Isaac Forsgren

Mr. Green
EXPL 292
2/10/16
1. What do the readings by Morton and Illich suggest about service?
2. How is service a complex idea involving power, privilege, and
relationships?
Power Privilege and Relationships in Service
Ivan Illich and Keith Morton both stress the importance of relationships,
power, and privilege in their respective essays but do so in different ways.
Illich criticizes the idea of international service in general because of the lack
of relationships that are formed and the power and privilege being
established by those providing service over those receiving the service.
Morton does not directly reference international service but rather criticizes
the story of the starfish due to its lack of specificity and inaccuracies
concerning service.
In his speech, Illich heavily criticizes the idea of service in general but
especially international service. One of Illichs reasons for opposing
international service is because he claims that it is purely means for the
United States and its people to advance its ideologies on the poorer
countries of the world. Illich writes: You are ultimately-consciously or
unconsciously- salesmen for a delusive ballet in the ideas of democracy,
equal opportunity and free enterprise among people who havent the
opportunity of profiting from these (Illich 2). Illich also claims that many of
the people who are on the receiving end of the service do not actually want it
and that those serving are actually disrupting their lives by forcing ourselves

upon them. Another criticism that Illich raises has to do with the lack of
relationships that those serving are able to form with those who they are
trying to help. He mentions the fact that those who are serving are most
likely white, middle class, and English speaking and for those reasons, have
absolutely nothing in common with those they are serving. I have a few
problems with Illichs speech. In my opinion he spends his whole speech
speaking on behalf of those being served which is strange because that was
one of his main criticisms of the concept of international service. He makes
the claim that the people in the villages do not want the service being
provided but I think that is a serious generalization. Illich fails to even
acknowledge that service can provide serious benefits to communities and
spends his entire speech demonizing those who want to help. In my opinion
Illich turns service in to a much less complex system than it is. He just claims
that everything about it is bad even though there are many tangible benefits.
I prefer Mortons response to the starfish story much more. The intentions of
the essay are not to demonize those who partake in service, it is more about
making sure those who choose to partake in service do it in an educated and
productive fashion. Morton breaks the story of the starfish down and dissects
it to display why the idea of service is not as simple as it may seem. I think
one of Mortons better points in his essay is in his second response when he
writes about the starfish not being people. I like this because when we
partake in service I think that the most important part is that those on the
receiving end of the service feel helped, not demeaned or ashamed. The

starfish tale fails to acknowledge the human aspect of service, the most
important aspect. Morton also brings up different faults of the story that are
less pertinent to service such as how throwing the starfish back in to the
ocean might disrupt the ecosystem or food chain. Another criticism that he
had that I believe has relevance to service is his point about how the person
is acting out of emotion instead of thinking logically. I believe there are many
cases in which people partake in service because they want to have an
emotional attachment to those they are serving when they could act logically
and simply provide funds which could be far more helpful. Mortons final
criticism of the story is that it privileges random, individual acts of
kindness (Morton 2). Morton makes this criticism because the story
devalues the sense of community in service. I think that this point relates to
the importance of forming relationships which is so important in service.
Service is a very complex idea for many reasons but the three most
important are the issues of power, privilege, and relationships. Power makes
service complex because those who provide the service have to make sure
that they use their power to help rather than degrade. I think this is a very
tricky balance to find because those who usually serve are in a position of
power over those being served as a result of finances, race, or whatever it
may be. This goes back to the subject of inequality being inevitable in
service and having to find a proper balance. I think that the issue of privilege
in service brings along many of the same problems as power. Those who
serve have to make sure that they are not reinforcing their privilege over the

people they are serving. I think that often times, especially in international
service, those who come from serious privilege use mission trips or whatever
they call it, use the service as means to an end, with the end being maybe
feeling better about yourself, or maybe to be a better Christian. Relationships
make service more complicated because it is essential to connect with those
you are serving in order for them to feel served instead of degraded. If you
were to travel abroad and serve a community and establish no relationships
there it is detrimental because it just reinforces the idea that you were their
savior and there in order to help them.