Sunday 24 June 2012

South Africans are stupid!

A few years back I read a statistic that said that the average South African IQ was 70, but I've also read another saying it's over a hundred. I think either may have been a bit generous. My statement that South Africans are stupid will of course attract much vitriol, but bear in mind that as generalisations go, this is one of them.

 The reason I say they're stupid, is because of recent news reports of the amount of support that the "Death Squad" of Cator Manor policemen have received. Even our erstwhile police commissioner found it a worthwhile cause to lobby for, but that really says more about him than anything else.

These people are vigilantes and yet your average Joe Citizen believes it is right to defend their behaviour. The same thing happened with Bheki Cele's shoot to kill statement. The radio stations were inundated with calls of support. The question that they all failed to entertain was : "What if someone close to me was wrongly targeted?" It's ok if someone else's child or father gets mistaken for a criminal and is shot, sometimes mistakes happen. And your child? And your father? Then it's not okay. Then you will sue the police force for as much as you can, voice your utter horror that such a thing ever occurred. It's the same thing with township vigilantism. It just takes someone to say something about someone they don't like. No questions, let's just assume and believe that the person is guilty. Serves him right.  It just takes a little thinking, not much, not enough to pop a blood vessel, just a bit, to look at something from a slightly different perspective. It really should be a normal process.

The same thing happened with Pig Spotter, where one could go online and look for speed traps and road blocks. Everyone said "Great! That will show those cops they can't catch me! They're just out there to make money anyway!" Until someone they know is killed because of some speeding idiot.

It really struck me how absurd the whole thing was, how morally vacuous we've become, when I went out for a function at a restaurant. Perfectly normal people sitting around a table, about 10 of them. Everyone had a good time, drank too much, ate too much and then when it came to an end, everyone was on their cell phones. Why? After the usual discussions about crime, morals and the like, they were now checking where the road blocks would be. So they could avoid them and possibly kill someone you know.

How is it possible to not see this reality? Are South Africans really that dumb?

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