IRIN Global | The invisible lesson of Invisible Children | Uganda | Aid Policy

IRIN Global | The invisible lesson of Invisible Children | Uganda | Aid Policy: "No, the most important person in Invisible Children's narrative, driven by social media, was not Kony, and not even Invisible Children, but you, the reader. This is why Invisible Children couldn't fail. Not because it didn't fail – it failed in the most important sense, since we have clearly not captured Joseph Kony, and its resource base subsequently collapsed – but because it could never admit that it had failed. To admit to failure would be to destroy the narrative that you – yes, you, small-town teenager in the American Mid-West – are changing the world.

That narrative was more important than anything, which explains the spirited defence that Invisible Children's believers presented. Its critics weren't just attacking the campaign, they were attacking the campaigners themselves. You'd have to be spectacularly cruel to destroy the hopes of a generation, but reality is often both spectacular and cruel. In the end, it was the gap between the narrative and reality that led directly to Russell's tragic breakdown."



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