BloggEd

To start with, I want to express my compassion for those who have lost their relatives and friend in the recent shooting. This post has nothing to do with indifference, but my point is to oppose it.

I hereby refuse to partake in any candle-lighting, red T-shirt wearing, rolling down my socks -campaigns spawned nowadays after any tragic event takes place. Why? Because my firm belief is that such campaigns replace much-needed, practical means of helping by offering a superficial, formal substitute which will not help victims at all. Instead, people lighting their candles will have false sense of caring and participation.

Of course people can do both – show superficial signs of participation and donate their time, money or other resources, but I still maintain that such superficial forms of help will easily distract people from real, actually helpful means of showing their care. This is because human nature is so keen on form over function. Take any religion as an example: most practitioners of given religion don’t really give a sh*t for their (formal) belief in their everyday life, but they can be very strict about how different rituals should be performed – something which happens subconsciously, I believe – all the while they consider themselves very orthodox and sincere practitioners of their faith.

So, to favor function over form instead of vice versa, next time you receive an SMS to light a candle or wear a mauve T-shirt, please consider ignoring the message immediately and doing something useful instead, like donating your money, food, offering your help or at least writing about it. But don’t think that your candle alone will do much for the people in misery.

(Besides, hundreds of thousands of euros given to operators, result of sending SMS messages asking you to light a candle would be much better directed by creating a donation campaign for the victims of catastrophe concerned)