Concerts, candles, and chants
Here is a concert for another hot cause and questioned by rocker Roger Daltry. I don’t know about you, but I am tired of all the tokenism we’ve taken to. Every cause, every tragic event, is marked with a candle light vigil, a celebrity concert, or a colored ribbon. Sometimes the symbol contradicts the cause, like this global warming celebrity concert. Raising consciousness has become another media event and a form of contemporary entertainment. Not to mention another corporate way to sell us more products. Please don’t ask me to place a meaningless bumper sticker on my car, or observe an empty moment of silence. Tell me something real I can do. Save the money, natural resources, and time by not having the big event. The problem is not that there are not any worthy causes, but rather that we have confused symbols with real action. Seldom have vigils, chants, and mass togetherness solved the world’s problems. Most social change has occurred because people slugged it out over decades in lonely work. I think of William Wilberforce, Susan B. Anthony, and Dorothy Day. Yes, it’s better to light a candle and than curse the darkness, but the candle better be made out of something other than wax because it will soon go out.
The May-June 2007 issue of Utne Reader has several articles that examine the meaning and effectiveness of slogans, placards, and marches. It’s asking some provocative questions worth pondering. Let’s not be deluded by tokenism that make us feel like we are doing something and be distracted from doing the small (or so they seem) concrete actions that are closer to our everyday lives.