jason russell, globally known after his Kony 2012 video went massively viral
There’s a reason why not everyone was born to be uber famous. It’s not always a fun place to be. People criticize, hate you, love you, and look for everything that might be wrong with you. Every little thing is scrutinized even if you’ve done it with the best of intentions.
No one knows what this is like until they are thrust in that spotlight. In this digital age of the wonderful world wide web it could even be harder to deal with than before since the fame can be global in the matter of days and the criticism comes from all corners of this Earth is less time.
Think of the stress of this, especially if you are doing something out of the base belief it is right and what you are getting is a massive amount of questioning and negative feedback about your initiative which you believe to be fully for the good of people involved.
What if you’d been working on this good for years and then when you are so close to getting it achieved you reach that level of global success where suddenly you are being questioned for your motives, your words are being twisted, and your intentions misconstrued.
This could be the kind of stress that Jason Russell, 33, endured over the past few weeks since his documentary Kony 2012 went viral and catapulted him and his charity organization Invisible Children into the limelight of praise and controversy.
And this stress was so intense after years of fighting this battle that he has suffered a psychotic breakdown of sorts, as confirmed by his wife. Witness saw the man, who is the brilliant narrator of the Kony 2012 documentary, running the streets in his underwear, screaming at people and banging on pavement.
“The preliminary diagnosis he received is called brief reactive psychosis, an acute state brought on by extreme exhaustion, stress and dehydration,” wife Danica Russell told media. “Though new to us, the doctors say this is a common experience given the great mental, emotional and physical shock his body has gone through in these last two weeks. Even for us, it’s hard to understand the sudden transition from relative anonymity to worldwide attention — both raves and ridicules, in a matter of days.”
Think about it. Put yourself in his shoes. Could you deal with all of that so soon? Without the support of managers and agents like movie stars or singers have? Would you be able to handle people saying your work was false perhaps a scam? After seven years of painstakingly fighting for something you believe in would your mind be able to handle the stress of the attention… and the resentment?
Walk a mile in Jason Russell’s shoes before you judge. Try believing in the truth behind the cause before you cast any stones.
Do that before you condemn a mission that is helping put an end to a grave injustice – whether Josephy Kony is in Uganda or not he needs to be caught and hopefully this break of the human mind doesn’t hurt the cause.
