You Don’t Need a Rock Show to Get Involved
8 July 2007
I spent some time yesterday watching the Live Earth concerts. It was your typical “concert for a cause” thing that has been played out in the past. Nothing yesterday was unique. Watching the political “segways” between bands made me think of the documentary i saw a few years ago on the Tibetan Freedom Festival. They were talking about how most of the crowd probably didn’t know enough about the cause, and as they are talking and showing the crowd entering the gates, one guy gets his ticket torn, starts jumping up and down and looks into the camera and goes “FREE TIBET!” People who go to these shows for the most part don’t care about the politics behind them. Honestly, I’d be in the same boat with them. I mean, I care about global warming or AIDS in Africa, but when I’m going to an all day show to see 10 different bands, seeing some guy explain the science behind carbon monoxide isn’t going to be one of the highlights.
It seems a lot of young people these days want to have a cause to get behind, something to be a part of, something to support. I know that I mostly miss my church back in Clemson because when I was going there, I was a part of something bigger than myself. It was a community of like minded individuals working together towards a common goal. Community is an essential part of life, and without it, you miss out on a lot of things.
Philanthropy is promoted by rock stars these days as the cool thing to do. Whether or not they actually act on what they advocate is another story though. The Live Earth shows seemed hypocritical to me. Getting the word out about global warming is great, but to expend all that energy, resources, time, etc toward something that is not really going to teach any more than what people already know does not make sense to me. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but when there is a commercial break during the show asking me to not take airplane trips, and here they are flying bands all over the world (including Antarctica) to play concerts, there is a false dichotomy. It’s fine to raise awareness, but keep things small. Did they really have to have concerts on all 7 continents or were they doing that just because it’d be a cool thing to do?
In this year that has already brought new albums from some of my favorite bands, there is another coming out in September. David Crowder Band’s going to be dropping “The Remedy”, and they’ve had a website specifically for the album going for a few months. Today I noticed that part of their website had links to several organizations where you can make a difference. It does not matter if you don’t like the music or the band, but you can get involved. Donate to build wells in Africa, balance out your car’s CO2 output by supporting wind energy projects, help build a house through Habitat, help a kid get a life changing surgery. You don’t need Al Gore putting on his Inconvenient Truth hat and telling you to share a bath with someone to help save water (It’s a real ’solution’, #45). You can actually help people and/or save the planet without buying anything, but by simply taking the time to decide how you want to help.
(photo from NASA Visible Earth)
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