The Sons Of Logic

I’d like to preface this blog post by saying that I am neither for or against Kony 2012 nor am I for or against Invisible Children. These are just some thoughts and criticisms of mine, and I wanted to record them. 

The Kony 2012 video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc ) is a very emotionally charged video that has tremendous production value. I’ve seen many people respond to it in a similarly emotionally charged fashion, and although I certainly can understand where the emotion is coming from, I personally did not get as affected as others have by it. Perhaps this is because I am a highly skeptical person, and due to the reaction I saw the video was gaining in such a record-breakingly short amount of time I immediately switched to Skeptic Mode and by the time I had started the video I had already prepared myself watch with a skeptical eye. 

I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel anything when I watched the video, because I certainly did. I felt that it was admirable what this one man (the film maker) has been able to do and the support he’s been able to garner over the last 10 years. He was able to help a boy named Jacob and get messages blasted across the internet. I was also bothered by the fact that a man such as Joseph Kony existed at all, and that children have had to die because of him. However, I was not brought to tears, and I was not immediately inspired to ‘join the movement’. 

I am bothered by the people who are attacking those that are raising valid criticism and valid concerns about this movement simply because they didn’t immediately join after watching the video and didn’t only say positive things about Invisible Children and the Kony 2012 plan. I am also quite frankly sick and tired of this “With us or against us” mentality that a lot movements adopt. The world is not so black and white, nor clear cut. 

I decided to do a bit of research, I did not want to be someone who supported a cause after spending 30 minutes watching a video that is engineered to raise emotions. (I am not saying this is a good nor a bad thing, but the video is very clearly engineered to get an emotional rise out of people rather than just deliver information and a plan.) I am still doing research, and will be doing research even after I post this blog. I have however come across a few things that I raised my suspicions. 

During my research I’ve found this blog http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/post/18890947431/we-got-trouble

And in this blog, there is this section.

“Still, Kony’s a bad guy, and he’s been around a while. Which is why the US has been involved in stopping him for years. U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has sent multiple missions to capture or kill Kony over the years. And they’ve failed time and time again, each provoking a ferocious response and increased retaliative slaughter. The issue with taking out a man who uses a child army is that his bodyguards are children. Any effort to capture or kill him will almost certainly result in many children’s deaths, an impact that needs to be minimized as much as possible. Each attempt brings more retaliation. And yet Invisible Children supports military intervention. Kony has been involved in peace talks in the past, which have fallen through. But Invisible Children is now focusing on military intervention.”

This point is one that I feel is a very valid concern. If Joseph Kony is a man who is known to kill on a whim, and has no qualms about slaughtering as many children as he wishes, is this really the best direction to go? 

Would I love to see a man like Joseph Kony arrested? Yes. I don’t know many people who would not like that. The question is though, is this campaign the right way to go about it? What if such an outpouring of attention causes Joseph Kony to kill more children in retaliation? 

Again I am not for or against the movement, I am skeptical and I am raising questions where I feel they should be raised.  

The Visible Children article above goes into detail a lot better than I have here, but I did feel like touching on this subject because of how relevant it is currently and how widespread it has become.