It may be necessary at the start of this entry to raise the possibility and make the reader aware beforehand that this may make some people upset. As is always the case, I don’t set out to do this as a goal or end, like some sort of insatiable online troll, but it is just the nature opinion and expression given on such an open and hostile forum such as the Internet, which presents this inevitability. I am sure I have offended in my writings before, and here I likely am to do again with the reasonable conclusion that this won’t be the last time either.
Since this is more of a rant than anything else, I am going to forego lengthy introductions and simply state what I feel is true: There is nothing about “spreading awareness” in and of itself which is inherently virtuous. In fact, it has the potential for representing the exact opposite. I do not attest all “awareness raising” is immoral or lacks virtue, I only profess the current phenomenon that exists in pop culture where it seems that virtue can be expressed by a single hashtag, in fact, cannot.
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| "'For us to be the first [to wear braille on sports jerseys] is really cool to bring awareness to the cause,' Orioles pitcher Mike Write said." |
The term “raising awareness” obviously infers there is some issue or cause that people are unknowledgeable about, or completely ignorant and unaware of, and it is regarded as necessary that recognition of the said issue be forwarded among a society so the problems and struggles that result from it may be remedied, defeated, or hindered. To use the example above, it isn’t “raising awareness” to project and promote a cause which everyone is already keenly aware of. Blindness is a condition I would suspect the majority of adult individuals who are tuning into or watching Baseball, know of. I might go even further and to say it is quite well-known the world over, and depending on how you look at it (no pun intended; well maybe subconsciously), is experienced to a degree by many who have severe vision problems. In a sense, it would be like me trying to raise awareness of, near-sightedness, male-pattern baldness, inner-ear infections, hangnails, or dry, itchy, flaky scalp. I can try to raise awareness all I want, but if everyone is already aware of the issues, it doesn’t raise much of anything at all. Other than hearing myself talk, it has no more virtue than a person posting #HowAboutThoseBlindFolks on Twitter.
In another sense, you may quickly and rightly object protesting that such things like “raising awareness” for the blind actually encourages people to give to a cause or charity, and if this is the case then I say “good!” That is great! Charity is inherently virtuous! Making people aware of a charity, and particularly volunteering for that charity, is far different than “raising awareness” that blind people exist. One is inherently virtuous, the other is not. You can quite obviously do both. Case in point, the Orioles baseball team did auction off the braille jerseys and gave the proceeds to charity, which is their saving grace in my opinion. Still seems a bit odd to me, but they still backed up statements with action. You may be of the kind where you “raise awareness” with time, effort, you give generously to charity, and therefore, to you, the term “raise awareness” is interchangeable with the promotion of giving and it all serves to that end, and if that is the case I raise no issue with you. However, I would say that you have broken away from the norm, in that you don’t serve platitudes, but back them up with action.
It seems clear that there are those who say this in a superficial sense and do so without any real effort, believe, or feel the phrase alone legitimizes an overinflated sense of personal accomplishment and charity which they enjoy with minimal or non-existent effort. It’s like a person receiving or making the argument that they deserve the Medal of Honor without ever entering a war zone or wanting to engage in combat. You need to be in the arena and on the field. A spectator shouting to another spectator or encouraging one another to cheer, and what to cheer for, in the end, neither gets credit for the touchdown nor should they. Even those on the sidelines are personally invested and ready to go at a moment's notice once the coach calls on them. A yelling spectator is far below both.
Charity and giving in a sense sound so boring though. Isn’t it better to think that you not only gave to charity but accompanied by that donation the knowledge that you are furthering a worthwhile cause and promoting “awareness”? Honestly, it certainly sounds better. To give to the blind is just charity, but to “raise awareness” means you are on some greater cause and mission. Some greater calling beckons and needs you. Yes! You! YOU must spread the word and receive recognition for your brave awareness-raising!
All and all, as we have said, the virtue lies in efforts, in charity, in volunteer work, and in raising money, with the accumulated funds being a pool that you yourself have contributed to. “Raising awareness” is only peeing in someone else’s pool as a contribution and trying to take credit for its construction. Simple “awareness” raising, is relatively worthless. If a homeless man who just lost everything and is struggling on the street, or living in a van, he needs help to build a solid foundation to get his life back together. If a few people are simply made aware of his plight somewhere out in the suburbs, what does their awareness of his struggle mean to the man who has lost it all? Jack squat, that’s what.
It’s hard to say that every person “raising awareness” is a person trying to leech on some moral or ethical loophole, and because it is so difficult, I am quite fortunate that it isn’t the point I am trying to make. As mentioned it may have its place in fund-raising among respectable and charitable organizations. I live in the Pacific Northwest and here we have a number of prominent charities that are directed toward blindness and handicaps in a more general sense. A couple of these include Northwest Center and The Lighthouse For The Blind. These good people strive to collect donations in person and over the phone (telemarketers are one thing, but if you get mad that a charity calls you, even during dinner, well, I just hope you aren’t of the sort). In my recollection, they never start by saying, “Yes, hello. I am so-and-so and I am trying to raise awareness for the blind. If you could go ahead and tweet a hashtag we would appreciate it.” It was always the virtue of giving and charity which was impressed upon the person being approached. They never left saying, “Okay, please tell just one person today about blind people.” Once more, the real virtue being the focus, not a false one.
As I can’t say there is absolutely no reason for “raising awareness,” and I don’t think it should be open to mockery in all circumstances. Just because most people are aware of the existence of domestic violence doesn’t mean that they are knowledgeable of its extent in society, nor does it mean that it should cease to be a continual topic of conversation and social reflection. In this regard, “raising awareness” is akin to saying that we are keeping an issue at the forefront of social discourse that the behavior might be discouraged and rebuked veraciously as unethical and immoral.
Rule of thumb, how do we tell the difference between a positive “awareness-raising” and a negative or neutral one? It is all reducible to where we can ascribe the virtue. Simply tweeting #DefeatMalePatternBaldness or #UrinaryTractInfectionAwarenessMonth isn’t a virtuous action, or even a virtuous statement. It can be quite empty and designed to draw attention more toward the self and a supposed self-virtue, and the feeding of a hungry pride that desires empty accolades and thumbs-ups, hearts, likes, reposts, rather than the professed cause. If that is the case, then it is more unethical than ethical. In doing so you are not “raising awareness” of anything but yourself.
“Raising awareness” can also be considered a redundancy at times. Let us say I am fed up with leaf blowers at 8am in the morning. I can simply state, “I wish people would wait until at least 10am to use leaf blowers,” and people become quite aware of my stance on that issue. #NationalEarlyLeafBlowerAwarenessWeekend doesn’t raise any more or any less than my initial statement did. That person should become aware of your impressions is something already implied, and making a statement of your concerns is “raising awareness” in and of itself. We are left with two general options, a true “awareness-raising” which promotes a cause greater than the self and is attended with virtuous action, or the “awareness-raising” of the self and empty platitudes which represent no virtue either within the self or in attending action. In the end, promoting yourself at the expense of an issue or people suffering from an issue is you taking advantage of them. Nothing more. Speaking of redundancy I should probably work on closing this entry out.
Overall, what irks me is the promotion of the self over the cause it is purporting to expose, and even using that cause as a means to inflate persona for the sake of appearance. This is all too common. You may say that I am making a mockery of the term “raising awareness,” and maybe I am a bit in being critical, but I would also respond that indulging in this term in an unethical manner, as some have done, has already accomplished this very thing.
