The right (ideologically) and the wrong are winning our world, and we are entirely to blame, says Carla Bernardo.
More than ever, the world needs rational, compassionate, and measured human beings to speak out.
President-elect Donald Trump. Brexit. Australia. Jacob Zuma and Julius Malema.
The right (ideologically) and the wrong are winning our world. And it’s entirely our fault.
We allowed ourselves, as South Africans, to be duped by the African National Congress. Not once, but twice. We wanted “change” so we got Jacob. A man riddled with corruption scandals, who reportedly needed a loan to buy a burger, and had, as we were well aware of when voting for him - allegedly - raped Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo.
We became so self-involved, so obsessed with private property, with the accumulation of wealth, with othering. So, we won ourselves a Brexit and plenty of Australias popped up around the globe, and continue to.
Then, we wanted a change from Zuma but were too lazy and complacent to deal with the problem head-on so we nurtured a dangerous nationalist called Julius Malema, a man who will use the frustration and dire reality of every poor, black South African to fuel his own political ambitions and megalomania. A man who denounces the State but continues to draw a salary from Parliament, from us. A man who was ready to kill you for Zuma, much later retracts, and then replaces it with an almost-ready-to-kill-the-whites call.
And finally, today, a poor excuse for a man won the most heated presidential election in modern history. A vagina-grabbing, body-shaming racist, and all-around hateful man won an election and will soon be officially positioned as Citizen Number One of - despite its many woes - the most powerful nation in the world.
This is entirely on us.
We don’t read enough. We allow ourselves to be taught what to think not how to think. We laugh when Julius makes a mockery of us and our Constitution. We’re populists with a deteriorating backbone, too meek to call bullsh*t. We said nothing when Donald became co-owner of the sexist monstrosity that is Miss Universe. We celebrated the political win of 1994 but then moved back into our enclaves, allowing the Bassons, the Ruperts, and the Oppenheimers to continue building their empires off our backs.
It is entirely on us, we are entirely to blame.
When countrywide violence breaks out - whether here, the US, the UK, or wherever; when nationalists take every top seat in the major nations; when you can’t get into another country because you’re too brown, too black, too Arab, too gay, too poor, too different; then we will only have ourselves to blame.
Unless, of course, rational, compassionate, and measured human beings really begin to speak out, to challenge, and to save what little good is left in this world.
Here’s hoping.
* Carla Bernado is Independent Media’s Social Media Manager.
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