The world as we once knew it does not exist anymore. Traditional alliances and traditional enemies have all been turned upside down. The concepts of right-wing, left-wing, and centrism in politics are no longer valid. We have become a world ruled by the latest illogical soundbites spewed forth at the last minute by the powerful monied classes.
We have developed an obsession with the extremist utterances of political billionaires and their commercial allies, who believe in their infallibility. We listen to them each day to get more of the shock drug they push out into our veins. We edge them on by liking or criticizing them, but engage them we all do. We are not brave enough to unfollow them.
I have stopped following Elon Musk, Donald Trump and other billionaires on my social media platforms. If they were any other human, telling us stupid stuff, we would have labelled them crazy and blocked them. Why do we loyally follow them? Is an "unfollow" action not a necessary part of our protest? But because they have sufficiently convinced most people that they need to be listened to and read daily, we keep following them. We don't need to keep drinking their daily doses of cool-aid. Last week it was reported that teachers at Zanemfundo Primary School in Philippi must be escorted by police to and from school to avoid extortionists who demand protection money from them. The lady who helps in our home told me that her 10-year-old son had been stopped by gangs in the same community the day before, demanding that he join their gang or pay protection money. Who listens to their voices, to their sound bites?
Political culture as we once knew it, does not exist anymore. Safety and community life as we once knew it, does not exist anymore. How did it happen? It happened when we became comfortable with the idea that it was just fine for politicians to become mega-wealthy. It happened when we gave free passes to our politicians to be corrupt. It happened when we said it's okay to have a mile-long SASSA queue. Or when a train was late, and we just ignored it. Or when the Post Office collapsed, and we kept allowing the same politicians back in to destroy more infrastructure.
Mega-wealthy politicians and their billionaire enablers told us to hate immigrants, Afrikaners, the EFF and to say #Voet**kANC or #Voet**kDA every Friday. They did not want us to engage sensibly. They just spewed forth four-sentence soundbites that all media platforms repeated over and over and all of us forwarded a hundred times. We all slowly strangled a better country to death, because someone on social media said we should.
Media loves controversy. Radio is boring if there is no on-air fight. The printed press is boring if there is no sensation. Television is boring when there is no 'gotcha' moment. We have given others power over us to determine what we should think and how we should feel and react. The political project is to get everyone addicted to triggering sound bites, not peaceful truth. To get everyone swept up in manufactured chaos. To make us all deeply scared of the future. Then make money out of everything we react to.
A few weeks ago, I listened to the video stories of unemployed young people living in Sir Lowrys Pass Village. Many of them will never have a full-time job in their lifetime. They will live a life supported by food programmes and government grants for most of their time on earth. No one will ever hear their voices.
If we don't protest by switching off the voices of the oligarchs and billionaires, we will become their enablers. They don't care that we fight them online. They love the drama. They care when we stop listening to them. Unfollow them.
* Davids is the Executive Director of Urban Issues Consulting.
Cape Argus