Rant on the White Savior and the Problem With Humanitarian Aid
I see a lot of folks condoning Elon Musk’s childish behavior a lot these past couple of days. Most importantly, they ask the question ‘Well what are you doing to help’?
And that’s the best thing I can do. You see ladies and gentlemen, I am not uniquely qualified to do any job that could potentially be of use to rescue these boys from the cave. I am but a mediocre college student. There are things that I can do, like protesting, going to vote, writing articles, writing rants on tumblr, etc. Where I can have good intentions, sometimes directly helping on things which I have no knowledge of, is not necessarily a good thing. To interfere on an international rescue where help is not needed or wanted is not just superfluous. It is damaging.
Musk could’ve contacted the authorities and offered his help, rather than making a big public statement without consulting anyone. They didn’t want his help, it wasn’t needed. And the fact that he did not consider or care about this shows a great deal about why he chose to help- hint: wasn’t out of the goodness of his heart. His response pretty much confirms what I’ve known- that Musk wanted to be hailed as a hero, rather than actually help. There’s a lot of people like that. And many of the people receiving aid often have to go out of their way to accommodate them rather than the other way around. Musk’s gadgets would have delayed the rescue, put the boys at more risk than they were already in.
So before we give people like Elon Musk any credit for their actions or kindness or whatever, we have to really ask ourselves, are they really doing any good?
