Ignorantly Sharing Ignorance

My sister is probably the most highly-opinionated person I know and as if that wasn’t bad enough already she’s also stubborn as hell. Only this morning, she reminded me just why it is that I would hate to get onto the wrong side of an argument with her. Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for my sister. I think she has grown into a beautiful young woman and I couldn’t be more proud to call her my sister.

But DAMN!!! Don’t fight with that chick… EVER!

Heather and I text regularly and my days are not the same without our little conversations. They are always humorous and I often find myself wondering at the complete inappropriateness of her jokes but we have a strict “No Judgement” policy so I generally end up laughing instead of worrying about her mental health.

This morning, in one of our little chats she didn’t fail to provide the usual entertainment when she brought up the topic of something one of her grade 8’s was talking about. In this particular conversation the young woman was speaking about the South African political climate and was desperately trying to prove to everyone present that she was a devout ANC supporter.

Basically her opinion amounted to these concepts:

·         Without the ANC we would still be living in Apartheid

·         Everyone against the ANC believes in Apartheid

·         And that she hopes the DA fails

Now, apart from the obvious deficiency of knowledge in her small little grade 8 mind, this still shocked me. I’m pretty sure that there are a few old oomies on farms in towns no one knows about that still believe in the concept of Apartheid and would love for it to come back but I’m also pretty sure that the majority of South Africans are completely repulsed by the concept altogether. And yet many of us nonbelievers do not support the ANC and nowhere on the DA agenda does it mention anything even slightly apartheid like and I’m pretty sure that goes for most of the other political parties.

Her complete ignorance astounded me, even for her age.

The other thing I noticed was that she was so proud to be an ANC supporter. I find it relatively amusing because the fact that she is going to Uplands College, an upper-class, private school on the outskirts of White River, means that her parents are wealthy. This means that they probably do not rely on the government for housing and food, unless of course her parents work in government or are tenderpreneurs.

Either way, it means that they have either benefitted personally from the ANC or are completely ambivalent to whether the ANC delivers on their promises or not. And I think we can all agree that the ANC is NOT delivering.

Anyway, to get back to my story and this is the amusing part, because upon hearing this loud-mouthing of completely idiotic opinions my sister decided to take action and after deciding that this girl was too stupid to waste a proper political debate on, my sister merely told her to shut up and do some reading. I’m not entirely sure what happened after that but I’m pretty sure that anyone facing my sister in this situation would have shut-the-hell-up and ran to their room to phone mommy. And if she did dare to face my sister then I know from experience that she is currently sitting in her room crying her eyes out wishing she had done some research before making a complete idiot of herself.

It paints a lovely picture, doesn’t it?

I thought it was hilarious and laughed for what seemed like an age, but something about the story was haunting my mind.

Is this complete fear of Apartheid and the major lack in education the only reason why the ANC is still in power? It would make a lot of sense. I have been wondering for years now why it is that people continue to vote for this corrupt government even though they continually disappoint. This seems to be as reasonable an explanation as any and it came directly from one of the ANC’s “greatest supporters.”

It is vital that we change the opinions of the majority before we find ourselves in a place of no return, and I’m pretty sure we need to do it now! This is an urgent matter that needs immediate attention, because if the 21^st of December is not the end of our country then this government surely will be.