Corpobligation: What if information is not enough to motivate action and activism?
Of course to be fair, it is impossible for every individual to stop every crisis or human rights abuse.
However, what is the obligation of individual citizens and a university when police are beating, holding down and then actually tasering a student?
Youtube's most viewed videos of the last few
days were full of student recordings of a University of Florida student
being tasered, during a John Kerry speech, for apparently asking too
many questions.
Stephen Colbert has coined the word to describe the lack of solidarity illustrated in the lecture hall: "Solitarity". Solitarity, roughly defined, means the opposite of solidarity. While the student was tasered fellow students did nothing.
What were the obligations of those around him? What are the obligations of citizens when other human rights abuses are happening around us? Is blogging enough?
Stephen Colbert raised these questions in typical satirical style on the September 19th broadcast of the Colbert Report on Comedy Central [clip titled: The Word - Solitarity].
Colbert suggested that students might still go home and blog about the tasering: "That's
what's so great about this is new kind of activism its convenient. Just
like masturbation. It's better than sex because it's on your own time."
So what would you do? If consumers want corporations to be responsible, we must take action as consumers / citizens / individuals / students / employees / humans...or else human rights will be guaranteed for none.
