Filtering the Alan Knott-Craig Way

I know when I lived overseas, we'd see a lot of shocking and embarrassing footage some South Africans never see. Being so far from home, it is easy to say: they need to do this, or, they need to do that. And it always struck me - how come the people there, on the ground, never get around to doing anything?

The reason is because every now and then, some bright spark reminds us of how lucky we are, how positive we need to be. Alan Knott-Craig's brilliance is epitomised in his closing sentence: 'ignore the doomsayers, adjust your geyser and make yourself some coffee.' Thanks Craig. Ever heard the saying: ignorance is bliss.

There's a character who epitomises where this positive (but also self-serving) brilliance gets you. His name is Cypher, in the Matrix.

Cypher: You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize?
[Takes a bite of steak]
Cypher: Ignorance is bliss.

What Cypher then does is engineer a scheme that gets him sitting nice and pretty, but basically sabotages his pals.

I get the gist. In the middle of struggle or trouble, lies opportunity. I am not going to nauseate you (or me) by listing the issues of our time. What I will say is that we are about to exit an extraordinary phase. Because we were born into the 20th century (and so were our parents), there is a nutty sense that this is how it will always be (and somehow, that this is how it always was). Actually, even the idea of suburbia is comparatively fucking new. Suburbia was dreamed up after World War 2. It has barely existed for one generation, let alone two. Guess what? Your children are unlikely to live in a house, built on a patch of land (a mini farm), connecting it to the city by motorway, with vehicles ferrying single human occupants there and back. Sorry, it's not going to happen. It's likely that even in this lifetime, you will spend the last years of your life working on a farm, or fighting in The Infinite War (which is a war for resources), or both.

The shift from motor cars to...well, not being able to use them on such a massive scale - the shift away from the world's highway systems is imminent. And here you have a guy asking you to sit back and relax and make a cup of fucking coffee? There is absolutely nothing wrong with being positive, and being optimistic. I welcome that - by all means. But to shut down your capacity for critical thinking (hey, what's not working here, where will this fucked up attitude get us in 5 years) and basically set up posters for ignorance, BE IGNORANT, BE HAPPY, EVERYTHING'S FINE that's scandalous.

A final note, a sort've a crucial one: I often have conversations with a banking dude, and I'm very aware of the way the press sets up their information. Our paradigm is that growth is good, unlimited growth, and growth no matter what the cost. This is in the name of 'greed is good'. It's also in the name of making money, getting richer. As long as we grow, companies (and Mr. Craig) get richer. It doesn't matter to them if another road is paved through a veld, or if twenty more trucks roar off an assembly line. All that matters is that 'subscribers are up'. And how do you stimulate demand? By making sure your market is happy. And how do you do that? You tell them to be happy. You associate your useless product with happy associations. You bullshit them that by buying something - by being an automaton and a consumer - that's their purpose, and the gilded road to happiness. Actually it's only the gilded road for the okes making the products they're trying to sell to you.

And when all these things happen that we need to ignore with buckets of positive smoke, when we can't afford to drive to Cape Town, or to buy a nice big steak, they will be able to afford it. Because at the end of the day, all the costs are passed down to the poorest. It's in their interest to keep us ignorant, and if you can't see that, you totally deserve to be played for a fool.

How Stupid is Staying Positive?

When I lived in South Korea I remember looking back at South Africa with conflicted feelings. In one sense I missed the country a helluva lot. In another sense you got these clear messages coming from the country about pretty disgusting and unacceptable levels of crime, corruption and the rest. What disturbed me the most was the immediate take-up of this stuff by the locals. It is immediately explained and accepted and integrated. When you live overseas and look back the complacency of South Africans is staggering. Hence we have these ridiculous ongoing scenarios: a huge proportion of poor people and then the highest telecommunications rates in the world, high crime corruption and disease levels, deteriorating education... It seems to me we're held in collective paralysis because we're too scared to do anything because someone might point a finger at us and say: "You're racist."

As soon as we start to act against something that isn't right, something that doesn't serve the national interest, it's racism or discrimination. The same race card is used as a massive license for enrichment, as we have seen in SARU. Funny we don't see all these vital issues - transformation, development and the rest - being implemented in soccer.

There's the group who pretend to have lofty ideals and sneer at those who say are simply whingers and moaners. Guess what! There is a helluva lot to moan about if you have any standards. If you're running the risk of drinking radioactive water out of a tap, shouldn't you be allowed to complain? So sorry, I don’t see our local situation as a question of positive or negative at all. If it’s raining and you stand in the rain, do you imagine the sun is shining, or do you start thinking about getting shelter or an umbrella? Do you start working out what you should fucking do? Because at the rate we're going, we're standing in the rain, and someone is saying: "Shit, it's raining. I'm starting to get cold and wet." Someone else says: "Shutup, it;'s not so bad. Quit whinging." Great. Keep standing there in the rain. Maybe the weather will change. Maybe you can daydream yourself home and dry. Most realistic (non-sleeping walking) people know better.

Economically, I’m very certain that we are heading for a recession – a chronic recession – it is simply a matter of time. The world’s systems were built on a system based on cheap oil, and that system has changed fundamentally. It will take a while to overhaul that system, and we are too late to start now. Perhaps we're not, but it sure as heck doesn't look like it, and given our co0mplacency (globally) regarding so many urgent issues, I would be very surprised if we can dig our way out of this. I hope we do.

So I think there’s an aspect to positivity that is a bit crazy. When there is a 50/50 of uncertainty, sure, I say be positive. But being positive in the face of urgent scenarios is to me like pretending the sun is shining when standing in the rain, or that the baby kicking in your tummy is just stomach ache. It’s may be a nice sunny attitude, but ultimately it is incredibly dof. Obviously if you can’t see it is raining (if we’re seeing different info/different reality, then there will be this different view. But I think it is simplisitc and not accurate to call it ‘being negative’. Reality is simply what it is. The real question is, are we seeing reality or are we constantly seeing what we want to see. Given the nature of passive consumers, of our infotainment fast food easy motoring soap watching culture, it's not a leap to suggest that we're susceptible to egotistical self-indulgence, even in our beliefs.

I think our response to reality is being ‘positive’ because in a sense that suits us. It suits us to believe things will go well and grow continuously. Because if we really believe some of the facts, well that will mean some difficult choices. That – once we act on difficult choices - that is when I fully support being positive. It’s like with training. You get up in the morning (difficult choice) because of reality (you’re not fit or need to stay fit or you have a defined goal you need to achieve) and once riding and dealing with the effort and the environment, that's when you need to be positive.

They say next month we will see petrol prices increase again by 30 cents or something. I think if we start to take a look at what is happening not just in SA but in the world, we need to do more than be positive. We need to start living our lives in a different way…in terms of how we live, changing long held (cherished) beliefs, the way we have families (it shouldn’t be a conventional thing to do when we are running out of resources) and all rest. Although these are things we SHOULD do I am pretty negative about our prospects. People only make those sort of changes when there are no other options left.