DIANA writes:

I thought that the letter in The New York Times from the part-time male househusband/doctor was remarkably free of logic and content. Anytime someone resorts to name calling (“sexism,” “patriarchy”) you can be sure that feelings, feelings, feelings are the argument. Did he disappoint? No. He would have found being asked about future parenting “chilling.” The poor dear!

With all due respect to the profit motive, I think that the spirit of volunteerism is what makes any profession, organization, or even family, work. Volunteerism can be defined in many ways but mine is: what you do for love and duty, what you do when you aren’t watching the clock, what no one else can do.

This occurred to me when I was thinking about what makes my hiking club function so well. It’s the volunteers. They contribute what, in terms of money, would be millions of dollars. Which the hiking club can’t afford. If the volunteers asked for money the club would go out of business. To give but one example, the club renovates, runs and staffs a variety of outdoor centers on the Appalachian Trail, or in mountain chains full of hiking trails, that states lease to them at favorable rates, because the states can no longer afford to do so. Allowing these places, which were built in cheaper times, to languish would be a tragedy. Instead a great, volunteer-driven organization runs them. They are well-maintained, clean, safe places.

Apply this to anything and it works. Isn’t the family the original and essential volunteer unit? From that base, we get the vocation to volunteer selflessly our time and efforts to institutions larger than ourselves. I shudder to think what Dr. Schumann’s children are learning from him (and his wife).

                                     — Comments —

Jeff W. writes:

Diana has made a very important point here, and it is a point that libertarians fail to grasp. Libertarians focus on the marketplace and argue that people should be able to work and trade, save and invest freely in the marketplace without being robbed by predators or parasites. That argument is good and true so far as it goes.

But they fail to understand that a marketplace exists inside a community, and it is the community’s responsibility to keep predators and parasites under control. That work has to be done out of love for the community. It is human nature to want to be a predator or a parasite. A normal human being does not want to work; he wants to live off the work of others. The community has to battle human nature.

Absent strong love for the community, government naturally becomes a predator. Government officials then corrupt the marketplace by making deals with marketplace predators. When the love dies, the community dies. It is replaced by a dog-eat-dog struggle among rival gangs.

No arguments about personal freedom can slow this natural process of decay. The only emotional force that can stop it is strong love and loyalty to a community or nation, and where that love is expressed in purposeful action by intelligent and energetic individuals. The love that is necessary for the community’s survival cannot be bought with money. A community’s survival requires a volunteer effort.

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