15 April 2020: Day 20 of lockdown in Randburg, South Africa.
It's fucking tight fisted prohibition. Alcohol and tobacco sales banned. Army and SA Police threatening the masses with pointed guns, exercising the regimes wishes with lashings, bullying and humiliation.
Sanity is restored when I am surrounded with a multitude of like minded individuals who share my zeitgeist.
@RussLamberti has nailed the current situation with this assessment (twitter thread):
1. The state doesn't have the capacity to enforce lockdown or deal with its resultant chaos. The president made one of the most fundamental strategy errors - committing his govt beyond its logistical capabilities.
2. Expecting the poorest SAns to endure lockdown itself and theresulting economic fall-out reveals detachment from reality, far too ensconced in palace affairs and nursing the patronage networks of his elite circle to realise how unpopular his plan is with the masses.
3. Applying a one-size-fits-all plan for 60 mil ppl shows the president doesn't grasp social complexity, regional differences, uneven risk vectors, or managing scarce means for various ends. We must see this as a glaring intellectual failure, lacking imagination and analytical understanding.
4. It is clear that even commonly-accepted claims that the president is a consensus-builder are nonsense. The breadth of input for lockdown seems to have been a) copy other govts, b) listen to socialist public health advisors, c) listen to a dirigiste cabinet. How much consultation there was with sycophantic corp boards is unclear.
5. The president's decision to flip society on its head, with CERTAIN economic damage for UNCERTAIN health benefits is beyond reckless. The decision betrays an embarrassingly low regard for the intricacy of the social order & a disturbing revolutionary bias.
6. Lockdown reveals a weather vane leader, swept along by unverified hype. At ease going along with the Davos set, even to the detriment of the country he so precariously leads.
7. The ease with which the state not only instituted lockdown but also the additional draconian rules further reveals a leader most at ease with dirigiste centralisation. This makes him dangerous, not a lovable teddy bear. One could go on, but the point is this: COV19 didn't heal the leadership void at the helm of South Africa's failing state. It laid it bare.
Susan Sontag sums it up beast. 10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and that the remaining 80 percent could be moved in either direction. In South Africa, the 60% that voted the government into its majority dictatorship are having their liberties violated. In 4-years will they have such short term memory loss and vote the ANC in again? Yes. This is the comeuppance that Africa deserves.
Ps. Alcohol stocks nearly depleted, I am off to make pineapple beer. Bless the miracle of mould and fermentation.
It's fucking tight fisted prohibition. Alcohol and tobacco sales banned. Army and SA Police threatening the masses with pointed guns, exercising the regimes wishes with lashings, bullying and humiliation.
Sanity is restored when I am surrounded with a multitude of like minded individuals who share my zeitgeist.
@RussLamberti has nailed the current situation with this assessment (twitter thread):
1. The state doesn't have the capacity to enforce lockdown or deal with its resultant chaos. The president made one of the most fundamental strategy errors - committing his govt beyond its logistical capabilities.
2. Expecting the poorest SAns to endure lockdown itself and theresulting economic fall-out reveals detachment from reality, far too ensconced in palace affairs and nursing the patronage networks of his elite circle to realise how unpopular his plan is with the masses.
3. Applying a one-size-fits-all plan for 60 mil ppl shows the president doesn't grasp social complexity, regional differences, uneven risk vectors, or managing scarce means for various ends. We must see this as a glaring intellectual failure, lacking imagination and analytical understanding.
4. It is clear that even commonly-accepted claims that the president is a consensus-builder are nonsense. The breadth of input for lockdown seems to have been a) copy other govts, b) listen to socialist public health advisors, c) listen to a dirigiste cabinet. How much consultation there was with sycophantic corp boards is unclear.
5. The president's decision to flip society on its head, with CERTAIN economic damage for UNCERTAIN health benefits is beyond reckless. The decision betrays an embarrassingly low regard for the intricacy of the social order & a disturbing revolutionary bias.
6. Lockdown reveals a weather vane leader, swept along by unverified hype. At ease going along with the Davos set, even to the detriment of the country he so precariously leads.
7. The ease with which the state not only instituted lockdown but also the additional draconian rules further reveals a leader most at ease with dirigiste centralisation. This makes him dangerous, not a lovable teddy bear. One could go on, but the point is this: COV19 didn't heal the leadership void at the helm of South Africa's failing state. It laid it bare.
Susan Sontag sums it up beast. 10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and that the remaining 80 percent could be moved in either direction. In South Africa, the 60% that voted the government into its majority dictatorship are having their liberties violated. In 4-years will they have such short term memory loss and vote the ANC in again? Yes. This is the comeuppance that Africa deserves.
Ps. Alcohol stocks nearly depleted, I am off to make pineapple beer. Bless the miracle of mould and fermentation.
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