Why we need to stop complaining about the ice bucket challenge

The ice bucket challenge has attracted harsh criticism from all corners. It has been accused of stupidity, vanity, and even moral depravity. It’s critics to date have included WIN news reporter Lincoln Humphries, Oxford philosopher William MacAskill and LA Times column Michael Hiltzik.

Mr Humphries refused to take the challenge when nominated, and instead challenged “”everyone, everywhere who has more than what they need to donate what they can to the people who need it most”.

Mr Hiltzik wrote “the challenge is a fad, and fads by their nature burn out – the brighter they glow, the sooner they disappear”.

Mr MacAskill wrote “people are often more concerned about looking good or feeling good rather than doing good”.

While all these things are most likely entirely true, none of them change the fact that the challenge has created a huge pool of money that can now be put towards finding a cure for an incurable disease.

MND Australia’s National Executive Director Carol Birks said the ice bucket challenge has had a powerfully positive impact on MND Australia and sufferers all over the country.

“Because MND is a progressive disease that robs people of their ability to move, to hold and hug and speak and swallow and eventually breathe, it is very hard for sufferers to get out there and talk about their disease.”

“This has changed all that.”

Ms Birks also said that since the ice bucket challenge reached Australia on August 10 it has raised $260,000 for MND Australia, and hundreds of thousands more for the state-based MND charities.

Ms Birks said MND Australia had raised so much money since the ice bucket challenge came to Australia that they are planning on creating a new research grant in the challenge’s name.

No matter how we got here, these are good things.

Added to which, this viral social media campaign may well pave the way for other charities to find effective ways of raising money and raising awareness.

Importantly, the charities that will benefit from these future ice bucket challenge-esque campaigns will not exclusively be the charities with the biggest marketing budgets. The ice bucket challenge enabled a charity without the funds to run multi-million dollar advertising campaigns to get the attention it deserves. This phenomenon may help level the playing field and allow smaller charities to compete with larger, richer ones.

These are all good things.

Of course the critics raise valid points. The ice bucket challenge does raise important questions about what it takes to get attention in modern society for issues that matter. It also raises the question of whether the challenge has increased the amount of money we give to charity or simply redistributed money we would have donated anyway.

So yes, of course everyone everywhere should give what they can to the people who need it most. Yes, it is deplorable that most of us don’t.

Yes, most of us care more about looking good than doing good.

Yes, social media crazes like this one show that we are more self-obsessed than ever.

But not one of those problems began with the ice bucket challenge, nor will they end with it.

If this cause has managed to harness all of those things and use them for good while at the same time starting a broader debate about how and why we give, I say more power to them. It’s a win-win.