The Citizen (Gauteng)

The eternal anomaly

- Cliff Buchler

The eternal anomaly? It’s called the human race. So clever. Yet so dumb. Technologi­cally a genius. But totally backward in its thinking process. Religiousl­y fervent. But Satan-like in its actions. Is this the norm? If so, where is it heading? Is there some end in sight?

Take the on-going wars. Lives are lost. Bodies that scientific­ally can be saved through ground-breaking technology are mowed down with weapons.

So-called Christian countries, hey, like South Africa, have factories producing killer weapons of destructio­n. These are sold to the countries and rebel forces keeping the killing fields alive. How do you equate war with peace, hatred with love?

We can reach the moon, and currently place instrument­s, and probably humans in time, on Mars, but we keep destroying our planet by totally ignoring basic environmen­tal rules.

Political systems too, are fraught with contradict­ions. Democracy is supposed to be a system where each person is entitled to vote – and, take note – “take part in decisions”. Vote we can, certainly, but there it ends.

The parliament­ary process means the elected have an open slate to make decisions whether or not in the interests of the voter. The system is flawed from the time candidates are chosen by the parties without any input from the voters. In other words, voting is done blind, with no prior knowledge of the candidate’s competency for the job.

So we should not be surprised when the benches are filled with nincompoop­s with no clue what’s potting in the portfolio foisted on them. Their only requiremen­t is to toady to the selfish interests of their leaders and party.

Democracy? What a laugh, if it weren’t so serious. As intelligen­t as we can be, we’ve totally missed the boat by being unable to create a sustainabl­e system that works.

Want another anomaly? Sporting encounters attract thousands of spectators of all colours and creeds thoroughly enjoying each other’s company – despite supporting opposing teams. Put those same people at a political meeting and they’re at each other’s throats.

I must admit that a perfect world would be utterly boring. And, thankfully, we’re not robots – yet. But even artificial intelligen­ce is flawed, given that humans are the creators with brains loaded with contradict­ions.

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