Joseph Kony is an asshole. Let's get that out of the way. That's not what I want to discuss here. Here's some other things I don't want to discuss:
- Improper use of funds by the non-profit, Invisible Children
- Non-discrete U.S. military intervention, leading to Kony changing tactics and escaping custody
- Using your child for personal and professional gain
- Playing with yourself in public
What really gets to me about this video is it's shortsightedness.
Asshole. Not the deeper problem though.
Great, let's raise awareness about a horrible person and a wronged group of people. I'm all for it! What happens next is the problem. Actually it's what fails to happen next that's the problem.
Invisible Children's landmark video is extremely successful at using the web and social media channels to spread word about a brutal ex-dictator. Tens of millions of YouTube views in a matter of days is no small feat. The video is well put together and tells an emotionally engaging story about the plight of Uganda under Kony. It actually fosters self-efficacy in its viewers (meaning those who watch it actually feel like caring can make a difference). It doesn't make me depressed. It "feels good man."
So I'm aware of Joseph Kony now. Everyone I know is aware. What next? OK, so I buy this $5 kit with posters and stickers and the like. Then I'm supposed to plaster the community around me with Kony 2012 propaganda to... raise... awareness... Because the goal of this movement is to "shine a light on Joseph Kony." Do you understand what I'm getting at yet?
This whole campaign is designed to raise awareness and fails to promote the next steps to actually address the problem. What about intent? What about execution? What about reflection? This is marketing 101 people. The problems in Uganda are not going to be fixed by just awareness in the United States. There needs to be follow up steps that have tangible results. The campaign is efficient, but not effective.
My argument goes along with the notion that social media and constant information [maybe don't cause, but certainly] promote short attention spans. We get so hyped up on being in the know about the latest craze that we rarely have the time to mature our interest in the previous one. I hear plenty about Kony nowadays, but seldom do I hear mention of Japan's recovery from the Fukushima Daiichi catastrophe. What about the earthquakes in Haiti and Indonesia that together killed more than half a million people? Those were popular topics to care about at one time too.
This video is a tennis ball and we are the dog playing fetch. We get all worked up about it for a while, but then we get tired or we see a squirrel over yonder and our attention is quickly broken. There will be another disaster or social issue this year that will attract a ton of attention/sympathy and the Kony 2012 movement will fade. It's an election year: attention spans don't exist anyway.
It really bothers me that mere awareness is suggested to be the answer to solving a complex global issue. I do believe that the more complicated a problem is the simpler the answer ought to be, and Invisible Children supplies a simple answer. They fail to ask if this is the right simple answer though. You could say that putting Kony behind bars is the eventual goal of this campaign. Still, Kony and the LRA are symptoms, not the problem behind it. The ICC wanted list is not just one name. There are villains like Kony all over the world and every time one is removed another is there to take his/her place. For all the attention this campaign is getting, it's a shame that the intent is so limited. Maybe the question we should be asking isn't "how do we put Joseph Kony on trial at the Hague?" but instead one of thew following:
- How do we get the United States to support the International Criminal Court?
- How do we reduce drought and famine in sub-Saharan Africa (the leading causes of genocide and war in the third world)?
- How do we change our nation's attitude to international intervention beyond economic interests?
- How do we raise Western knowledge about the geographical and cultural nuances within the African continent so that things don't get ignored until dictators are placed on a most wanted list?
When we don't solve the root of the problem, the problem will adapt and return in stronger form. Joseph Kony, congratulations, the world is aware of you. Too bad you're not the root issue.
I won't contribute to more views to the Kony 2012 video, but you can see what Ugandans think of it.
I'm actually relieved to see so much public criticism of the video. However, I think that much of it is from social pressure to stick with the popular opinion, just like the wavelike fervor in support of the video in it's earliest days. Social media and my generation has a lot of potential behind it, but we're still maturing. We may have found our purpose, but we can't stop there. We need to get beyond awareness.
