A Generation Without Logic

I normally take every invitation invite I get on Facebook and give it a brief glance before I ultimately click the “Not Attending” button. When I got one to attend A Day Without Shoes, however, I should have given it the courtesy it would ultimately deserve and at least read about it.

That would have spared me the awe I’d see when it was explained to me at school.
The explanation I got was roughly as follows:

“It’s to raise awareness to all the kids in like Africa that don’t have shoes, and it was started by TOMS, and like the first one hundred people to sign up for it got a free pair of shoes, and do you know about TOMS?”

The logic is mind numbing.

Let’s take this one blow at a time. The idea is to raise awareness to children without shoes overseas? Really? Are we not already aware that there are those without shoes? I couldn’t help but notice that there was no mention in this explanation, nor on the flyer I found minutes later for kids in this country without shoes. Interesting. Next, I see that TOMS has its name attached to this, that trendy shoe company everyone has practically thrown their money at because “for every pair you buy, they send a pair to kids in Africa without shoes.” Again, are there no other places on Earth in which kids don’t have shoes? I’m willing to put my paranoia aside regarding whether or not the shoes actually get there and will embrace that the idea behind it is genuine. However, the shoes are no more than slippers. Really thin pieces of fabric glued to a rubber sole, and they cost about sixty bucks. They look like this:






Sixty bucks. For a pair of slippers. Keep it up, guys.

Next is the blunt slap in the face to the people who are the subject to the cause. Let’s live like them for a day and not wear shoes, and as a reward for our humanitarianism, we get a free pair of slipper shoes. How wonderfully fantastic! Let’s all pick out the nice outfit to wear them with! The explanation ended with a question, asking my inquisitive friends and I if we know about TOMS. Part of me thought this girl worked for them, the rest of me thought she was just pushing their product without realizing it because TOMS has its name plastered all over this event. Why, why would a company want so much attention for what’s supposed to be a cause about humility? To further their own standing? Whoever wrote that episode of Friends in which Joey Tribbiani said “There’s no such thing as a selfless good deed” has now vaulted him into Socrates like status. It’s always the ones you least expect to be philosophers who possess the most wisdom.

So I’ll pose a question to you shoeless humanitarians: Should you step on something and cut yourself, acquire some sort of foot fungus, or scrape yourself, what will you do? Continue to embrace “what it’s like to be one of them” and not give yourself any medical attention? Or does it end in walking outside, leaving your shoes in your closet?

You want to make a statement? Do this every day. Don’t do this because TOMS said to do it, don’t do it for one day to “raise awareness” to something everyone is already aware of, do it because it’s more constructive than reposting a bulletin to end genocide in Darfur, or walking around barefoot.

This is my generation.