A response to Kony 2012

In the wake of what has been one of the most successful viral campaigns in history, and its ensuing criticism, I would like to offer my response.

While I still believe that awareness is hugely important when it comes to human rights issues, I do not believe we benefit from the solutions proffered by movements such as Kony 2012. It is not, as with many things, a case of catch the bad guy. This is far too simplistic an approach. I defy any advocate of military action who thinks that more violence will serve us as a people. Violence begets more violence, and we should not stand for it.

The biggest obstacle we face when campaigning against human trafficking and modern day slavery – including the abduction of children to be used as soldiers – is the fact that we, as a society, feed the demand for such actions. It is our commercialism, our consumerism, and our voracious appetite for over-sexualized and objectified women that feeds this demand. The fuel in our cars, the rare metals in our consumer electronics and the modern, unrealistic conceptions of beauty that we buy into day after day are the things that cause these wars over oil and precious natural resources, and force women to be exploited and paraded around as commodities in front of a rabble of willing customers.

Yes, there are a number of people who profit from this. They are the hungry dogs salivating before a juicy bone – but it is us who are the ones wielding that bone.

This is what we need to spread awareness about: not just the fact that this is happening at all, but the fact that we are the ones causing the demand for it. Let the dogs go hungry I say.

– The Empty Room