Savitri philosophy post

I’ve been hearing the metaphor: each of us is a drop in the ocean, but what is an ocean but a collection of drops. If we are committed to working together towards our ideals of equality, then the tide in that ocean will change to become more representative of our human rights. It’s a wonderful metaphor, but it is so challenging to actually apply it to daily life.

For example, donations and fundraisers are important and necessary for people who need help; it is just one of the ways that we can contribute to someone’s cause. But the problem is that giving is not enough. I argue that part of our responsibility is to understand where that money is going and how much is being given to the people we want to help. When the KONY 2012 video became viral it sparked a lot of fires in people’s hearts. The film is very much designed for advocacy, so the first fire instilled was a rage against Joseph Kony and a subsequent urgency to help fund Invisible Children in their campaign against him. The second fire blistered when criticisms arose over the controversial nature of the short film. Part of the controversy was the way in which the film sought to enlighten its viewers: the filmmaker’s young son was shown pictures of two very dark-skinned Ugandan men, one was a “very bad” man (Kony) and the other was an “innocent” and “good-hearted” boy (Jacob). What kind of reality does this instill in a child, whose first exposure to dark-skinned persons is an understanding that they are either extremely evil or extremely good? In addition, there was criticism over the actions that Invisible Children advocated for. They claimed that in order to stop Kony’s LRA they had to back the Ugandan army. However, by the time the video became viral most of his followers were in the Central African Republic, so funding the Ugandan army would not amount to much in terms of rescuing or preventing children from becoming soldiers.

There was another metaphor that we learned: you can’t stay neutral on a moving train. I understand the need for activism, and I understand the need to act now. But I feel so often that I do not know which direction to be moving and which activism to endorse. We must be careful not to be blind-sighted by the appeal of giving and feeling good, thereby releasing us from our own guilt, privileges, and participation in inequality. There must be just as much emphasis on education as on advocacy, because how can we advocate for something if we do not properly understand the whole situation? We must understand why there is criticism and understand where people fuel their bigotry and ignorance. To cast these people off as unreachable only furthers the current and keeps our ocean from cooperating as whole. But at the same time I recognize that it is exhausting for people to constantly be explaining why their opinion is the “right” one. How do we advocate for open-mindedness while pursuing a common philosophy and common interpretation of rights ideals? I have no idea.