2009
Compassionism :: The New aWEARness (extended dance mix)
People are waking up to the new / old idea of Justice and Compassion. The more Globally Connected we get, the more Globally Aware we seem to become. Compassion Based Organizations are popping up at an accelerated rate. People are wanting to get “involved” more and more. It’s suddenly officially COOL to CARE.
Kids don’t start bands anymore, they start 501C3’s.
While the cynics sit in the corner and throw rocks, I stand up and put my rally cap on. I think more people becoming more “involved” is only a good thing, and has the potential to lead to something truly great for the world and for the individual.
The part of this New Awareness that’s most interesting to me, however, is the way that Compassion 2.0 is mashing up with Consumerism 1.0. As more and more younger cats get these non-for-profits off the ground, the more smart, savvy, and saturated they are with the power and magnetism of Marketing and Consumerism.
We are stumbling into a new age of activism. We’ll call it – COMPASSIONISM. It’s a way of Doing Good while still Consuming Goods. It’s a brilliant strategy (whether conscious or otherwise). An absolute contexualization of the best and worst of Globalization.
The organizations that have drawn the most attention as of late are invariably the ones that have the best design. They have the coolest shirts, hippest shoes, dopest hats, flyest bracelets, freshest buttons, and conscious easing conflict free bags.
These are the shirts, shoes, and bags that everyone wants to wear. The ones that everyone wants to be seen wearing. Suddenly, your Acceptance is now directly contingent on your Awareness. Those rules apply to me just as much as they do to anyone else. For as much as I want to Care, sadly, I Care more that you KNOW I Care (or at least that I am aware). I still fundamentally want to belong.
In an age of Compassionism, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to belong, to fit in. There’s nothing wrong with Shirts, Shoes, and Bags. What I’m suggesting is that maybe instead of settling for Compassionism, we can raise the stakes for what it means to wear one of these Shirts, Shoes, or Bags. In so doing, we raise the value of what those goods mean.
Some thoughts on how to get Compassion beyond simply Fasion ::
- Only give away shirts to people who GO to wherever it is the shirt is supposed to draw our attention to. Seriously. Have the best designers in the world make a limited run of 100 shirts, or hats, or fanny packs that you get for FREE when you GO. Whether it means going to Uganda or to volunteer at suicide prevention center. Turn my $10 into 10 hours or even better, 10 days and that shirt will mean a world of difference more to me.
- To get a Bag or Earings or a Bracelet, you have to GO and spend a day MAKING them. Go and give that rescued sex slave a day off and YOU make the conflict free jewelry that day. Then you would REALLY have a story! “Merry Christmas, Mom. I worked for four days with former sex slaves to make your Gift. Enjoy” Priceless.
- Make Micro Lending sexy. Make it hip. Something that all the kids are into. Kiva has been killing it here. They raised 4 x more money than the United Way last year without spending a single dollar on Traditional Marketing or Advertising. Heifer International have been plugging away at this for years at this. But my hunch is that you don’t have a Heifer T-Shirt. I’m pretty sure they make t-shirts. But if they did, they would be made out of Yak Hair.
- To get a pair of shoes, you have to give a pair (at least one pair…and not your crappy old pumas) not just buy a pair. Double and Triple my Return on Investment by getting me to give more than I get.
These are just a few thoughts. Not cynical nay saying but sincere and heart felt desire to see my Compassion transcend my Consumerism. To actually join with what God is actually doing in the world, beyond of my closet.
So here it is, an Open Invitation to all the Hip Non-Profits desiring to do Good in the world ::
We like what you’re trying to do. We see where you are going. We give you permission to appeal to our deep desire to belong. You can play off of our obsession with fashion all you want. We want you to feel the freedom to keep it cool.
Just make it mean something more to us than another t-shirt. We have enough t-shirts. Give us the opportunity to move from aWEARness to ENGAGEMENT. Lead us past ourselves into a world that is more broken and beautiful than we could ever see from where we stand. Give us a vision bigger than our wallets and beyond our closets.
We will keep giving you our money.
You need to start asking for our time.
You need to start expecting our hearts.
You need to start affecting our lives.
And if you do, I promise you that together…
…we will see God bring change to our hearts and change to our world.
Your Turn :: What are some of the Organiations that we need to know about that are pushing through Comapssionism?
