Climate Change,
Ranga Myneni, Foetus, Colonialism, “Fees Must Fall”, Gramsci, Fanon – what is
the link between these issues and
names? I admit - I have an agenda. Throwing these “randoms” at you is an attempt
to buy your engagement. I am trying to engage you in a “meaning-making”
exercise as an exercise in agency and
citizenship of this fantastic country.
The common link
is an intended emotional fruit that is,
in my opinon, diabolical. This is a strong word but I am happy to use it. For,
if you stay with the programme over this series, you will connect the dots and
understand what we believe are the pathways
to undermine your identity, and by extension your agency.
There is an
intentional assault on a way of comprehending life. The goal is to destroy. This is done by trashing history and
criminalising those who are the carriers of the defined disease - labelled
“colonialism”. The next step is to
demoralise and suck people dry of hope creating visionless men and women.
This leads to a kind of death where, in the
land of your birth, you have no “agency”
and the irony is not lost on us.
This is precisely the accusation levelled against “the colonial” who are
the creators of the initial dispossession. The way of redress is what is being
navigated right now. It is anything from retribution to restoration. But
Gramsci, who we will introduce you to next time round, does not allow restoration. It is good you know why.
The Oliver Tambo
vision of South Africa is anathema to a
new Nike-wearing marxist generation. They harbour a visceral intolerance, even
hatred, for any approach that leverages ALL our past, using ALL our social, technical,
psychological and spiritual complexities
that comprise our common heritage. This
is their narrative: Mandela, Tambo and the 1994 leader cohort are deeply
compromised. They were bought out by
colonial capitalists.
The
activists feed, even rely on, the toxic bacteria of grinding poverty,
injustice, resentment, entitlement, disappointment, covetousness and a
generationally fuelled impatience with the pace of change. Corruption doesn’t help either.
A sense of
“denied justice” is a powerful motivator
that legitimises anger. The target of
this hatred are the perceived originators and now the current “owners” of this
misery - the “colonials” - which is code for, in generic terms, the
individualised world view asociated with northern hemisphere, western thinking
and practice. Its embodiment just happens to reside in people with pale skins.
But in our first
blog, as a scene set weʼll look at some key actors and their “virtue
signalling” with comments. It is important to note and understand the branding.
Nothing is insignificant. All actions are intentionally choreographed and
grounded in deep ideological and psychological thinking.
Julius Malemaʼs
“red beret” garb looks to be borrowed
from the failed Equadorian President, Hugo Chavez. Chavez probably has minimal
resonance here other than reducing his nation to squalor. Fanon provides the intellectual component to
the EFF uniform. The intention is really to offend - what can be more offensive
to the more stoical mindset than watching the dignity of Parliament disregarded
by worker clothing? The EFF are smart operators and superb virtue signallers.
Their “parliamentary uniform” - the “Easyjet” orange jumpsuit is an effective
visual hook, ideal for the TV camera. JuJu is a conditional democrat - he lauds the Constitutional Court because it
sides with him against President Zuma. This is further “virtue signalling” - at
the SONA address as the Cheif Justice and his Bench parade in to Parliament the
EFF cohort signal their respect with silence.
He is a consummate political operator where all influencing options are
open. The end justifies the means.
Consider Mcebo
Dlamini, the 32 year old Wits LLM student activist/apparent leader. He
frequently sports the PLO
Arafat-famous, Keffiyeh Scarf at all major public events. This is intentional
virtue signalling which, interestingly,
links him to the progressive student “rent a mob” currently rampaging the
streets of major US cities protesting
Trump’s election. Violence is
always an option. The end justifies the means. The angry students he incites are
really just useful potential cannon fodder - where the choreography
requires a few to go and collect a
bullet at the hands of the police - and create an outpouring of national mayhem
that will bring down Zuma’s government.
Chumani Maxwele,
the UCT management student who tipped
excrement over UCTʼs Rhodes Statue is a colleague of Chumani. They drink the
same koolaid. The intention is to offend colonialists by attacking symbols of colonial aggression -
burning paintings of Hall Founders at UCT, tipping excrement on Rhodes’ Statue
and so on. The goal is to both enrage and demoralise. He succeeded in evoking
the psychological response that Fanon urges. He is driven by racial hatred generated
out of, and no more compelling than the
same psychological/spiritual swamp that drove PW Botha, HF Verwoerd, Eugene
Terreblanche and their ilk - notwithstanding the irony. But, it feels as if ,
“progressives” and radicals are a humourless bunch.
That Maxwele
inhabits the same behavioural excess as the “colonials” is nevertheless good news. Evil, we
suggest, is not racial but universal,
available, by choice, to all. Because
he is “on the right side of history” though, his racialism is acceptable or
tolerated.
In our next blog
we will introduce you to Gramsci and
if there is space, Fanon (who got a
passing mention this time round).
Simon Middleton
Partner at Noted Thinking
