Banksy’s identity being revealed feels oddly sad.
Part of what made his work so powerful was the mystique. But more than that, it was the role the work played: saying the inconvenient thing out loud. Pointing at a power structure and going, “Look. This is what’s happening.”
And it struck me this week that a lot of charities end up playing a similar role.
Not political campaigning (there are laws for that, and most charities are rightly careful)…but witness.
Because charities can’t help but bump into the results of decisions made somewhere else:
- hunger in one of the richest economies on earth
- families in crisis
- communities hollowed out
- people falling through the gaps that polite systems pretend don’t exist
In that sense, charities are often like Banksy paintings:
Painfully “unignorable” reminders that the story we tell ourselves about how things work… isn’t always true.
So if you need a moment this week, take a minute to notice the quiet courage in simply telling the truth about what you’re seeing, and continuing to do the work anyway.
