Saving the world takes more than an English degree

Robert Joustra is an alumnus of Redeemer, a researcher at Cardus, a PhD candidate, and regular columnist in Comment, Cardus' worldview journal, where this article originally appeared on April 1, 2010. It can also be viewed at cardus.ca.

Say we're into social justice. Awareness has never been higher. I have never had so many students who are keen on "social justice" and (justly) enraged by poverty, scarcity driven conflict, racial and gender violence, maternal health and affordable education. I love these students; I would never begrudge or denigrate these convictions.

But conviction's not where the policy community is hung up. We're hung up on strategy, and all the awareness campaigns, Capitol Hill marches and rock star concerts in the world aren't going to hammer out actionable strategies. It's not just that people don't care; it's that we're deadlocked about what to do. We're all on the side of doing good in the world, but the trick is moving past the moral imperative to talk strategy. And I've found that when students graduate from university and navigate that critical quarter-life crisis, they're just as deadlocked as the rest of us. What to do?

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