16 Mar
2012
I have been trying to wrap my head about how I felt about the most recent social media explosion of the Kony2012 videos produced by a US organization, Invisible Children, who is trying to galvanize support for the arrest of a war criminal, Joseph Kony and his crimes against society, specifically children. As a person who works with and in mission driven organizations out to provide a social benefit, I was torn on how I felt about this video recieving so much support but so much criticism.
Instead of trying to blog my reaction, I wrote to Jon and instead of posting my rant, I am posting his well though out and articulate response. He can put into word pretty much exactly how I approached this and the process of analyzing this event. It is long, but if you are interested in the understanding social issues and bridging the gap between advocacy and action, it is worth it.
"
Like you, I found myself spinning my wheels trying to figure out what I thought, mostly because I was stuck somewhere in the middle. {side tangent2: Also like you, I pride myself that I don't put myself in a bubble. I have friends that have a wide range of thoughts, opinions and positions (or lack thereof) on a huge number of topics. The best way to figure out what you think is to be challenged by someone who disagrees with you. I've had professors who I thought were total ass-holes, and every time I left there classes I would go on epic rants about how much they pissed me off, how wrong they were, and why. Those were always the classes that I developed the most. It's always a lot trickier when your position conflicts with a friend or an acquaintance, because (most of the time) you don't want to walk away having them think you're actually the ass. Those are the situations that I've always felt my skills in persuasion, or at least tact, were refined. My point is that while your interactions with your friends from home can be frustrating, I bet you handle them pretty gracefully (even if you don't think you did) and these conflicts probably have a lot of benefit to you...and maybe even help people to understand your side (even if they're not the people you were arguing with directly). }
Anyway, back to the Kony thing. {side tangent 3: ...no, focus Jon}. To some extent, I saw the Levi's Braddock campaign that we talked about at the Whitney as an odd microcosm of the Kony2012 video. As much buzz and momentum as that generated initially, it didn't do much to affect the work that was already occurring, nor did it set up some sustainable development structure. It also carried with it a sort of condescending tone..."now that you have Levi's over-simplified your problems but drawing attention to them non-the-less, your problems will disappear." That, in turn, draws the ire of the community itself. Eventually, attention wanes and the possibility of getting people really energized to work (not just donate) to a specific issue is lost.
Truthfully, I don't blame anyone for not having the capacity, energy or resources to care about every social justice issue that arises. However, it is very disheartening to see your chance best chance to fix something come and go without really being able to transition from awareness to implementation. The biggest problem I see in these types of campaigns is the inability to bridge that gap. In case you were wondering, this is exact place where my hamster falls off the wheel, and I have trouble directing my thoughts as I mentioned earlier. For what it's worth, I think you're the kind of person who is capable of developing structures that deal with these types of problems. While I probably can't substantively help you with your internal debate between working with non-profits v. social ventures, I do think you know a lot, and sometimes the hard part of knowing a lot is that you get bogged down in details, even when you see the big picture clearly. My guess is that for every idea I have about bridging the gap between awareness and implementation, you have a better one. That's saying a lot, bc I think very highly of myself :-)
That being said, I think the ignorance in the Kony2012 campaign is it's underlying tone that American's just doing something is going to remedy the problem. However, while it may be arrogant to think that the level of American awareness is the issue, it's probably equally arrogant to condemn educating people on the issue (I realize I got uncomfortably close to doing that two paragraphs up, but I was genuinely happy to have some of my friends that don't normally care about these types of things ask me what I thought). Kony2012 is a strange bird in that, as you noted, we were already engaged in the problem...actors were aware, and they were working to remedy it. I think Kony2012 was haphazardly put together by an org that, on its own admission, started only because they were "looking for a story to tell"...But for all of my criticisms, my gut feeling is that action here was better than no action, and I'm not sure I can articulate why. In a society where my peers are more likely to know the name of a real housewife than a Social Entrepreneur, member of the Cabinet or even a Supreme Court Justice, I'll take it."
.... Jon
