The World has not been a pleasant place recently. Competing moneyed interests are fighting over control of U.S. policy. American involvement in the Middle East has clearly encouraged extremist subcultures in a region prone to extremism and rabid monotheism. We are beginning to see the effects of our binge on consumerism. Need I go on? We are overwhelmed by badness and the inability to make right. The human mind seeks clear cut, I can do this, solutions. Our ability to imagine supports an equal ability for self-deception. No wonder that the ice bucket campaign has gone viral. Here is a problem we can do something about! Throw money at it! And money is being thrown. Todays South China Morning Times tell us that half a million local dollars has been raised in rather small Hong Kong for the Hong Kong Neuro-Muscular Disease Association. Unfortunately the organization has yet to decide how to allocate the money which is five times its normal yearly take. Yet there are videos of happy people feeling good about their contributions. Do the ice bucket thing and you will not feel so unempowered by the reference on the same page to an article titled: Where is the so-called art in Indian gang rape photo shoot? With the ice bucket campaign we are coerced into doing one thing whose value is not entirely clear, to feel good about it, and to ignore the fact that other things suffer because of our narrow focus. For myself, Ill continue to think through where I can make contributions that will do the most good. Dont misunderstand me. It is not a bad thing to contribute to fringe issues. What is bad is when everybody contributes to the same one.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 10:13:09 +0000
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