First, the standard disclaimer : I don’t usually comment on The Big Thing Happening Right Now because I figure there are millions of blog entries and Tumblr posts and so on being written about it as you are reading this, so why bother adding my own voice to the cacophony?

But every once in a while, something comes along that creates such a cultural gravity well that I feel like I have to add my two scents’ worth in order to prove I have at least a little pop culture mass without getting completely sucked into the stories’ orbit.

So it is with this Kony phenomenon.

It all started with an extremely powerful and effective bit of heartfelt viral propaganda that came out of nowhere to seemingly instantly be everywhere on the Internet all at once.

It’s a call for arms against a very evil man named Joseph Kony who leads a rebel army guilty of a great many horrible crimes, including abducting children and turning the girls into forced prostitution and the boys into becoming brutal child soldiers.

Here is the video :

As you can see, the video is the singular effort of a passionately committed person who is trying as hard as he possibly can and using every trick in the book to convince you to share his ideals and work in common cause with him towards the same goal.

So yes. It’s propaganda. I don’t think anyone would seriously dispute that. It is not an unbiased examination of the subject. It quite clearly wears its intent to convince and convert on its sleeve. That, to me, makes it propaganda. It uses the propagandist’s tools with verve and passion, if not with subtlety or sophistication.

But propaganda is not a dirty word. Everyone wants to convince others to share their views. Trying to do so with a rather overblown but still fairly stirring and quite well made video is no crime. People only call it propaganda when they either do not share the view being put forward, or are frightened by the power of the message. I am sure that if the message of the video had been something benignly banal like “we should all work together” or “love is important”, nobody would be calling it propaganda. But because it has been so successful in capturing the idealism of today’s youth, and because it so clearly calls for actual and not merely token or symbolic effort and real positive action, suddenly the mainstream media and the pundit dome is abuzz with confusion, derision, and cynicism.

Take this piece by David Rieff, unsubtly entitled The Road To Hell Is Paved With Viral Videos.

Yes, Mister Rieff, the video is propaganda. So is your column. So is this one. In a free society, especially this modern era where we all can publish our thoughts for the world to see effortlessly, we are all propagandists for our own point of view. We are all free to uses whatever tools we have on hand to make the strongest possible case for our opinions, and in turn, we are all free to either be persuaded by the propaganda of others, or disregard it.

And because the Kony 2012 video is propaganda and not a documentary, it is not filled with a high density of facts and a balanced point of view. It does not go into the complexities of global politics, the deep history of Uganda, or even openly admit that what it is amounts to a call for war.

It is rhetoric, not logical, that fuels that video. And I am not claiming the video to be perfect. The parts with the director’s child are particularly cringe-inducing and frankly ill-advised. Naked earnestness is often somewhat unpleasant and embarrassing for us older, more sophisticated folks. But that does not mean we have the right to attack it and try to kill it. The growing concrete idealism of the younger generations is a wonderful thing, and should be encouraged as much as possible, unless you happen to think the world is perfect as it is.

Because honestly, if things are to get better, it will fall, as it always has, to the young and idealistic to provide the energy and drive to make it happen, and it will be us older folks who can either help them (and gently encourage them towards the most effective channels for their energies), or simply be swept aside by the tide of history.

Remember, these young people will be in charge some day. Do we really want them to be bitter, apathetic, and cynical like us when that happens? Or do we want them ready to make the world a better place?

And from a practical point of view, I do not think the video’s call to arms is entirely impractical.

Sure, war is nothing to contemplate lightly. But Joseph Kony is a man without a nation. From what Rieff’s article itself says, his army is not very strong, militarily speaking. A sufficient international UN force could probably take him out in a short period of time, without any burden to perform a regime change or rebuild a nation.

It could be, in fact, the perfect “global police” action, fast and effective and very clean, and pay extraordinary dividends in propaganda value and diplomatic rallying points by showing the world that there is something you can do about terrible people doing terrible things to your fellow human beings who merely had the bad luck to be born in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It would be the sort of thing the whole world could rally around and feel good about. No complicated issues regarding soveignty. No “winning the war and losing the peace”. Go in with overwhelming force, take his army out, free all the child soldiers, and leave, dragging Kony off with you to stand trial at The Hague, and then rot in jail in public view for the rest of his misbegotten life.

And think of how happy it would make all these young people who are swept up in the movement!

Sounds like something worth doing to me.