A Delusion of Democracy

Andoni Nicolau
Aug 9, 2017 · 9 min read

Kyklos: term used by classical Greek authors to describe what they saw as the political cycle of governments in a society.

Genesis = Base Anarchy → Monarchy → Tyranny → Aristocracy → Oligarchy → Democracy → Ochlocracy → Genesis 2.0

It was interesting to watch the sitting of South Africa’s parliament on August 8th 2017. The level of debate surrounding the motion of no confidence against President Zuma was juvenile at best. With kyklos in mind it becomes less of an embarrassment and begins to feel more like we’re observing an anthropic experiment.

Designing optimum forms of government is based on the assumptions for how different stakeholders, in a given society, will behave under certain conditions. To do this, we must accept that humans are basic yet, highly complex at the same time.

Basic, in that we can only ever act in our own, usually immediate, narrow self-interest. Complex, in the manner by which those decisions are informed.

This self-interested behaviour is ok and not unexpected. However, chaos ensues when our Democracy assumes that MPs (members of parliament) will hold the interests of “the people” above their own or, at the very least on an equal level. Does anyone find a flaw in this assumption?

Only highly enlightened individuals recognize the inter-connectedness of all beings — and act accordingly. Simple minded beings retreat to tribalism: As Hon. N N Mapisa-Nqakula aptly demonstrated.

“My conscience tells me we all need to respect the voters that brought us here”… “My political consciousness tells me, I have a duty to defend the African National Congress!”

Probabilistically, it is impossible to fill parliament with enlightened individuals. The corollary makes it certain that parliament will be crammed with idiots, which results in terminal short-termism (please be cognizant that I do not use the term, idiot” in a derogatory manner instead, it is meant to be descriptive — it’s a subtle but crucial distinction).

Given that we now have a bunch of idiots in parliament we require an incentive structure to force their decisions, which can impact our nation for the greater good.

The tools we have are limited but effective. Mass revolt — either violent or non-violent. Failing that, we can roll over, surrender, and get comfortable with our shackles; or emigrate to London or Australia. And, trust me, they each come with their own custom designed shackles.

Our incentive mechanisms are broken by design. If we think slightly further we immediately encounter two major problems:

  1. It is incredibly difficult to organise mass community movements, even when public opinion is in overwhelming support.
  2. The institutions built to supposedly protect the public interest actually exist to protect the ruling class.

In addition, we are sorely missing two historically prevalent tools of proletariat coercion. The threat of mob justice, and/or a citizens’ arrest. These are vital to a functioning society as they work to hold public representatives accountable — without it we are fools and pawns in a Game of Cronies.

Imagine a scenario where an ordinary citizen places Zuma or any other known crook under a citizens’ arrest — you can’t, can you? Because these tools are not extant in today’s society. Civil society, the world over, has been successfully incapacitated, thanks mainly to two institutions — The SA Reserve Bank and the SA Police Service (and the international equivalents).

Without these immediate tangible threats, politicians will continue to act against the greater good. To hope otherwise is plainly naïve.

The ruling class have created the perfect environment for large-scale corruption to flourish — and we allowed it to happen. Only once we understand the bigger picture, can we hope to change it. Until then we should cease to be surprised by the behaviour of our idiotic parliamentarians — the Honourables!

The Hapless DA and Tragic Maimane

South Africa is moving through the kyklos, rather quickly, between Democracy and Ochlocracy. I feel immense pity for Mmusi Maimane and the DA — and for anyone daft enough to pin their hopes on them. They genuinely feel they are doing God’s work but, are mere fools caught in the swirl of kyklos.

On Tuesday afternoon they chose to appeal to the mythical ‘conscience’ of ANC MPs. Again, does anyone see an obvious flaw with this strategy?

Each and every DA member should be assigned the works of John Nash. Once they can firmly grasp the principles of Game Theory, only then should we allow them back into the political game.

Malema, in contrast, is a far more captivating and shrewd politician (more on Malema and the EFF at a later stage).

By my estimations, the word “I” consumed approximately 72% of Hon. M A Maimane’s speech. It was literally all about him. How he grew up in Soweto under Apartheid; how he is dedicated to fighting oppression. He basically claimed a monopoly on goodness for himself. If we go against him does that make us bad? This is politicking at it’s most incompetent.

I became a member of parliament because I wanted to serve this country”. “I wanted to make a difference”.

Intended or not, Maimane is implying that others became MPs because they didn’t want to serve, and didn’t want to make a difference.

I am tired of speaking about the Guptas”, “I witnessed the sharp end of Apartheid brutality”. “I have spoken to people who collect spoiled food from rubbish dumps to feed their families”.

He droned on and on and not a single ANC MP gave a damn — and rightfully so. How is it in their immediate interest to care for Maimane’s sob story?

If Maimane’s goal was to oust President Zuma he failed miserably and went about his task in a foolish manner.

Presumably, the opposition was united behind this goal of ousting Zuma. Thus, in order to succeed, Maimane needed to persuade ANC MPs to gain a majority vote for the motion. If we apply the logic described above, Mmusi needed to explain why it would be in the self-interest for each ANC MP to vote against Zuma.

He did not address this trade off other than to desperately appeal to conscience. He cited quotes from ex-presidents and singled out members already sympathetic to his cause such as Gordhan, Ramaphosa and Nzimande.

Furthermore, it seemed Maimane was unable to distinguish between a DA election rally and a parliament filled with a majority of ANC MPs.

“The choice that is before us is a simple one”. “…we… take our country back”.

Another gripe that I feel compelled to moan about is his invocation of Mandela. Maimane literally said, “…I know what Nelson Mandela would’ve done in this house today...” This is idiotic and cringeworthy to the nth degree. And yet again, it’s a tactical misstep from Maimane. The ANC feel that Madiba is theirs. Why get their backs up and attempt to claim him as your own?

The childish back and forth game — who claims to know Mandela best — is not only conceited and presumptuous, but plainly disrespectful.

These strategic failings seem to have permeated throughout the DA.

Hon. P T van Damme, who also addressed parliament, had the following to say:

“Please do the right thing”. “Do it for the struggle heroes”.

Her approach was sweet and betrays her youthful inexperience. At one point she had a heated confrontation with a female ANC MP — I wonder if the DA managed to secure her vote?

The DA are just dumb. They don’t know how to do politics.

“You have no confidence in Jacob Zuma, so support this motion”.

Since when do parliamentarians act on logic?

My attention now turns to the school prefect and teacher’s pet we all knew and hated back in standard 6 — the Hon. J Steenhuisen. His whiny, incredulous reciting of the rule book is possibly the most laughable and ineffectual display by a politician ever witnessed.

My favourite tid-bit was when Steenhuisen spuriously pointed out that an ANC member was raising spurious points-of-order. What an orgy of spuriousness! He did so, even after the deputy speaker attempted to avoid further delays.

Good luck to the Hon. J Steenhuisen and his rule book.

The sooner we all give up on the DA the better chance we have at saving ourselves and our precarious society.

The Captivating Malema and Dangerous EFF

In stark contrast to the DA, the EFF are a truly captivating spectacle. From their red overalls to their plain speech and entertaining antics; Malema and his party are the real winners in all this turmoil.

Malema understands that politics is a popularity competition. The more entertaining he is, the more votes he will garner.

“I withdraw because I don’t want you to chase me out; I want to vote a criminal out.” Then again, Malema withdraws, “I withdraw, I want to vote a crook out.” and lastly “unconditionaly”.

This is entertainment at its most glorious!

Malema is a shrewd politician and is gaining popular support at each and every opportunity.

Besides his antics, which are genius in my opinion (take heed of how Trump conducted his election campaign) Malema correctly identified the common enemy — The Guptas. He offered ANC members commonality and provided actual justification for voting against Zuma. He made it clear that this is not a vote against the ANC, nor really against Zuma, but rather against a hostile foreign enemy assuming control over our government.

He did more to win support for the motion than the party who tabled it.

For the moment, this is all very entertaining. However, there may come a time when we are faced with the truly terrifying prospect of an EFF government.

Malema — in opposition — is an effective voice and trident for workers’ rights. Malema — in power — is a despotic madman hellbent on misguided nationalizations and large-scale mismanagement of vital resources. In short, an EFF government means certain death for the current incarnation of our semi-peaceful South Africa. We will become a tragic Zimbabwe-clone; another verse in the African independence lament.

The Unending Stupidity of Human Arrogance

I have a basic theory which can never be proven either way. If true however, it is an example of extreme human arrogance which always shoots us in the foot. We consistently forget; we cannot know what we don’t know. We assume all the variables are obvious and controllable — we are masters, not the puppets.

The decision to pursue a secret ballot, and for courts to allow it, is woefully daft, shortsighted, and sets a dangerous precedent.

Let’s conduct a basic thought experiment: The EFF benefits and accumulates a larger constituency the greater the economic recession. The ANC, and specifically Zuma’s ANC, have proven to be a major factor in destabilizing our economy. They have drastically increased the gap between rich and poor and have reduced almost every measure of public assistance — education; health; welfare. The poor and working class are suffering. All of these impoverished voters are looking for a saviour; how much longer before they turn to Malema en masse?

Thus, is it not in the EFFs interest to keep Zuma in power? They were granted a heavenly (for them, for us it’s hellish) opportunity; they get to stand up in parliament, loudly proclaim their hatred and disaffection of Zuma, then go ahead and anonymously vote to keep him in power. We would be none-the-wiser. Retaining Zuma further entrenches our recession and strengthens the EFF’s populist platform.

The pursuants of the secret ballot may have inadvertently strengthened Zuma’s position.

The problem with a secret ballot is that those with any empathy for the country would’ve been voting for the motion regardless of anonymity. Only those voting against required additional incentives and I doubt that anonymity is more profitable than cronyism. Besides, if Zuma merely suspects dessertion there is little stopping him from purging the suspected members. Just as he did with his infamous cabinet reshuffle.

Conclusion: The market is always right — SA is junk

What does it mean to have Junk economic status? It means that, collectively, South Africa is worth junk as an investment. Our forebears created junk. Our youth is junk. You are junk. I am junk. Jacob & Mmusi are both junk. We are all junk.

We should embrace our junky-ness. Doing this will hopefully lead us to the realization that our entire system is junk. Our wholehearted subservience to this cruel reality is self-imposed junk. Perhaps our junky-ness can actually help. It may help us escape this kyklos, reclaim our personal sovereignty and seek an Age of Enlightenment.

Time Will Tell ~ Bob Marley

Andoni Nicolau

Written by

Reincarnation of the sensation of “I”

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