C. Roy ReynoldsAS I watched the television news last Tuesday evening I got a feeling of hopelessness. There was this obviously well-intentioned young man defending his version of the latest 'partner' plan.
My feeling was not induced by doubt about his honesty, but by the realisation that he still believed that it is possible to create something out of nothing.
Frankly, I didn't worry so much when I thought that the whole craze was but a scam, but it is depressing to now realise that it is not only greed and 'scampishness' that are at work here but genuine honest-to-God ignorance.
A people steeped in ignorance are not candidates for survival in the 21st century. And unless what is represented here is but the floating chaff of the population we are dead. I would dearly like to see some capable organisation forget the political wars for a moment and indulge some sort of poll to measure the national consciousness. Naturally, it is almost inevitable that some sort of political questions would arise, but just for once I wish fervently that we would attempt to establish the survival IQ of the population. The optimist always finds room for hope, but I think it is vital to establish a benchmark behind which this hope can reasonably rally.
Such a study, in my view, would seek as well to establish just how far this relentless campaign to create alarm and apprehension has caught the national fancy.
Promised land
Are the majority of people convinced of the line that if only the present authorities are thrown out things would be buoyant? Do they think that there is someone or something in the wings who will lead them to the promised land?
In other words, is there genuine delusion of the population or is the appearance of it only in the minds of the media and political campaigners and drum beaters.
It must have been centuries since physical laws such as: matter cannot be created nor destroyed, and to every action there is an equal and opposition reaction have been established. But these realities are yet to be considered here it appears.
A long time ago I made the observation in a column that for a country to survive and flourish you need to have two sets of people simultaneously: Your 'today people', the movers and the shakers with hands-on approach; and your 'tomorrow' people who will be in the vanguard of thought, observing the present and charting the future. Today the 'tomorrow' element is either completely missing or woefully deficient.
For example, I have no doubt that there is a carefully orchestrated national campaign on to get rid of not only the political administration, and quite possibly it deserves to be got rid of, but much of the other institutional authorities as well. I have no quarrel with that.
But as far as I see there is no commensurate effort to examine and assess what we would replace them with. What is it of value do we propose to substitute? What is being proposed by a possible successor outfit?
Under the circumstances what do we expect? I don't know what the campaigners expect? I can't tell you that, but I sure as hell can tell you what we will get. Within a short time we will be back to exactly where we now are, blaming and denigrating the very saviour we had just championed without question.
Round and round the roses we go in some version of the 'danse macabre', pocketful of posy. Then again, comes the reality analogous to the black death: Ashes, ashes, we all fall down! It seems we make a religion out of falling down.
It is a great tragedy of the age, that nowhere among us there seems to be any movement towards reality. We seem to strive to outdo each other in finding scapegoats and ascribing blame. In this atmosphere the butt of today's campaign is of little importance. Today it is one set tomorrow another. The essential truth is that no society can survive, nor yet deserve to survive, under this sort of darkness.
All we can expect is a continued cannibalisation of each other, leading to one inevitable end: extinction, if we are lucky, or a lingering, languishing of soul and body, courtesy of those of us who daily forge every link of the chain of suffering.
Meanwhile we continue to invite the people to sing: 'Someday my prince will come,' riding on a white steed no doubt. What a prekeh when they realise that the prince is just another frog!
Such is the finale we now invite. Perhaps by way of atonement we should all return to that old children's prayer: 'Gentle Jesus meek and mild, pity my simplicity!' For there is no doubt that we are simple-minded. Whether in our self-assumed simplicity we deserve pity is another story.
C. Roy Reynolds is a freelance journalist.
