“Ideally these people define their roles as service. Actually, they frequently wind up alleviating the damages done by money and weapons, or ‘”seducing” the “underdeveloped” to the benefits of the world of affluence and achievement.”

This quote appears on the third page of Ivan Illich’s “To Hell With Good Intentions” (P316). The quote is referring to the numerous do-gooders and idealists America exports to supposed third world countries. The use of the word “seducing” implies the sexual connotations of the fourth definition of the word service, as well as the balance of power within that definition. The definition, “also of a man, to have sexual intercourse with (a woman)”, places the seducer (which I feel could be either the man or the woman in the relationship- gender being particularly irrelevant in this context) in a position of power. In this case, the American idealist is placed in a position of power over the residents of “underdeveloped” nations, seducing them with the promises of her money, power and prosperity.