Rally

The smartphone, our second brain, and what some would consider one the many added banes to our existence, are here to stay. Emerging at the turn of the millennium the smartphone has change the social dynamics of the human connection, pulsing society in a direction of uncharted territory. One thing that is for certain, the smartphone has added itself to the list of conflicts erupting all over the world.
I remember when I asked for my first smartphone. I was twenty years old. Before then I had use a standard cell phone, the type that only texts and makes calls. Approaching my parents on the matter was difficult, however, using my then upcoming birthday as leverage for my case, I asked for one.
Initially it was my mother who said first and foremost, “Shame on you for asking for such a thing. You don’t NEED it.” This was all said again a few days later when she handed me a cut out of a comic that depicted a Darfur child holding an iPhone. The speech bubble captured the boy saying, in what I imagined an impaired and hopeless voice,“But, can I eat it?”
I respected my mothers attempt at diverging my consumption of the smartphone through humane sympathy. Even though I eventually got one, a seed had been sown. Now that I am twenty three the seed has begun to sprout. I nourish the growth by providing myself knowledge of what goes in to the things I buy, who is affected by the things I want, and unfortunately, the things I need. The smartphone is just one of many tainted social artifacts that is a product of death, destruction, famine, rape, basically the upheaval of entire communities all over the world.
Heavy mineral extraction from nearby mines has forced communities of Congo and Kenya to go through tremendous personal and social distress. Tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold are fuel to the fire. They are necessary components to the treasured consumer electronic heavy weights, the smartphone and video games consoles. The exploitation of these precious minerals exploded when greedy black elite took over ranks after the deliverance of white foreigner colonizers, forming dictatorships financed by the minerals. The dismantling of the government brought forth proxy wars between militia who smelled out the importance of the minerals, thus creating a vortex of conflict and power struggle that has taken an estimated five million peoples lives since 1998.
Multi-international corporations are repining the benefits of the confusion and despair that has casted itself over the regions of Congo and Kenya. What is more unfortunate is that as consumers we give them the green light. We make the businesses do their business because we demand the product that they offer. Those products require those minerals. So where does that leave us?
Earlier this year in July congress passed the Wall Street Reform bill. This bill was President Obama’s attempt to bring protection to the consumer and order and security to business. Nestled in bill was a key provision aimed at enforcing companies to comply with securities and exchange commission to audit files that disclose if minerals that a company uses in their products are conflict free. Some analysts see this as a big step in wedging open the dialogue incumbent on all to discuss.
Words are captivating if said right, but in the age of information, dialogue can become buried by the continuous facts that pour out of the faucet of “truth”. Truth has come to be arduous to understand when the exposure rate to secular knowledge delivers too much to sort through. Comprehension of the broader issues is diluted by memes of cultural relevance delivered through the very products that we as society consume. Physical action must proceed from dialogue. The very need to form dialogue outside clouted discourse must find a way.
Perhaps this is period in time where technology has done humanity a disservice. Or is just generation Y and the United States? Regardless, as someone who is apart of a generation balancing two perspectives of society, pre and post millennium, we should move forth by grasping the idea that the nation state is crumbling. Our generation has to understand the concept of human changes that come with a changing societal structure. Being that we now have entered a globalized era in which the rate of contact between other human beings is at a all time high, a psychological over turn of human perception has to take place. Casting aside proxy cultural wars the human is all that is left, we are more the same than different. We can be a generation that leads the rally cry of the human spirit on the fronts of a battered and broken country. The shards of our message shall disperse a spirit that will knead in to the folds of a listening ear. Together we can rekindle the cognitive senses and draft ideas for the future to prepare and eradicate conflict minerals and luxury consumer products as fuels to the human rights fighter.
Nothing can be done without the willingness to sacrifice comfort and routine. As Henry Van Dyke said, “As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of the soul will not emerge”. There is no single way of changing the routine if we say to ourselves who cares? Not my problem. It happens. These do not benefit steps towards change. It is time we open our minds to the future and where we as a generation will stand. Together we can create a generational legioned that will stand the test of time, a generation that evolved humanity. The social institutions have begun to change. We must change and adapt. We do not NEED as much as we think. Standing behind the lines of an export nation we can no longer be pelted by consumer products packaged with ghosts of neo-colonial slaves. Our generation must leave deep cuts in the vortexes of conflict around the world by putting down our consumer toys and picking up our voices. As Thomas Jefferson said, “Every generation needs a new revolution.” There must be a reason why this guy has lasted so long in the history books.

Dylan McFatrich