Coca Cola ran this inspirational commercial during the Olympics that showcased various triumphal Olympic moments as the announcer proudly informed viewers, “If you’ve had a Coke in the last eighty years, you’ve had a hand in making every Olympic dream come true.” You can’t watch the commercial and not feel satisfaction in knowing that your quest for a refreshing drink has been the difference in hundreds of athletes’ lives. Because that’s what everyone is thinking about when they buy a Coke.

I know of several people who probably didn’t see the Coke commercial because they were staging a boycott of the Olympics on account of China’s human rights violations. Even though not watching the Olympics does absolutely nothing to help people in China, it does make us feel like we are doing something without actually doing anything.

Frankly, few of us want to suffer any traumatic lifestyle changes to see our activism actually accomplish something. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the current craze associated with going green. Everybody wants to save the environment and stop global warming, so we’re buying reusable trendy grocery bags, only purchasing green products and driving hybrid cars.

It all feels very ironic to me. The current environmental crisis was brought on by rampant industrialization and consumerism and now it seems to be the cure? Just this summer the Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid was named the 2008 Green Car of the Year on account of its thirty percent increase in fuel efficiency over its non-hybrid counterpart. Still, the “Green Car of the Year” only gets twenty-two miles to the gallon. I can feel global warming shiver.

We’re not so interested in the causes we champion, as we are mollifying the guilt that comes along with awareness. We want to feel like we’re doing something, so we silently pat ourselves on the back for philanthropically buying Cokes, driving hybrid Tahoes that still guzzle gasoline and not watching Michael Phelps in Beijing. Unfortunately, none of this actually fixes the world we live in.

The crucial question that needs to be answered is not whether we feel different or see things another way. Awareness is not enough. The question will always be how things have changed. I can’t tell you that I know, and—to tell you the truth—I’m still not sure I want to see any change because I know there will be a high cost required of me. If I’m so concerned with the environment, then why don’t I use public transit? And if I really care about human rights violations, then why don’t I start making the long trek across the tracks and play a role in ending the cycle of poverty here in Cleveland? That’s really the point of Jesus’ parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man: there are people right outside of our doorstep that need help and until we stop feasting and start fasting, we remain guilty. And until there are no more human rights violations in China (and in Cleveland) and until our environmentalism becomes more than a trend, all of our activism and awareness rings very hollow.