"Mandatory volunteerism" an oxymoron

"Mandatory volunteerism" is an oxymoron. Not an Oxy Moron - which is my name for the voiceover guy with a deep voice in the old Oxy acne chemical commersh - but an oxymoron.

But I think it's an issue you're gonna hear a lot more about. Fine with me, because it ain't gonna get much support outside of editorial pages and high-sounding political campaigns.

Perhaps the most widespread use of forced "volunteerism" takes the form of attempts to make unpaid "community service" a requirement for high school graduation. At least one state has this already, and about one-fourth of American public school districts have it now. But it's unconstitutional. It's forced labor, which is constitutionally prohibited. And it may also violate labor statutes, especially those regarding child labor.

The modern trend towards mandatory "community service" in public high schools began for several reasons. Big Business backed it because they could use it to squeeze unpaid labor out of teenagers - and they have. Political rightists backed it because they could use it for their political causes - and they have. (As an example of this, a school refused to count volunteer work for a marijuana legalization group, but it did count work for a group that railed against weed.) The soak-the-poor and anti-child crowds backed it because they thought the poor and the young were getting off easy. They wanted to impose strict obedience. (It was clear that those with money and clout would find a way out of the requirement.) All of these elements have significant overlap, of course.

In a word, it's Orwellian. And it would benefit the powerful more than it would benefit students or their community.

But the further the center of debate inches rightward, the more nebulous the arguments for it become. I'm glad I switched to the Greens, because the most recent Democratic platform recommended making forced "community service" a graduation requirement nationwide (which the Greens' much more detailed platform doesn't advocate). Occasionally you hear of some politician wanting all young adults to perform forced "volunteerism" - but with pay. This would still be unconstitutional, because involuntary servitude doesn't always mean there's a lack of pay.

The reason often given for ideas like this now is...well, it's hard to tell. You keep seeing nice-sounding words like "character", but this sounds like a moralistic few are just trying to use the schools to impose their ideas.

Forced "volunteerism" is fundamentally flawed. The message of this idea is that, even if you're a member of the underclass, life itself is a privilege that must be paid for. It teaches the false notion that the rights that every human in the world is born with come at a cost.

Mandatory "community service" is too much of a fusion of community and state. The community consists of the people around you. The state is a regime, a construct that rules from afar. Sure, we have laws and regulations, and we all pay taxes (whether it's a sales tax, an income tax, or other tax), but these are like contracts where we get something in return which we otherwise wouldn't. If you have mandatory "community service" in public high schools, it's as if the community becomes property of the school and the government.

But that doesn't stop one columnist from calling the major presidential candidates "stupid" because they haven't come out in favor of forced "volunteerism" yet. (Give 'em time.)