Kony 2012

So, it has taken me a little longer than most to decide how I feel about "Kony 2012". It is impossible to deny that the video posted by Invisible Children generated a great deal of emotions.

Immediately after watching the video I was brimming over with excitement at the prospect of making a real and lasting difference in an ongoing conflict that put the live of tens of thousands of children at risk. The thing with children is, they seldom have a choice. This is not unique to the LRA. A book written by Senator Dallaire (They Fight Like Soldiers, they Die Like Children) systematically outlines the continued use of children in armed conflict all over the globe. He delves into the child soldier phenomena and goes to great lengths to also expose the role of young girls in armed conflict.

I started an event page and with a friend decided to “Blanket the Night”. It was an emotional, knee-jerk reaction. Upon further consideration I have realized that the goals of the campaign are deeply flawed. Before you jump on me, please let me explain.

I am incredibly supportive of making people aware of what is going on internationally. It is the greatest travesty to me that in our post-modern world of immense technological capability, with so much media at our fingertips, the primary focus of the average 15-25 year old is far more pop-culture than political savvy. This is not a condemnation – I am the first to admit that I have falling down the celebrity-obsession rabbit hole on a number of occasions. Therefore, the popularity of the “Kony 2012” movement to me is a great triumph for social media and a political instigator – comparable at least initially to the Occupy movement and (to a lesser extent) the Arab Springs. I am filled with pride to see so many people getting passionate about an important human rights issue.

The problem is, of course, that the Kony 2012 movement aims to influence policy which would ensure ongoing American military intervention into Uganda. This is on the face of it impractical at best. First, the US troops are not there in a combat role. They are there as military advisors, which means, essentially, that they sit on their butts and talk a bunch. The assumption that American Military advisors will be of any help in tracking down the LRA is outrageous. That is like asking a blind mouse to tell the blind rat where the cheese is. The blind leading the blind… Second, the possibility of any engagement in combat on the part of the American government or any other would put the lives of the tens of thousands of abducted children that now make up Kony’s LRA at even greater risk.

So what do we do? Do we just sit back and let terrible things happen to innocent children? Do we go in and pretend to be “saviours”, living out our ill-conceived notions of the “white man’s burden”? Do we hang up a bunch of posters (which by the way is incredibly environmentally irresponsible as well as politically ineffective unless you live right smack-dab in the middle of Washington)?

This is what we do: we keep doing what we are doing. We plan rallies; we hang posters; we buy stickers and t-shirts; we host movie screenings; we light a candle. We may not support the policy that this initiative hopes to influence, but we do support the cause of global justice and equal human rights for all.

Maybe the impact will be small to non-existent. Maybe the results of the policies we are supporting will do more harm than good. And maybe we are being ridiculous, romantic, paternalistic, and emotional, the list goes on; but we can not deny that this is something unique. This is something interesting and new. We are, as demonstrated by the great political gatherings, protests and revolutions of the past year, entering into a new age of global social media. Events such as Kony 2012 may just be the boot in the butt we need to realize what has been true but ignored for the past fifty years or so: that strict nationalism is a thing of the past, that the nation state is no longer the primary actor in international politics, that individuals all over the world can rally together to impact change and that in spite of our many differences—the colour of our skin, the God/s that we do or do not worship, the language we speak, the food we eat—we are part of the same human family , 7 billion strong and counting, and we are responsible to every single member of this family, for better or for worse.