My Reaction "Kony 2012"

            Hey, who in the last few days has thought about Kony2012?  Who in the last few days has heard about the documentary's producer losing his mind in the middle of San Diego?  Who has heard the conspiracy theories surrounding the growing awareness of Uganda as a country that needs liberating?  How many people out there have stopped giving a shit?  Well, call me a hipster, but I stopped caring before it was cool.

Seriously now, how many people even know where Uganda is?

            Hate to break it to you all but the world is filled with injustices, among them is pretty much the entire continent of Africa.  Ethnic cleansing, child soldiers, slavery, rape on a scale not seen since Genghis Khan, an inability to construct effective infrastructure, lack of access to water (though not alone on that one), lack of access to food, lack of access to school, racism on a scale not seen in the West since the West was colonizing Africa, a Patriarchy that is disgusting, and a cycle of violence and poverty that makes it impossible for the population to gather together harness the resources of the continent and truly become the world power they should be.

            The Kony2012 video was a viral internet sensation that drew a lot of attention to an issue that I am shocked to find out, there were still people who didn't know about it.  For god's sake then was a major Academy Award nominated film revolving around child soldiers and diamonds made just a few years ago.  And another about the massive ethnic cleansing that took place in Rwanda.  Do people just forget this stuff?  Better question: does not knowing or not caring make you a bad person?  The answer is, "no".

            The act of caring is a physical one, it burns glucose in your brain.  If you actually cared about everything that was wrong in the world, each and every social injustice that was out there all the time, from child soldiers to the continued use of the penny, then you would just burn away.  All that would be left is a brain that hovered in the air surrounded by some telekinetic field of outrage.  Trust me, I had that happen because my chief field of study is Political Science and the art of screwing people with their pants on.

            Honestly when people started talking about Kony2012 my reaction boiled down to this, "Well this should raise enough money to buy several shiny new bicycles, but not enough to even remotely affect the problem."  This video is not a sun rising on a world of endless night, it is a single flare going up, it is showing all the other people who live in this cold dark world that there is a group of people that need help, and some set off to find them, some went out to help, but it is a dark world, and it was just one flare, how long before people lose themselves in the darkness and can't even recall where the problem was?  Not very long.  It won't even take very long for people to make excuses as to why they shouldn't bother to help.  It won't take long before they just lose the stamina to care.  Because we are mortal, we can't care because there is just too much going on.

            That all being said, things are getting better in the world, even in Africa.  Life expectancy is going up, infant mortality rates are going down, and dictators are being over thrown (they'll be replaced, but the wheel in the sky keeps turning, before long those new tyrants will fall too).  We as a species are getting better at fighting against this sort of crap, and eventually like water on concrete the tools to fight injustice will seep into every crack.  But this "phenomenon" is just a bright flash, it is not final word.  So continue living your life, and every once in a while, remember to donate to end, volunteer to fight, or just think about something bad out in the world.  Because maybe just a little bit of your telekinetic outrage might seep its way out, and push things just a little closer to being better.  And one day a sun will rise.

How many people will write in his name on a presidential ballot?  I'm betting more than none.