@Nandaba You talk as if the only audience being made aware of this situation is your 'teenage hipsters'. I'll agree with you that the adoption of causes like this by the 'teenage hipster' group may not do much to add to the authenticity or urgency of the cause. However, that doesn't change the fact that they are humans working to spread the message, which you yourself said awareness in and of itself is a good thing. It then becomes somewhat irrelevant whether they are truthfully trying to change things for the better, or whether they are simply looking for 'the next thing' to boost their hipster status.
Because the message itself is being spread, that means that people who actually WILL work to make a difference will be made aware of the problem. And if we're lucky, we might even have a few hipsters convert into true agents of change.
Secondly, I'll take a hipster who is aware of even one single issue that plagues humanity, over one who is completely oblivious to the numerous atrocities in this world... any day of the week. I'm tired of the argument that, because there is more than one thing wrong with this world we live in, that we should somehow feel ashamed that we are neglecting other issues. It's almost sounds like you're trying to justify doing nothing at all because of the fact that we're each incapable of tackling all the issues at once (ie: Kony, Ugandan government, sponsoring of war lords, etc). I think that's ridiculous.
Us humans have one thing going for us...there's a lot of humans. Billions of humans in fact!
Why don't we, I dunno, split things up? Divide and conquer?
Regarding screwing countries up. I completely agree with you. Your approach must be catered to the situation. That said, I have to imagine that they've put at least A LITTLE thought into the approach. Maybe that's a dangerous assumption on my part. However, the rest of us do not have the time to fully dedicate our lives to this cause or investigate the best approach. Therefore, in order for the common man/woman to contribute in some way, there has to be some sort of compression of these issues into easily digestible 30 min nuggets. The alternative being a state of complete obliviousness amongst the general public.
Yes, maybe this isn't the perfect approach. And maybe we can refine the process to become more effective as we learn from our mistakes going forward.
However, the alternative of doing nothing at all is tantamount to placing your seal of approval on the actions of a man responsible for the enslavement of thousands of children.
It's obvious you're very smart. You obviously have a grasp of the situation far better than the average person.
Why don't you use that big ol' sexy brain of yours to work on coming up with a solution instead of only hating on other attempts to solve these complex problems?
Only being critical without offering a more palatable alternative only serves to discourage changing the status quo.
