.

 

"give back" is antithetical to "give"

 

 Paying FDR isn't about giving anything for me. I put money, time, and/or energy toward what I value so that what I value will expand.

[Tree Frog]

Jeffrey Tucker takes the phrase on here.

"There is a problem with the phrase 'give back.' It implies that people with money have taken something from others."

 

Thanks Andrew79, this was indeed my arguement.