Oh life

 Over the past few months, I have been fortunate enough to be introduced to a whole new world of people I wouldn’t ordinarily engage with. It sure has been interesting seeing how realities differ. A fair amount of them seem fixated on classifying people either as leftists, capitalist, communists or socialists. Much of the conversation gained momentum during the US presidential debate where some would gladly back Trump’s republicans and throw shade on Biden’s Democrats, calling them inept socialists. When I tried to dig deeper, from the little that I read, the a glaring difference between the 2 during the last 3 presidential terms is that it seems as if between the tax cuts, war mongering, sub prime crisis and the pandemic, the 2 Republicans on either side of Obama have racked up the biggest deficits the US economy has ever known. In fact the 3 presidents at the helm when the US experienced its biggest deficits ever were Lincoln (Civil war), Bush (funding 2 wars) and Trump (even prior to covid) read this article if you like https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump. I raise this point only because many of them tend to fall on the running of the economy as their central argument

 

But that isn’t why I write this blog. I listen to many of these people mentioned above and all I can think is that they are either a few years older than I am, smart or think they are smart or rich and feel they have much to lose, because in my 44, ‘middle class’ years on this earth, I have never spent so much time debating or conversing about these terms as I have in the past few months, and my background is finance but now working for government to aid their job facilitation efforts, (which by my summation would mean that I should have spent some time grappling with these things. If I had to ask say Agnes who helps me out over the weekends at times what she thinks about these things, I dare say she like me would say, do I have running water, is my garbage collected, can I go to a good hospital, can my kids go to school, you know stuff that matters. I listen and engage in these conversations hoping to throw out perhaps a different viewpoint, but I guess often times, stewing in one’s version of reality is just what one needs or wants, I guess the same could be said of me and my views right? Some people seem fixated on these terms socialist/communists and how evil they are. Who in 2021, of any relevance (with respect of course) conforms to the traditional definitions of socialists or capitalists? Those days of the red of Russia and China are no more. China has always featured amongst the fastest growing economies in the world over the past few years and it is the second largest economy in the world right now, have a read here to see how it places https://www.investopedia.com/insights/worlds-top-economies/ 

 

To be honest large economies such as UK, Norway, Denmark, France adopt some so called socialist tendencies through their healthcare and social welfare programs, hell a place like Sweden, you have to buy booze from a government run liquor outlet. Oh wait government bail outs, the kind that the world is dishing out right now, what of those? Are they not also forms of socialism? Or do we just call them stimulus packages and move along?

The world has changed or rather those black and white definitions many of us cling to in order to define, categorise or make sense of people or things are outdated and our minds need a refresh. Go on, join us !



“In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.” George Orwell, 1984

 

Whilst I was hunkered down in my humble abode during over the holidays, I got stuck into an old book by George Orwell that I’ve been wanting to read for a wee while, called 1984 and a friend suggested I read A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley as well and I duly obliged of course, it wasn’t like I had a whole lot of places to go to or people to see right?! Dayum!!! Can you believe that those 2 books that were written the late 1940s and the early 1930s contained many concepts/ideas/situations/realities/imaginations written about in those 2 thought provoking pieces of literature are just as relevant then as it is now. What strikes me even more is that those opposed to totalitarianism and the worlds portrayed by both of those books, actually practice some of those things they oppose today and would love for it to remain as such. You look at how society is ‘tiered’ at the moment with the Rich living their best lives, the middle class working the hardest to ensure the system continues to function and the have nots who no one seemingly cares much about. In Huxley’s book they have 5 castes Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons, with Alphas being at the top of food chain and the Epsilons tantamount to slaves, I guess.

 

If I had to ask people who are against the mind control or ‘big brother is watching’ worlds portrayed by those books whether they would like to exist in those worlds, I’m sure their answer would be absolutely not! Poof! Disgusting! Damnit humans, are interesting folk! A lot of people who say argue against religion, say if God does exist, why does H/She give me free will, I must just be told what to do or think, ok live in the world of 1984 then, oh heeeeelll no!! ! Simplified example but you get my gist. I ain’t no shrink, but my observation of some of us is we identify with what suit our narrative and see it as the whole truth. In this brave new world, the castes mentioned above, are produced via embryos pumped with chemicals and hormones in order to determine their caste, I guess similar in a way to genetic modification efforts that we are currently pursuing in a way right?

 

Man, so many intertwined thoughts rushing into my poor mind at the moment ey so forgie me if I am all over the place. Let’s think about the wars that have taken place recently, I am thinking of the carnage in Syria and Yemen, granted I haven’t given it much thought but what is it all for, any war for that matter? What are they for? Are they waged merely to fuel economies? This world we live in, we seem to be building an environment where people want more new things in order to keep the economies running. Humans seem to be tending to live the lives they claim to not want to. People are getting rid of God or at least trying to, loads of free love and fornication being thrown around going on as opposed to the monogamy portrayed in Huxley’s reservations. Here is an extract from Huxley’s book that describes what I’m referring to “Not so far into the future, the world has become a single supranational state, ruled by a council of World Controllers. Consumerism has replaced religion, science has eliminated illness and ageing; the happiness of all is ensured by genetic engineering, brainwashing, recreational sex and tranquillizing drugs.”

 

Ideas such as big brother and the thought police seem to be playing themselves out in our world nowadays with social media an censorship. Right? It may not be exactly how it was meant, but this, dare I say capitalist free market existence we so revere could be interpreted as leading us towards parts of this totalitarian world we so despise. Big brother is watching and we have given them our permission to, interesting to see how it all plays out. And it seems like it isn’t the big brother we 

 

I was having a chat with a friend the other day and he asked me which parts of the books I enjoyed the most and I never really got to answer, but I must say in Orwell’s 1984, when Winston is given the book written by Goldstein and he is in his hideout and excitedly starts consuming its pages. Man the pearls that come out of that book. Take this one for instance… 

 

“It was possible, no doubt, to imagine a society in which WEALTH, in the sense of personal possessions and luxuries, should be evenly distributed, while POWER remained in the hands of a small privileged caste. But in practice such a society could not long remain stable. For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.”

Deep!

 

We are a contradiction a lot of the time right?! People claim to love law and order, but if you had to ask why choose to settle in Africa to do business they will quip, damn, it’s the wild wild west out here, less regulations than in the west so you can make a buck or two. 😂

 

So just to close it all out. These terminologies people throw out to define things that tend to not fit with what we want in life, I find to be a somewhat lazy argument. The world isn’t as linear as our training has lead us to believe, I guess this flows from last week’s blog too. We are but walking contradictions mostly and it sure is a beautiful thing. My hope is to listen to learn and hopefully share and then hopefully one day we will indeed occupy a Brave New World.

Duality that is the world

 Here’s to 2021, may we have the strength and ability to encounter whatever experience it throws at us with a smile, may we be blessed to listen, learn and grow to foster a better world for those that are left behind and those that come after us. May we live to see this better world if it is our makers wish 

 

I think I have rewritten this thing about 5 times now... So much has happened since I last wrote and trying to capture my thoughts in a way that those that don’t share my thoughts, will still want to read it, seems to have occupied my mind, so I’ve decided to just be and write ‘my truth’. Life is always easier that way. 

 

“Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly” Morticia Addams

 

Human beings fascinate me. Let’s go back say 12 years ago, there is hysteria growing around a young, learned man born of an American mother and a Kenyan father. He spoke of hope, he spoke to all, young and old, dark and light skinned, his words resonated not just with his countrymen, but across the world. He spoke not of division but of togetherness to build a better world. The man’s administration inherited an economy that had been decimated, seemingly by the greed of Wall Street. The world was in a recession and it would get worse during his 1st term, but over 8 years the literature shows that they managed to steady the ship and handed it over to the next lot. All that being said, as an outsider observing him as a leader, he seemed to me as an inspirational, caring and respectful person who built a team of competent people that on a whole could get things done. He not only spoke of being a man of God, but he acted in a way that displayed to us, observing from the sidelines that he was. He spoke and behaved like a family man. His words didn’t seem to discriminate against anyone based on colour, sexual orientation or religion. He seemed to fit MY definition of a decent human being. 

Was he perfect, hell no! He made a few military calls that I believe have had adverse ramifications to this day. His part in Libya, drone strikes, Benghazi attack, Snowden story to name a few. What is more is that I’ve been trying to google some random scandals that he was accused of and so far what I came up with was that he asked marines to hold umbrellas for him and the Turkish president during a press conference, he and his wife went on a date night to NYC to watch a broadway show, Dijon mustard burgers, selfie stick, riding a bike with a helmet… man watch this for a laugh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MWxq80oze0

To this day I hear many people insulting him and his administration in favour of the administration that was to follow, which is absolutely fine because there are over 7bn people in this world and you will never be everything to every one.

 

I point this out because it leads to my theme of this weeks’ musings, which is the duality that is the world. 5 years ago the same country brought us a man different to the one described above, polar opposites some might venture, before taking office this man had a parade of questionable things that announced his arrival on the scene. (He was up against arguably the most qualified political person to run for office, but let’s shelve that duality conversation). A few sexual assault accusations, misogynist recordings. He spoke of religion but couldn’t even quote a single verse from the Bible, I mean John 3:16 everyone knows it, he watched a lot of WWE, that is Stone Cold’s mantra, I mean come onnn!! A Titanic full of blatant lies is what he sailed on. His campaign was built on division, attacking people, dehumanizing many, finding an enemy and being a winner, it was the theme of many a childhood sports field if I had to be honest. Truth be told he is a populist not too different from South Africa’s Julius Malema, he knows what to say to get his base fired up, but I’d go as far as saying in terms of intellect, Juju may be brighter than 45. But this man was to be the one. The same people that berated the one before, lay down coats and palm branches for the saviour to ride in on. I mean imagine a leader, who just uses soundbites and has very little depth in his answers other than insults where he feels uncomfortable, fires or dismisses you if you question or disagree with him, hires his family members and close allies in key roles, syphoning public money to his private resort under the guise of government business….and no I’m not talking about Jacob Zuma…but let me park that thought for a moment.

 

On 25^th May 2020, for 8 minutes and 46 seconds the world witnessed America. What the world witnessed wasn’t unique to America, because many people all over the world experience similar treatment, in different forms. In this case it took the form of a smug looking policeman who felt that he had every right in this world, to place a knee on the neck of another restrained human being, whose crime was to have allegedly made a payment with a counterfeit $20 note. Don’t get me wrong, the man who was being arrested had a checkered past, but from what I have read, when he got out of incarceration, he was rebuilding his life. Even if he wasn’t, what his end has no place in my world. 

This wasn’t the first-time police brutality against a certain group of people was witnessed and it wasn’t going to be the last neither…

It struck a chord in many souls, domestic and afar. It showed the injustice much of the world has to contend with. This injustice has not just sprung up, it lives and breeds amongst us and has for the longest time. I say this because I was privy to a few conversations throwing shade on the world’s protests. I implore you if you are reading this blog to google a few names, 1918 Mary Turner, 1935 – Rubin Stacy, 1955 - Emmett Till, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbrey, Amy Cooper. Watch When they see us and 13^th on Netflix. When I hear Americans say this is not us, my only thought is no friend, This IS YOU, it has always been you, only difference now is that camera phones are around and you had a president that emboldened you to unleash yourselves to the world. Let me be clear this isn’t all of America or Americans but 74mil people voted to say that it’s ok (I accept that this is a lazy deduction and in some cases their choice had a lot more to it than voting for 45, but I don’t approve of how the ANC has been running my dear South Africa over the past few elections so I don’t vote for them).

 

On the 1^st Sept 2016, a sportsman decided to take the knee during the national anthem. My interpretation of his knee was in protest of the subhuman treatment being experienced by some of his countrymen particularly at the hands of law enforcement agencies, who are there to protect. His knee was one to ask for life to be acknowledged and preserved, man did he cop some flack, he lost his contract, he was treated as the scum of the earth. The president weighed in hard. Same president was rather silent when one of his kin, kneed the life out of another human. The president and many supporters even here in South Africa were like blah whatever, but I guess because of Covid19 the world was at home, the world had some time to process this, and many corners of the world realized wait, this is actually not right?! People took the streets, mainly in peaceful protest, asking for lives to be seen as EQUAL no one was asking for special treatment, just equality. If you see me walking down the street don’t assume I want your stuff, if you see me at a restaurant, bar or a shop don’t assume I work there or I am a dealer, if I walk into a boardroom or on a sports field, don’t automatically assume that I am an affirmative recruit, if you see me in a flashy car, don’t assume I do dodgy work. This is my lived reality here in SA, so I can imagine being a melanin infused male in the states.

 

The world stood up and protested. The police presence was very visible and their treatment of some of these protestors was pretty severe, an image I can’t ever erase is watching peaceful people getting evacuated by force, so that a grown ass man could go and have a photo op in front of a church, no words, nothing, just a photo, with a Bible. HAVE YOU EVER?!

 

Roll on 6^th January 2021, those that don’t understand the meaning of the word privilege, google Capitol raid and watch every video you can find. I cannot think of anyone who was surprised that it happened. I must add though that not everyone who participated in the rally should be painted with the same brush because there were some that went there to protest a cause that was dear to them, some went to go and start what one woman who got pepper sprayed start…a revolution. WHAT A WOW

 

Unless you have experienced life in a certain way or been raised to believe a certain thing, one can never fully grasp another’s point of view. The protests for equality resonated with me because the evidence is clear to me. There is a culture where certain people feel they are superior to others. I have been on a group with some well to do people, some maybe not so well to do, but a lot of the same mindset that we are at the top of the food chain and we must protect it and anyone who wants to try and help those below us is a threat to our position and they must be insulted and dismissed. Same could be said of locals who believe that foreigners are a threat to their existence and resources. Some might want to debate that this is fact, but we can have that conversation another time

 

I know a fair amount of people that love 45, they have loved everything about him from the beginning, and they have every right to. But from even before he took over, he was never my kind of person, I don’t care how much money he had or claimed to have or that he was the president of the USA, I see character before position or wealth. I have as much respect for the guys working the floors at Virgin Active as I do someone sitting in some fancy boardroom, it’s your station in life, oftentimes a product of the cards you are dealt in this life, it doesn’t change your struggle or whether you are more or less human, well at least not to me. So, the protests for human rights I absolutely get, the vandalism not at all, but in this life there are always opportunists, right? The protests for 45, I don’t get at all, purely on what it was based on. It has been 2 months since the election and THERE HAS BEEN NOT A SHRED OF CREDIBLE EVIDENCE that has been presented to any court that they would consider worthy of hearing. Even the supreme court which one would think was in his favour. Secondly, what I say is that if you are a sitting president, who controls everything, some of the so-called swing states are republican run AND you let people that are out of government steal the elections, then you are not serious and you deserve what you get…tongue in cheek but it makes it all the more unbelievable. But hear me now, I’m not saying that everyone that attended this rally was a thug, because there were a fair amount of people that attended this call to mobilise, but a far smaller group did what they did.

 

The most fascinating thing for me is that for a few weeks there were largely peaceful protests but the military presence around them even guarding Capitol Hill was insane. You had people just getting picked up on the road and shoved into unmarked cars. People wer shouting the odds at these protestors. Slogans like ‘when the looting starts the shooting starts’. You had 45 tear gassing and stun gunning people to go take a pic in front of a church with a Bible. How dare they destroy our court houses, our statues, blaaah blaaah….

On the 6^th Jan, even after knowing about this for such a long time there was very little security presence, hardly a heavy hand in dealing with these thugs who were absolutely destroying property in the name of something that had no evidence. If they can let this happen to a house full of many of their own, I worry for inauguration day and for the safety of VP elect Mrs. K Harris in particular. One has to stop and wonder, were these thugs not who they were, were they say a minority group or a different religious faith what end would be the end that they have met? I mean would it have even gotten that far? Would they be taking selfies with security personnel? Helped down the stairs?

Where are these voices both local and foreign denouncing what happened, similar to their condemnation of the human rights marches? oh I know….silent, that is where they are.

I made reference to those lynching and deaths earlier on because in many of those cases they had police links. You see what happened that day defines privilege  

The mindset is entrenched, in the words of Childish Gambino “This IS America”.