A Guard Against Paternalism

Practicing confession is one way to guard against paternalism in both extreme and more subtle ways. For example, we can tell stories of justice in a way that discounts other people’s agency—that is, their ability to act and choose to shape their own lives and futures. Invisible Children’s “Kony 2012” campaign made Joseph Kony infamous as a way to raise awareness and increase pressure to stop this evil warlord in central Africa who maimed many and made children into killers.

The video seems to have contributed to pressure to contain him, which is fantastic, but for the sake of our…