Slacktivism

Yesterday, we had an event at Shorter called 1ove (pronounced "one-love") in which people wore black t-shirts that had the name of an issue emblazoned on the back of them along with ubiquitous Verizon slogan "Can you hear me now?" This event was meant to promote awareness of the issues that are currently facing the world.

However, I have several issues with this campaign:

• Awareness is all well and good, but what actually came of yesterday? No money was committed to any cause, no one (to my knowledge) changed their views on a major issue, and no one attempted to actively better the causes that they supported.
• It was supposed to be coupled with a day of silence with the silence only to be broken by discussion of the issue at hand. Few, if any, participated in this aspect of the program. Instead, they ate dinner like they always did, just this time wearing the same shirt as about a hundred other people.
• The issues listed tended to be broad, like "Abortion" or "Cancer" or "Abuse." While I think that all of these things are issues on which one should have a stance (except cancer...who was a pro-cancer stance?), these issues, by simplifying to their overarching themes cheapen the overall message presented therein. More on this below.
  
• Lastly, people were forced to write their message on their shirt when they received it in the Student Affairs office. However, one of my gay friends was told that he was not allowed to put anything about homosexuality on his shirt. So, basically, this event was meant for your one love, provided that that love isn't someone with the same bits as you.

This event has its heart in the right place but it completely misses the point with its head. It seems to me to be another example of slacktivism. See, this event, as I've mentioned, didn't actually do any good. However, because people supported their beliefs, it left them the warm feeling of actually having attempted to accomplish something. Which is foolish. Nobody should get the warm-fuzzies of work without the actual work. Wearing a t-shirt, popping on a wristband, playing vocabulary games for rice, walking 10k, whatever...these are all good steps, but they ultimately fizzle because the focus is not on the issue at hand, but rather on the gross consumerism that defines the modern issue.

The modern issue is fashionable and faddish, and thus, it is completely removed from actual political and charitable action. If someone can be quickly inspired to try to "change the world" then they will just as easily grow bored when the world proves not quite so easy to change.

Last night, at dinner, someone was wearing one of the "Abortion" -labelled shirts. Now, I know Shorter College, so I knew this girl was probably Pro-Life. So, I started a conversation about abortion at the table with some obvious Pro-Choice folks. And they expressed their views, but in absolutist views. But abortion doesn't have two camps, one for and one against. Instead, this multi-faceted issue poses a lot of questions:

• When does life begin? Conception? Birth?
• Whose rights are in question: the individual or the family?
• How much say should the government have in the right to abortion?
• Should the government provide abortions as part of healthcare to those that can't afford it (i.e. Medicaid)?
• Should teens be required to tell their parents if they have an abortion?
• Should women be required to tell their inseminating partner if they want to have an abortion?
• What about the morning after pill?
• What about abortion in the case of rape? Incest? Gross birth defects?
• Is it a women's issue? A healthcare issue? A governmental privacy issue?

These questions were posed to Jamel, Danny, Vizzy, and some others that were around. We talked, but in five minutes, how can you possibly think to cover all of that?

Slacktivism has to go. Do something. But do something that makes a difference in something besides how you feel about yourself.