So a member of a family is in a bad situation, do you think you, on the outside, could care any more about him than the family itself does, because you choose to stand outside the gate chanting that he be freed and they didnt go that route? But thats the problem with seeing the world in black and white - you lose all the nuances of seeing in color, and end up with absolute positions like youre either for us or against us - pick a side!, always drawing a line with you and the people you agree with on one side, everyone else labelled dumb and cowardly and placed on the other side while you loudly and shrilly declare there is no middle ground. I heard someone proclaim on Fatu radio yesterday that yes were going to abolish the death penalty, but first well execute everyone who participated in the July 22nd coup (while in the same breath condemning the mile 2 executions deh, and with NO sense of irony at all at their statements). Theres a difference between protesting against something and trying to change it, and just living in a state of continuously increasing outrage and anger, feeding that ever-hungry outrage and anger with every new cause you can find, even if you had previously labelled that cause a foe - as long as they serve your needs rek theyre in. Unfortunately the Internet seems to promote this kind of shallow and fleeting activism, which is why we could have #bringbackourgirls trending for a week and then forgotten (with the girls STILL not brought back); and #kony2012 doing the same (with Kony STILL out there), and a hundred other examples. Hash tags and status updates and Internet likes and comments have their place, especially when it comes to sensitization about an issue, but they are far from being the only - or even the best - way of attempting to solve real world problems. They are popular because they tend to give us this false sense of achieving and doing something about a problem with the minimal amount of effort and time - just a few keystrokes and clicks while we sit comfortably at home patting ourselves on the back for a job well done - when in fact were doing very little beyond expressing solidarity online with other people who feel the same, and informing people who dont know whats going on. Which is fine and great, especially with situations where we feel powerless and word needs to get out, but to get to a point where you decide who cares and who doesnt based on online postings, is to confuse the map with the territory, in the end doing more for US and our consciences than the people we are supposedly fighting for. So post and tag away by all means, but do not for a moment believe that that gives you the right to claim that YOU are doing something and can take pot shots at people who havent chosen your way, and so by your judgement are doing nothing. Ive seen a graphic circulating around with pictures of everyone disappeared or imprisoned without trial - look at their faces and think: with ALL the online outrage and lashing out, how many of those were saved as a result? How many were allowed to walk free or brought before a court for a fair trial, or had investigations carried out on their cases to figure out what happened and punish the perpetrators? Anger can be a useful feeling, continuous anger that is fed like a fire is not; campaigning for the rights of Gambians is a noble thing, using the cases of people arrested or wronged as mere firewood to keep the anger fire running is not. Theres a reason our bodies pump us up with adrenaline only when necessary, instead of having us live in a constant state of fight or flight. Theres a reason we are where we are, even two decades later, and even as people get increasingly radicalized in their pronouncements online, with being anything but extreme considered heresy. Of COURSE people get pissed off at everything going on, but if pissed-off-ness alone was what leads to change we would not be here. #morningrant #theechochamber
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 17:20:20 +0000
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