It’s not Kenneth Cole. I’m the problem. My finger points back at me.
Kenneth Cole posts an awkward tweet and I cringe from his statement. Not because he said it, but because he’s telling me something about myself: I am the insensitive one, not him.
I have become desensitized to the world because I am disconnected from the world around me.
I am disconnected from the stuff I buy and eat; I am disconnected from the people who provide for me.
The Egyptian people sacrifice their lives; I buy another bag of frozen organic broccoli that was probably picked by children. Where were my shoes made, by who? I point my finger at Kenneth Cole, I point my disgust at Groupon, and my finger points right back at me.
How many shoes have I purchased that were made in China? How many boxes of Chinese-made discount furniture have I purchased? I’m doing business with a totalitarian, anti-democratic regime.
Groupon makes an ad that showcases my own aloofness from the world, not its own. I sit on my Chinese couch in my oil heated house, and throw anger towards my Chinese TV. I reach for my Chinese phone to Tweet about it. I point my finger at the TV. My Groupon disgust points its finger right back at me.
I need shoes and food and furniture and clothes, yet I see Kenneth Cole and Groupon as separate from me, as separate as the distance between me and the people who make the things I buy and eat.
What can I do! I yell at myself. It’s all so intertwined, mixed up.
Something! I yell back.
It’s not Kenneth Cole. I’m the problem. My finger points back at me.
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