Live 8 just created the new “I support our troops” magnet
I’d like to say that I was able to catch a few of the Live 8 performances yesterday, but I wasn’t. Between studying for the bar exam, and having to listen to an array of inexpert MTV VJs jabber for extended periods about “using my voice,” the only thing I managed to take away from the event was that Lance Armstrong’s yellow bracelet is no longer the “cool” bracelet. (Oh, and that it’s a good thing Kurt Loder works for MTV and not NPR.) As for Armstrong’s “I don’t like cancer” bracelet, it now has to compete with this one.
Apparently a very large number of people were eager to end poverty by purchasing a $1 bracelet–or maybe even 100 of them!–because I was never able to access the server yesterday. Part of the problem is likely attributable to the number of elected representatives who were trying to purchase one to wear during their 2006 campaign. Rest assured that I’ll soon purchase my own bracelet–or maybe one of the cheaper knockoffs that comes along soon–so that everyone is confident that I too look down on poverty (and that I donated $1 to end it). I would donate my money to this organization, for whom my friend works, but their website is comparatively simple, they don’t give me a bracelet in exchange for my generous donation–how’s my senator supposed to find out that I don’t like poverty?–and Brad Pitt doesn’t work for them.
Joking aside, here is a list of organizations that could use your donation.
5 Responses to “Live 8 just created the new “I support our troops” magnet”
I am a little concerned about the language used by a few of those organizations, though. People and groups that use the terms “social justice” and “economic justice” usually have more in mind than equality before the law and that sort of thing.
Also, the “Church World Service” “works to . . . address the root causes of poverty and powerlessness.” Scarcity? Maybe government corruption or some form of true injustice is what they had in mind, but I would want to know what they intend to fight before I would want to help them. (There is evidence on their web site of what they might have meant, but I cannot find anything stating what they believe the root causes of poverty to be.)
That comment was supposed to have my name on it.
Also, when you pointed out that the bracelet would tell other people that you care enough about ending poverty to donate $1, it made me think that there should actually be a bracelet with the words “I care enough about ending poverty to donate $1″ engraved in it. It would be pretty much the same thing as the “I support the guy in China” products, but I like it anyway.
I was thinking the same thing–about the bracelet saying “I care enough to donate $1.”
There is a lot going on here: from the social compulsion that drives people to flaunt their altruism (if there ever was a more blatant hypocrisy…) to the hyper-vigilance any person looking to get public credibility must pay to fads and trends, I think the rubber bracelet and its progeny are fascinating study on pop culture and lowest-common-denominator social crusades.
I’ll still wear my “Got Guts” purple Crohn’s Disease bracelet if I can figure out where I put it last…
Yes, Lance Armstrong