So its funny that everyone is shooting for \”lessons\” from Stop Kony, since most of them entirely lack context. Its like some kind of forensic science typically used to reconstruct the past being applied to predict future success. When we\’re living the moment. Right now.

I can\’t tell you how useless most of these lessons will be because they are entirely missing the power of the last eight years of organizing that the \”viral video\” represents, and the relationships that have been built that span the globe. And the power of those relationships to influence others.

To break it down, dusty critiques of white male \”heros\” and disempowered voices (for example) are fairly groundless. Literally hundreds of thousands of people have been empowered in the journey they have shared over the last 8 years. Kony went viral because it is, in part, their story. Even 3, 6, 9 seconds of visibility in this video is a kind of affirmation most non-profits don\’t even give their staff, much less their constituents. In my view the video just happens to have a very white, very gifted spokesperson. Rightfully so, given the leadership role he has played to make it happen.

Kony isn\’t trying to be everything. Its trying to be one thing: realize a pledge that was made years ago. Like a cold front, its trying to create the conditions in which a powerful phase change can occur. Right now, they are saying, the most important thing you the viewer can do, is \”join us\” for an April event akin to a global \”art in.\” Oh yeah, and does it help that they have the world\’s attention? You bet.

If you take the time go to their site (instead of watching a video shared on, say, Facebook) you can see how it works: http://www.kony2012.com/

I hope folks will, for now, do a little less unpacking and a little more creative thinking about how to leverage this powerful media moment – that\’s where, I think, the real learning will take place.

One of the saddest, most misdirected, most significant opportunities lost in this whole experience is that activists, advocates, pundits, and strategists – everyone except, it seems, the young people themselves – have failed to pick up the pieces where Invisible Children left off.

Let\’s rewind: almost ten years ago Invisible Children set out to make a movie that would bring the story of the \”hidden holocaust\” in Sudan to American audiences. They got sidetracked by Uganda, which at that point was maybe a sideshow to the Rwanda genocide in most people\’s minds, if anything (host of the RPF…never mind). So, for the next ten years these guys built a movement on what they\’d learned. And they kept going back – to connect with friends, to build schools, produce bracelets, gather more footage. Whatever it took to hustle the story and feed their growing movement back home.

And the movement back home was growing. From their Global Night Commute to the Schools for Schools campaign, Invisible Children has been building an army of young people who are educated about the issue, passionate about making the world a better place, and committed to action – whether a bake sale or a school improvement trip.

And then, a week ago, Stop Kony was launched, and everything changed. Suddenly, this vocal, passionate, outspoken group that had been dedicated, on point, committed, consistent, was on the firing line for everything that it was not. Instead of the nonprofit, NGO, academic, punditry saying holy sh!t this is our moment, they recoiled. When they could have stepped up to fill the gap, they tried to make it larger. By pushing stories and criticisms – some founded and some not – they\’ve created a climate of doubt and suspicion where if, instead, they\’d said, \”Hey this is incomplete, learn more here\” or \”military action is not the only option, consider these,\” or \”clicking \”like\” isn\’t enough: sign this petition\” they\’ve lost their single biggest opportunity to claim their piece of the moment, to ride the Stop Kony juggernaut.

Its too bad. Because 2/3 of what they ARE doing, from a visibility standpoint, is missing the mark I think.

This is a great point. So perhaps I should clarify my use of the word, “random.” What I was trying to communicate is the idea of walking with no particular destination in mind. Walking for walking’s sake, if one could define walking in this instance as movement toward, through, and beyond encounter, perhaps even discovery. To venture out with no more explicit intention than to receive, in some space of time, that which lays “out there,” but with no specific concept of what the received thing might be before commencing the walk.

Random gets at the forces which one may encounter, without anticipation, along the way. Less so the “more or less reasonable explanations” for my reaction to each encounter.