Lets

Talk Kony 2012

Jim Johnson Poli7cal Science

Undergraduate Philosophy Council & Students for a Democra7c Society 19 April 2012

 (1) Nature of campaign (coordina7on) (2) Nature of campaign (funding) (3) Claims of success (4) Visual Strategies more generally

Cri7cal Readings on KONY 2012 Campaign

Barbara B. Brown, Ph.D., John Metzler, Ph.D., Chris7ne Root & Patrick Vinck, Ph.D. [13 April 2012] React and Respond: The Phenomenon of Kony 2012 (Wri[en on behalf of the Outreach Council of the African Studies Associa7on) Available in PDF from: h[p://concernedafricascholars.org/uganda-lra-central-africa/ ***** Adam Branch. [9 March 2012 (11:40 AM)] KONY 2012 Wont Change the Lives of Ugandans h[p://www.dissentmagazine.org/atw.php?id=707 David Campbell [12 March 2012] Kony2012, symbolic acEon and the potenEal for change h[p://www.david-campbell.org/2012/03/12/kony2012-symbolic-ac7on-and-the-poten7al-for-change/ David Campbell [16 March 2012] Kony2012: networks, acEvism and community h[p://www.david-campbell.org/2012/03/16/kony2012-networks-ac7vism-community/ Alex de Waal [11 March 2012] Dont Elevate Joseph Kony h[p://africanarguments.org/2012/03/11/don%E2%80%99t-elevate-joseph-kony-by-alex-de-waal/ B. E. Wilson [11 March 2012 (12:49 pm)] Invisible Children Funded By AnEgay, CreaEonist ChrisEan Right h[p://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2012/03/11/invisible-children-funded-by-an7gay-crea7onist-chris7an-right/ Ethan Zuckerman [03/08/2012 (10:53 am)] Unpacking Kony 2012 h[p://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2012/03/08/unpacking-kony-2012/

 First point: If the KONY 2012 video went viral, that did not happen spontaneously analysis of twi[er pa[erns suggests this was a very well-orchestrated campaign.
h"p://blog.socialow.com/post/7120244932/data-viz-kony2012-see-how-invisible- networks-helped-a-campaign-capture-the-worlds-a"enEon

 (1) In looking at the data, we detected that a pre-exis7ng networked

infrastructure was already set in place, triggered at the start of the campaign. Invisible Children has already been building an on-the-ground network of young supporters across the United States, ac7va7ng them all at the same 7me, as the campaign began.

(2) Each cluster represents users from dierent physical loca7ons. The large cluster on the top right includes users from Birmingham Alabama who were some of the earliest to publicize the video. Other clusters in the graph include Pi[sburgh, Oklahoma City and Noblesville Indiana. (3) The hashtag #Kony2012 ini7ally trended in Birmingham on March 1st, a few days before the video was even placed online. (4) This movement did not emerge from the big ci7es, but rather small- medium sized ci7es across the Unites States. It is heavily supported by Chris7an youth, many of whom post Biblical psalms as their prole bios. (5) Invisible Children enlisted the help of their supporters in barraging celebri7es to come out in support of the campaign, making it incredibly easy to Tweet at Taylor Swiq or Rihanna within two clicks. Once celebri7es came on board, the campaign was given mul7ple boosts.
h"p://blog.socialow.com/post/7120244932/data-viz-kony2012-see-how-invisible- networks-helped-a-campaign-capture-the-worlds-a"enEon

 Second Point: It is wrongheaded to suggest well,

there is nothing wrong with lots of American kids sending money o to a charity that will help kids in far o lands. Even if you avoid confusing charity with poli7cal ac7vism, and even if you overlook the other, suspect, sources of Invisible Children funding, it actually makes a dierence where you send your money and Invisible Children is not a good bet.

 Invisible Children's accounts show it is a cash

rich opera7on, which more than tripled its income to $9m (5.68m) in 2011, mainly from personal dona7ons. Of this, nearly 25% was spent on travel and lm-making. Most of the money raised has been spent in the US. The accounts show $1.7m went on US employee salaries, $850,000 in lm produc7on costs, $244,000 in "professional services" thought to be Washington lobbyists and $1.07m in travel expenses. Nearly $400,000 was spent on oces in San Diego.
h"p://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/08/jacob-acaye-child-kony-2012?intcmp=239

 Third Point: Lets set aside the important ques7on of whether Obama sending U.S. military advisors in Central Africa is a good thing for the people there or the people of the United States. Regardless, it is unlikely that the U.S. was moved to send advisors to Central Africa primarily for altruis7c/moral reasons. It is unlikely that KONY 2012 is anything other than a convenient ra7onaliza7on for policy mo7vated by realist mo7va7ons.

 AUDIE CORNISH: . . . I'm wondering if you can describe the importance of the poli7cs behind this pursuit of Joseph Kony. SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN: . . . Well, there are several reasons for this. For one thing, Kony is a very uncontroversial target. If he were to be caught, no one would protest that. So that's one reason. Second reason, you know, even though they are weakened, they do con7nue to be a threat, and the Americans are concerned of threat to their African partners' peace and security in this region. But I think probably what some analysts have told me is that there's also a sense that, you know, the Americans want to support the Ugandans. The Ugandans have been key allies of the United States in counterterrorism, especially in Somalia, where the Ugandans make the bulk of the African Union Force there that is ghEng the al-Qaida-linked miliEa al-Shabaab, which certainly the United States consider a key threat to its own security and to regional security. There's also, you know, pressure from human rights groups, like the Invisible Children's video that gained so much a[en7on over the past few weeks is also adding pressure to nd Kony.
Months into Kony Mission, US AcEon Unclear All Things Considered (18 April 2012) h"p://www.npr.org/2012/04/18/150903298/months-into-mission-u-s-acEon-against-kony-unclear

 Fourth Point : Visual strategies can be not just

manipula7ve (as in KONY 2012) but depoli7cizing.

Mr. Cogito Reads the Newspaper

Zbigniew Herbert

On the rst page a report of the killing of 120 soldiers the war lasted a long 7me you could get used to it

close alongside the news of a sensa7onal crime with a portrait of the murderer the eye of Mr Cogito slips indierently over the soldiers hecatomb to plunge with delight into the descrip7on of everyday horror a thirty-year-old farm labourer under the stress of nervous depression killed his wife and two small children

It is described with precision the course of the murder the posi7on of the bodies and other details for 120 dead you search on a map in vain too great a distance covers them like a jungle they dont speak to the imagina7on there are too many of them the numeral zero at the end changes them into an abstrac7on a subject for medita7on: the arithme7c of compassion.

 This paper examines one fundamental mechanism that may play a

role in many, if not all, episodes of mass murder neglect. This mechanism involves the capacity to experience aect, the posiEve and negaEve feelings that combine with reasoned analysis to guide our judgments, decisions, and ac7ons. Many researchers have begun to study the dance of aect and reason as it applies to decision making. I shall draw from this research to show how the sta7s7cs of mass murder or genocide, no ma[er how large the numbers, fail to convey the true meaning of such atroci7es. The numbers fail to spark emo7on or feeling and thus fail to mo7vate ac7on. Genocide in Darfur is real, but we do not feel that reality. I shall conclude with sugges7ons about how we might make genocide feel real and mo7vate appropriate interven7ons. I shall also argue that we cannot only depend on our feelings about these atroci7es but, in addi7on, we must create and commit ourselves to ins7tu7onal and poli7cal responses based upon reasoned analysis of our moral obliga7ons to stop the mass annihila7on of innocent people.

Paul Slovic, If I Look at the Mass I Will Never Act; Psychic Numbing & Genocide,
Judgment and Decision Making, 2 (2007), 7995. Paul Slovic, Numbed by Numbers, Foreign Policy.com (13 March 2007).

Nachtweys Predicament (But not just him!)

I like to work in the same intimate space that the subjects inhabit. I want to give viewers the sense that theyre sharing the same space with a photos subject. What allows me to overcome the emotional obstacles inherent in my work is the belief that when people are confronted by images that evoke compassion, they will continue to respond, no matter how exhausted, angry or frustrated they may be. [My] job is to help reach a broad base of people who translate their feelings into an articulate stance, then through the mechanisms of political and humanitarian organizations, bring pressure to bear on the process of change.

 For compassion, to be stricken with the suering of someone else as though it were contagious and pity, to be sorry without being touched in the esh are not only not the same, they may not even be related. Compassion, by its very nature, cannot be touched o by the suerings of a whole class or a people, or, least of all, mankind as a whole. It cannot reach out further than what is suered by one person and s7ll be what it is supposed to be, co- suering. Its strength hinges on the strength of passion itself, which, in contrast to reason, can comprehend only the par7cular, but has not capacity for generaliza7on. Hannah Arendt. 1963. On Revolu<on. Penguin, pages 85,86.

 Closely connected with this inability to generalize is the curious muteness or, at least, awkwardness with words that . . . is the sign of compassion, in contrast to the loquacity of pity. Passion and compassion are not speechless, but their language consists in gestures and expressions of countenance rather than in words. . . . Compassion . . . abolishes the distance, the in between which always exists in human intercourse, and if virtue will always be ready to assert that it is be[er to suer wrong than do wrong, compassion will transcend this in complete and even nave sincerity that it is easier to suer than to see others suer. Because compassion abolishes the distance, the worldly space between men where poli7cal ma[ers, the whole realm of human aairs, are located, it remains, poli7cally speaking, irrelevant and without consequence.
Hannah Arendt. 1963. On Revolu<on. Penguin, pages 85,86.

Sebastiao Salgados Alternative

If the person looking at my pictures only feels compassion, I will believe that I have failed completely. Documentary photographers . . . must provoke a discussion. We need to understand two things: solidarity and community. If we have a real idea of solidarity and a real idea of community, we might survive.

A couple of Follow-up Readings

Richard Bernstein. 2005. The Abuse of Evil: The CorrupEon of

PoliEcs & Religion Since 9/11 (Polity). James Johnson. 2011. The Arithme7c of Compassion: Rethinking the Poli7cs of Photography, BriEsh Journal of PoliEcal Science 41:621-43.