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Originally Posted by gmku
I can't believe none of us has started a thread on this subject!
What I've been thinking lately: So I've had some success selling old clothes that I don't like anymore. It has occured to me, though, given all the "need" out there, all the poverty, that the far nobler thing is to simply give it all away.
Am I "good" for dumping clothes at Goodwill or Salvation Army? Or am I stupid for not trying to get something back for them?
I'm not talking about old trashed out clothes. I'm talking about decent things that are only a year or so old.
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This is what Zizek thinks on the matter:
"5) False Urgency
Today Bill Gates in interviews will say that it doesn't matter how many computers he can sell if world hunger remains such a huge problem. Immediate refuge in actions, thought condemned as not doing anything. But immediate action (i.e. sending used T shirts to third world countries undermines attempts at starting their own factories) to "help" with world poverty often does nothing to help the problem. Thus, withdrawal, to "Learn, Learn, and Learn"- Lenin, is perhaps not such a bad option. There is a need to oppose the immediate demand to action because it does not allow time for the thought which would keep such action from merely reinforcing the structure which allows for the maintenance of so much objective violence. Charity as the last moment of capitalist accomadation is taking on a purely economic function (maintain status quo). "Only through patient theoretical work, something will emerge. Knowledge we need more than ever."