Monday, March 12, 2012

Seven Thoughts on the Banality of Sentimentality

Teju Cole via Ethan Zuckerman:

  1. From Sachs to Kristof to Invisible Children to TED, the fastest growth industry in the US is the White Savior Industrial Complex.
  2. The white savior supports brutal policies in the morning, founds charities in the afternoon, and receives awards in the evening.
  3. The banality of evil transmutes into the banality of sentimentality. The world is nothing but a problem to be solved by enthusiasm.
  4. This world exists simply to satisfy the needs -- including, importantly, the sentimental needs -- of white people and Oprah.
  5. The White Savior Industrial Complex is not about justice. It is about having a big emotional experience that validates privilege.
  6. Feverish worry over that awful African warlord. But close to 1.5 million Iraqis died from an American war of choice. Worry about that.
  7. I deeply respect American sentimentality, the way one respects a wounded hippo. You must keep your eye on it, for you know it is deadly.

Whitney Tilson:

we gotta figure out how to get something like (Kony 2012) going viral for our issue

How about Pascale Mauclair 2012?

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