Jadedness: Kony and the 99%

(Right off the bat, yes, I get it, jadedness is not a word. Let's continue.)

With the emergence of the Kony video that has been perpetrating our interwebs in the last week or so, I've noticed a disturbing trend in which people talk about, then respond to how we may feel or think about this certain issue. This includes myself.

For those of you who have been living under a rock that doesn't receive a wireless connection (which begs the question of how you are reading this, so I guess I didn't need to ask), Joseph Kony is a war criminal who has committed heinous acts in Uganda and nearby African regions ranging from exploiting children for use as soldiers / sex workers, to being a down right asshole on most things human rights-y. Invisible Children Inc., a non-profit whose purpose is to aid the capture of Joseph Kony, created the short film which caused the attention to spread in the first place (video below for those who haven't seen it).

So this is what happens when people have talked about the Kony issue.

Response 1. Facebook sharing / retweeting

OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING! WATCH THIS VIDEO AND HELP US STOP THIS

Respone 2a. Initial anti-hippie response / make sarcastic Kony Meme

The people who just think by sharing a video is doing their part and don't do anything after are the fucking worst.

Response 2b. Cynicism of non-profits

I bet none of the money really goes to help the kids

Response 3. Conspiracy theorist response

THEY JUST DISCOVERED OIL IN UGANDA AND THE MEDIA COVERAGE OF KONY IS JUST A FRONT BY THE US GOVERNMENT TO GAIN TRACTION TO SEND TROOPS IN AND RAPE AND PILLAGE THE AFRICAN LAND!!!

Response 4. Utter Disgust at the movement

Thanks for spreading the word guys. Now Kony knows people are on to him so he'll be on the run.

And after all of that, my personal final response after having a few of the above;

When the fuck did we get so jaded?

Quickly addressing some of the above, no solution is perfect and there are some inefficiencies. And to the conspiracy nut jobs? You guys are fucking worse than hippies.

My personal qualm was that I am one of the highly jaded, thinking that the work is inefficient almost to the point where it won't do much, yet at the same time I applaud those, including one of my best friends, who work (and most likely will forever work) in non-profit organizations. It seems that by convincing myself that non-profits do little I can secretly feel better about the fact that I do nothing. Hell, I recently made a joke about a friend I know who donated his kidney, when truth is doing that probably made him a better human being than I was.

I, like many of you, are jaded. Unless we can find an incentive not to be.

So here's what I realized that incentive is;

Worst case scenario, this raises awareness in a broad sense that bad shit happens every fucking day. We can at least understand there is a problem, even if we do nothing.

Best case scenario, this becomes the beacon of hope for the 99%ers

What do I mean by this? I think this is huge. And I don't mean the end goal itself (though Kony should absolutely be caught), but the model. Because this has spurred the most organized fervor that we haven't seen in other viral movements. Something maybe the Occuy movement can learn from, since it seems their discombobulated message and lack of leadership is doing nothing. Which is why in almost a sociological experiment sort of way, we would have to participate to see the results.

We are jaded and cynical because there are so many forces out of our control that dictate the outcome of our every day lives. We see the best intentions fail out of miserable execution, and well laid plans morphed into abominations due to ulterior motives. In conclusion; when it comes to the matters of the world, we don't matter.

And it is because of this that I will be out after sundown hanging up a few Kony 2012 poster on April 20th, 2012 somewhere in Hong Kong. Hell, I'll probably enjoy it since it will remind me of when I used to spray paint angels next to bus stops. That in and of itself is probably worth the effort.

But if Joseph Kony is actually caught in 2012? Then it might just be a sign that we can matter again.

Being Super Saiyin: Lin, Tebow and a Black Kid with a Dream

"All I ever wanted to be in life was a super saiyan. I realized something. All of that is possible and more"

A lot of sports writers and talk radio heads on your local media outlet and all over ESPN has (to some degree over)analyzed the idea of why people seem to love the Jeremy Lin story: because of his Asian American heritage, the fact that he always found a way to push ahead despite being denied opportunities, or because of his underdog status.

The comparison's with Tebow are applicable too; humble, Christian underdogs who captured a nation by doing amazing things at the most opportune times.

My problem was, I never thought of Tebow or Lin as what we would call "underdogs". Despite being from a school not known for it's basketball, I doubt your average person would call anyone from Harvard an underdog. As for Tebow, he did win a national championship and was an amazing college quarterback, so he shouldn't get underdog status either.

It wasn't until i recently listened to a B.S. Report podcast with Bill Simmons and Chuck Klosterman that an interesting idea came up which I thought about for a long time: That maybe the reason we gravitate towards these two stars was because their rise could not be predicted in a world where almost everything is explained. In an environment where not a lot of things can shock you, surprises are more than welcome.

Think about it this way; in the recent NBA All-Star game in Orlando, 23 of the 24 all-star players were first round picks; over half of them drafted right out of high school or after 1 year of college. What does this mean? That by the age of 18-19, chances are people know whether you will become a good basketball player or not.

In a world where we are constantly told what we are capable of, we have gravitate to two stars who are doing what no experts thought they could do. Underdogs have odds stacked against them; what we've seen in sports in these past few months had almost no odds at all*.

*I know I'm not giving Lin and Tebow credit; they slipped through the cracks of scouts and truly do have a ton of talent. My point is that that is the narrative we are drawn to.

We live vicariously through our athletes, something I actually wrote about in regards to Jeremy Lin almost 2 years ago (yes, I am dropping references to myself already in my first post here). My point however, is that the feeling of impossibility really does diminish with these athletes.

Which brings me to this kid; the main reason I wanted to right this.

A kid wanting to be a super saiyan, which coincidentally was one of the dreams I had as a young teen (that did not involve Sarah Michelle Gellar). Yes, it is ridiculous, stupid and hilarious that surely should be joked about on Tosh.0. And before, this would have been something I would have mocked. But after seeing what I have witnessed in sports these past couple months?

Keep on believing kid.