Monday, January 23, 2006
We all have AIDS. Yep...AIDS. I think "Southpark" featured a spoof on the musical "Rent" with a similar sort of title. I don't know if Kenneth Cole, the primary sponsor of this campaign--which, by the way features some of the most regonizable celebrities in the world--was sticking it to Trey Parker et al, but this campaign in rather interesting for what it presumes.
"We all have AIDS--if one of us does." If I remember my logic systems correctly that means that since there is certainly one person in the world with AIDS (in fact there are millions), then we all have AIDS. But we don't all have AIDS. I know I don't have it, and I don't know anyone who does. Hmm. Confusing, no?
Ah, but my astute reader, you say that this campaign is more symbolic than literal. Of course, we don't ALL have AIDS. We're just showing solidarity. I'm waiting for the "We all have hemroids--if one of us does" campaign. Or perhaps the "We all have syphilis--if one of us does" campaign. What about the "We all have shy bladder syndrome--if one of us does" campaign? Those sound so silly, yet the principle remains the same doesn't it? So how can one pull off the "We all have AIDS" slogan so easily? What is it about AIDS that creates such zeal among celebrities? Why are other diseases which kill more people and have no cure left in the doldrums?
It's kind of the similar phenomenon as Breast cancer. Quick, what's the number one killer of women in the U.S.? Here's a hint: it's not breast cancer. It's heart disease. Where's the Race for a Cure for heart disease? Heart disease is usually thought of a "male" disease but it still remains the number one killer among both sexes. It's interesting how a disease can get hijaked in a way. AIDS, which was and still remains largely the disease routinely passes to those on the fringes of society--gay males, drug addicts, prostitutes. Yet it it affects such a small percentage of
American society. Granted, this Kenneth Cole campaign is directed to the AIDS fight in America and the rest of the world, but still.
Should AIDS research be funded--of course. All I'm attempting to argue here, is that there is an insanely disproportional zeal with which the AIDS fight it perpetuated. If one person has AIDS, we don't all have AIDS. Indeed, no man (or woman) is an island; one person's pain does affect others'. But let's not lose sight of where AIDS belongs on the list of awful diseases that cause pain and suffering not only among those who have it, but for those who love those who have it.
