<p>I go to a school where people are really into “causes.” They make clubs and cutesy T-shirts and signs to put on your door. While I really support most of the causes, I feel that this type of activism on campus is actually harmful to progress. Through the use of obnoxious (as I now feel about the, at least) buzzwords like “green” among others, doing the right thing has basically been turned into the hip thing to do. People think that putting a sign on their door to show “support” is good enough because sending your good feelings into the air is almost as good as actually researching and doing something about a problem. It’s really more a form of bragging than anything. Furthermore, because the type of people who participate in this trendification of causes tend to be organic neo-hippie granola-munchers, people who don’t want to be pegged as such feel the need to rebel by going against the causes because they can. It also makes it hard to attract status-quo lovers because all they see is a silly self-righteous trend, not the plight of others or danger in the future.</p>
<p>Sorry if that made little sense. It’s just really sad that, nowadays, helping others is more about showing what kind of person you are than actually caring about the people you are trying to help. Does anyone else feel the same way?</p>
<p>Totally! I think a lot of people are just trying to make themselves look like better people by getting ‘involved’ with all these different causes. You see these kind of people criticizing the government for not doing anything for the homeless, for example, but what are they doing? Do they volunteer at homeless shelters or do anything other than complain about it? It’s ridiculous, in my opinion.</p>
<p>It’s just like joining a club.</p>
<p>There’s this idea that “awareness” will help the environment or the poor or the sick. While rich or upper-middle-class people buy “green” items manufactured in carbon-pumping factories in the third world staffed by children paid 50 cents a day, there are people on the street and in the hospitals and in the gutters. While the country-club wealthy fly around in private jets or first class going to “benefits,” the children crying for a hunger that will never be satisfied could sure use 1/100 of the money spent on that country club house.</p>
<p>College protests used to be passionate, they used to mean something; now, it’s a bunch of people saving the world with their bumper stickers and t-shirts. Men on TV let us feel good about ending poverty for 10 cents a day, and the status-quo thickens as the rich get richer.</p>
<p>Here are some things awareness will do:</p>
<p>Awareness will let people see the truth
Awareness may spur action</p>
<p>Here are some things awareness without major action won’t do:</p>
<p>Awareness won’t house the homeless
Awareness won’t feed the hungry
Awareness won’t save the third world
Awareness won’t cure cancer
Awareness won’t keep Tuvalu above water</p>
<p>Awareness is great, but it is pointless without action; it ought to be the first step on the path of action, not the only action in a self-serving sense of doing something for others. If something is wrong in the world, it is our responsibility to fix it; not to use our bumper stickers to tell others to fix it.</p>