Chapter 12 From "Obligation" to "Volunteering"——For the "International Year of Volunteers"

If China is one of the most difficult places to "do good things" in the world today, some people may find it unbelievable: Haven't we always advocated "learning from Lei Feng", "voluntary labor", and "sacrificing ourselves for others"?Although the market economy has become popular since the reforms, some people have become popular in the world, but when it comes to marketization, developed countries naturally surpass us. But it's still that weird. On December 3, 2000, the "Seventh Day" program of Beijing TV broadcasted a story: two enthusiastic ladies wanted to use their spare time as volunteers to solve problems for the disabled or widowed elderly and provide free services.For this reason, they went to several neighborhood committees, asking if there were any clients and asking to contact them on their behalf. Unexpectedly, everywhere they went, they encountered indifference, suspicion, confusion, and even a certain degree of hostility.At first, people unanimously regarded them as people who wanted to work and earn money, and turned them away impatiently; when they heard that they wanted to volunteer for free, they were surprised and suspicious, and some questioned them and checked their identity documents. In addition, they were also asked to provide a letter of introduction from their unit. People only knew that "learning from Lei Feng to do good deeds" in the past was arranged "organizationally", and there was no concept of "volunteering" to do good deeds; some almost regarded them as scammers And issued a eviction order.Someone told them: Not only will we not assist volunteers who are not arranged by the "organization", but those lonely and widowed elderly you want to serve will not let you in. Who knows what you want to do? !As a result, the two enthusiastic people ran for a whole day but did not find a chance to volunteer. They returned tired and frustrated.TV host Yuan Yuan finally commented humorously: Chairman Mao once said that "it is not difficult for one person to do good deeds, but it is difficult to do good deeds for a lifetime." Good thing" is really difficult!

Of course, the reality reflected in this news cannot simply be attributed to the fact that social security is not good today, and people therefore guard their sects.There are many countries in the world whose social security situation is not much better, but their individual voluntary behaviors and voluntary organizations are very active.The point is: concepts such as volunteers, volunteers, and voluntary services are too foreign to us.In the absence of external coercion and external stimuli, people will only act "altruistic" based on internal moral motivation, and it is not within the scope of the relationship between relatives and friends, that is, the so-called "different order pattern", but for complete strangers. To do good deeds seems incomprehensible to many.And this has no causal relationship with "people's hearts are not ancient under the market economy".Voluntary services are generally well developed in countries with developed market economies in the world, which is a clear proof.

Before the reform, there was often "voluntary labor" here. After the reform, the market economy emphasizes the exchange of benefits, and there is less "voluntary labor", but this should not keep us away from the spirit of volunteerism.Nowadays, many people only think that "volunteer labor" and "volunteer work" are both unpaid and non-self-interested, but they ignore the huge difference between these two "free": the former is unpaid under external coercion, while the latter It is voluntary free, free from the heart.And, in principle, the difference between compulsory and voluntary is greater than the difference between unpaid and paid.Regardless of "obligatory" behavior or "voluntary" behavior, sometimes it is not completely free of charge. For example, as a military system, soldiers under the "compulsory military service system" have subsidies, while soldiers under the "volunteer soldier" system are paid.Since the allowance is generally far less than the salary, some people once thought that "conscripts" were more noble than "volunteers".What they forget, however, is that "conscription" is compulsory service (although it is rarely enforced in peacetime), while "volunteering" is free employment.Then "volunteering to serve the country" is at least not less noble than "the country forces you to serve", if not more noble!

The planned economy is an economy in which "all actions are under command". Therefore, it is not surprising that people in that era only had the concept of paid and free, but not the concept of voluntary and compulsory.People tend to regard "voluntary labor" at that time as a noble act, and there is certainly a reason for it, especially in the early days of this economy, the passion of moral idealism did motivate many people to voluntarily devote themselves to unpaid labor.But it goes without saying that far from all those who perform “obligations” are volunteers, which is completely different from today’s volunteer service which must not involve mandatory obligations. The concept of "compulsory labor" was logically connected not with voluntariness but with compulsion from the very beginning.We know that this concept originated in Soviet Russia during the period of "military communism".The Soviet Russian theorist Bukharin dedicated a chapter in his influential book "Economics of the Transition Period" entitled "'Extra-economic' Coercion in the Transition Period". He pointed out that "dictatorship" does not mean only Coercion by the "class enemy", "one of the main new forms of coercion applied to the working class itself, is the abolition of so-called liberty to labour. . . The planned distribution of the economy and labor is incompatible".Therefore, it must be replaced by "the implementation of the labor obligation system under the dictatorship of the proletariat and the method of state distribution of labor force".This "production management system under dictatorship" can be a paid "labor army" or an unpaid "obligatory Saturday", but they are all based on militarized coercion (p. 126).In another chapter, Bukharin also refuted the "rumours of bourgeois professors" that the Bolsheviks would increase the freedom to strike: Isn’t it ridiculous to cry?” (p. 52) It can be seen that even at the time when idealism was passionate, the basis of “voluntary labor” was not romantic moral self-consciousness, but “coercion under dictatorship.”If this compulsion is not so obvious during the period of high passion, its compulsion becomes more and more obvious in the subsequent decline of passion.Projects such as the famous White Sea-Baltic Canal and the Komsomolsk in the Far East during Stalin's time were advertised as examples of idealistic "voluntary labor", but now everyone knows that they are actually huge labor camps of forced labor.We were no strangers to this "production through dictatorship" model during the Cultural Revolution.

In fact, literally, "labor obligation system" is opposite to "labor right".The so-called "obligations" are mandatory norms that must be fulfilled, just like citizens must pay taxes according to law.In contrast, "right" refers to "the free capacity to do or not to do something", just as the right to vote means that you can vote or not vote for someone. No matter how noble the starting point of "voluntary labor" is, since it is an "obligation", it is definitely not a right, and without rights, of course, there is no question of "volunteering" or not.Therefore, although "voluntary labor" and voluntary service both appear as unpaid work (even if paid, it is not a "service price" formed according to the principle of market transactions), their essence is completely different.It is not surprising, then, that the more developed the tradition of "voluntary labor," the less volunteerism there is.When the government's strong mobilization of "doing good" is no longer fashionable, "doing good" as a voluntary act of free citizens will appear so difficult, so incomprehensible, and even suspicious that it will fall into an extremely embarrassing situation. Incredible.

In fact, even abroad, voluntary service and voluntary public welfare undertakings are most developed in those "free market" countries, while those "welfare states" or countries that claim to have collectivist "Asian values" are much less developed.In my book, I cited the data of an international survey in 1990: 82% of American citizens have provided unpaid services to at least one (average 2.4) voluntary public welfare organizations. This proportion is 68% in Germany, 65% in Canada, and 65% in the United Kingdom 53%, France 39%, Italy and Japan ranked last among the seven countries, with only 36%.According to recent data, in my country, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region under the "free market" is the most developed place for voluntary services. In 1998, among the 5 million citizens of Hong Kong, 1 million volunteered, accounting for 20%, while the mainland voluntary services are relatively developed. In Shenzhen, volunteers accounted for only 2% of the permanent population, and only 0.5% of the total population if the temporary population is considered.

People tend to think that public good in developed countries thrive because their citizens are wealthy and therefore able to do good.Not quite.The income level of people in my country's richest cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen is at least not lower than that of developed countries 20 years ago, but the level of volunteer service is much lower than that of those countries at that time.The reason is simple. A market economy requires more respect for human rights and autonomy than a planned economy. Only free citizens with full rights can become true "volunteers."Volunteering to do good is true kindness, so the development level of voluntary service is an important criterion for the construction of spiritual civilization.The institutional arrangement of the market economy presupposes "economic man", but the so-called "economic man" presupposes by no means a "sexual evil theory".It is just as the saying goes, "the villain first and the gentleman second", in order to prevent the abuse of coercion in the name of morality and cause the harm of "taking my selfishness as the great man of the world" (Huang Zongxi's words).Apparently, "the villain before the gentleman" only restricts the hypocrites, which should be conducive to the emergence of more genuine gentlemen, rather than advocating selfishness, let alone denying that people can become gentlemen.On the contrary, a market economy requires not only competition and transactions, but also cooperation and mutual assistance. This is why the spirit of volunteer service based on respect for civil liberties can flourish in the era of developed market economies.

Our country, which is bidding farewell to the planned economy and moving towards a market economy, will also bid farewell to the era of "voluntary labor" by force and usher in the spring of the spirit of free citizen voluntary service.At that time, "it is not difficult for one person to do something good" will become a reality. This is our expectation when 2001, the "International Year of Volunteers" named by the United Nations, is approaching.