good, good, good (magazine)

dear web journal,

this is the perfect funny shirt to balance out my last post. and a cute stab at consumerism like this also helps me introduce an emerging concept growing out of fundraising for a good cause: when more, more, more can actually equal good, good, good.

for christmas, i got my future sister-in-law a subscription to good magazine and they accidentally sent the first issue to my house. i was already really impressed with the magazine from the advertisements i saw randomly popping up on tv, the internet, and radio. but i can’t stress enough how important their work is, especially after reading an issue. first and foremost, 100% of your subscription payment ($20) goes to a charity of your choosing (out of their somewhat limited, but excellent list of organizations). you get a really awesome publication out of it and you can feel good knowing the purchase supports a worthy cause. and it is chock-full of really informative pieces.

i have to admit that i am really excited about consumerist giving including programs like this and (product)red. forget kant; giving should include all kinds of personal incentives. the moral imperative creates a totally unrealistic and unsustainable expectation of human beings. why not (literally) capitalize on what is good about our nature to want to be recognized and reciprocated for our good deeds? and our generation is ripe for this kind of giving—we want accountability and we want to receive something for our investments. if that produces desired results with little cost, i’m all for it. naturally, i am not including some of the self-important waste that sometimes occurs in ridiculously pampered gala fundraising. but when people are already buying ipods, t-shirts, and magazine entertainment, all the better to have that include a greater good as well. think of it as a necessary mitigation for consumer waste, if you must. and frankly, i don’t think we have the time to wait for the purity of soul that kant expected of human beings. things like AIDS, sudanese conflicts, global warming, and mid-east instability don’t warrant the luxury of time.