Saving the World From Its Surely Imminent Doom?

My writing partner, Charles, recently lent me one of Charles Bukowski’s books, the autobiographical The Captain is Out to Lunch and The Sailors Have Taken Over The Ship. Wonderful read. Highly recommend it. Was reading it the other day and although I get caught up in most of what Bukowski writes, I was particularly fixated on this sentence:

“The whole world is a sack of shit ripping open. I can’t save it.”

This really made me wonder. While I don't believe the world is a "sack of shit" per se, it brought to light, up out of my sub-consciousness the feeling that the world is in many ways a pretty awful place nowadays. Not that it’s entirely bad, of course, but like we all know, there are some major problems.

I suppose this was just a culmination that topped off a lot of things I have seen and experienced lately.

In one of Fenske’s first creative thinking class assignments, an art director brought in a piece that she painted. It was a baby boy’s face, with rusting barbed wire over it in the foreground. Her reasoning: She didn’t think that it was right to bring a child into this word the way it is today. I didn’t think much of it at the time. If anything, I just thought it was an interesting piece.

In Don Just’s class last week, each of the eight groups were told to come up with five solutions to problems going on around the world, ranging from curbing global warming to stopping the spread of AIDS in Africa. My group was charged with coming up with five ways to control illegal immigration. Not a fun assignment. It just served to add to the already overwhelming feeling I think most people my age have about the future of this country and of our world entirely.

This morning’s speaker, however, made me think a little differently. Stephen Greene, the CEO of Rock Corps, a for-profit organization that uses the power of music to get teens to volunteer in and around their communities, gave a moving lecture about the power that we as advertisers and media people have on impacting change in the world.

Through the Rock Corps program, funded by Boost Mobile, for 4 hours of volunteer work, kids are given a ticket to a concert for such big acts as Korn, The Game, T.I., Nelly, Panic! At The Disco, Young Jeezy, Ludacris and Busta Rhymes, among a growing list of others.



You cannot buy a ticket.

You cannot win a ticket.

You must earn a ticket.

What a novel concept.

And what an amazing way to live one’s life.

To not only pull in a comfortable salary and promote music and social action, but to be able to do what you truly love and make a difference in this world as your day-job.

The Government, he said, is not going to help. It’s up to corporations like Boost and up to influencers like us to be the difference-makers in this world and to get things done. To get the problems solved.

It was an amazing thing, to see someone with such high principles and standards for his organization, someone refusing to cut corners. Although it sounds trite and expected, I was most impressed when Mr. Greene, after being asked if he ever considered joining up with a record label in order to make it easier to book acts, replied that he wanted the artists themselves to be into the project. He didn’t want a band doing a concert simply for promotional reasons or because they felt they “had to” for their image or because they were under contract. He wanted bands like Korn, that had heard about the program and actually sought them out themselves as a way to facilitate the change they wanted to see.

Programs such as these, I believe, are going to be the real movers and shakers when it comes time to get the world’s problems in order.

It remains to be seen how we as the next generation of advertisers choose to use our talents in the future. As of now, I am already starting to see young creative professionals beginning to find ways to change/help the world. One such place is AllDayBuffet.org, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing young, bright, creative people together in order to do good and promote social change.

According to their website:

"As young creative beings, we have millions of hours of brainpower waiting to be tapped and thousands of arms waiting to build a difference together. we possess a global awareness – an active and informed opinion on the major issues of the day. we have a stake in improving our communities and exercising a powerful voice that can make a difference.

yet there is an overwhelming amount of appealing options out there and for many of us ‘changing the world’ isn’t one of them. it’s not that we don’t care; we don’t think we have the time to care.

we need a community, or rallying point, to drag us out of our comfort zones, connect us, and get us inspired and involved. we need activities and accessible forums that allow us to express our ideas and utilize our talents to affect change. we can all make an impact if we work together despite our full time jobs and busy social schedules. we can all become social entrepreneurs. working and thinking together, we can make much needed improvements."

As one Adcenter professor, Charles Hall, said, many students, after experiencing 2 years of ad school, become fed up with the ridiculousness of what the business really is and instead want to use their talents to make a difference.

2 years? How about 2 months.

Is the selling of McDonald’s Big Macs and Nike sneakers where our talents truly lie?

Will any of that reverse global warming? Or stop the spread of AIDS? Or end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Or promote free trade? Or shelter the homeless? Or end racism? Or end terrorism? Or clean up our communities? Or clean up our politics? Or make sure every American can read by the age of 18? Or end gun violence? Or make sure we have social security in 40 years? Or rebuild New Orleans?

Will any of that make the world a better place?

Are enough people willing to sacrifice their ambitions in order to be the difference between immenent doom and a world that one actually wants to raise children in?

Am I willing?

Are you?

dubs. out.