the real problem behind KONY2012

My youngest son sent me the link to Kony2012 on the morning that it launched last week and it had only been viewed 2,000 times.  He always seems to be on the leading edge of all things youtube.  A few hours later our pastor tweeted it, then it started showing up all over my feed.  By the time I checked it again that night it was in the millions.  As of press time its been seen by 81,151,593 million people (2% of the worlds population).

If you are one of the 98% that haven’t seen it…Kony2012 is a viral video campaign hosted by Invisible Children, Inc.  They are a non-profit organization on task to highlight and advocate for the arrest of Joseph Kony, the head of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan guerilla group.  He is under indictment by the International Criminal Court on war crimes and charges against humanity.

I think the phenomenal growth of Kony2012 over the last 7 days has less to do with the cause, or the atrocities of Joseph Kony and more to do with us.  More to do with our need to look relevant to our peer group.  More to do with our voyeuristic addiction to what others are doing…from a sterile distance.  The video shows young adults (predominantly white middle-class American youth) wanting to make a difference.  Do they?  Do we?  Or do we want to just look like we are making a difference. According to the claims in the video there are tens of thousands of children being abused by the LRA.  What effort do they ask us to make to help them?  Buy a rubber wristband. Really?  We want to make just enough effort to make us look relevant on Facebook and Twitter.

Doing something good takes effort.  It takes time.  Its hard.  Clicking “like” doesn’t fix the problem.  Kony2012 has shown us that the real problem is that that it’s just too easy now to look like we care.

How do I know?  Because a week later and Kony2012, the most viral video in the history of YouTube, has vanished from their trend.  Its been replaced by a video of a dog dressed like a gangster, a music video by Waka Flocka, and a video of a mom hitting her kid in the face with a soccer ball.

What happened to us caring about Invisible Children?

Stop.  Look someone in the eyes.  Invest.  Listen.  And Return.