Firstly, today I watched the footage of a man being tied to a police van and dragged along....horrifying, yes, but this isn't the clincher. A crowd of bystanders are busy clicking away on their cell phones and rubbernecking, but NOT ONE does anything to remonstrate with the police, or try to help the man.
Secondly,
I read some answers to a question paper given to grade 7's as homework. The question was 2 fold:
a) What would you do in a threatening intruder situation at home, and
b) If someone is querulous, neurotic and bothersome do they deserve to die? (This was in context of the story they had been given to read).
More than 30% said they would have a gun and shoot the intruder, and a similar amount said that a bothersome person deserves to die.
The implication of this is that we have become a fearful and deeply callous society, we do not end the mistreatment of the taxi driver, because we are grateful it is not us. We are not shocked, we use the opportunity to take awesome photos to send to friends. We have lost our humanity...
Our children are raised in a society where violence and fear are the norm, we take justice into our own hands, using weapons as a solution to a problem. It is not a racial thing, Minister, not a religious thing. It is the brutalization of our society. And that is why tragedies, such as the shooting of Reeva Steenkamp and the death of Anene Booysens comes as no surprise.
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