"To Flaming Youth..."

The other day, I burned my hand. Not just a finger or two, but the entire thing. Now, my left hand looks about 35 years older than the rest of my body. I would like to say that I burnt my hand while saving a young child from a burning house, or from heroically putting out a angry flames that threatened to destroy a mielie farm. Alas, this injury – like most – befell me in the unwittingly dangerous nerve centre of our home: the kitchen. For reasons that I am still trying to discover, I decided that I would put my hand under the cake tin containing a delicious chocolate cake that had just been taken out of the oven, and in the process, seared my hand.

As I was staring at my hand this afternoon (taking a break from staring at my computer screen, and doing an exemplary job of feigning busyness) I started to think about the many ways that we as South Africans burn ourselves. It occurred to me that, whether we realize it or want to acknowledge it or not, we are so prone – like infants – to burning fingers on a hot stove plate.

And this week, the youth of our country really out did themselves. Not only did they singe their hands, but out rightly threw themselves into the furnace. I will admit that, although he is not my favourite human, Julius Malema really speaks to the youth and reaches them where they are. Not all youth, yes, but a large population of young people believe in what he has to say. And his message of Black Economic Freedom is not a bad one. In fact, I tend to agree with a surprisingly large number of the things he says (once you sift through the racial slurs and ignorant slander). Yet the behaviour of the ANCYL this week can only be called barbaric.

Somewhere between Madiba’s inspirational inaugural speech in 1994 and the fall of the oppressive Libyan regime in August 2011, South African youths have picked up that the only way to get their voices heard and their opinions recognised is to riot in the streets, and disregard all who dare stand in their way. (This includes groping and insulting journalists, attacking the police, and intimidating shopkeepers.) We don’t care about integrity, and we have long forgotten about respect. We are claiming victories that are not our own, and think that we can surf on the backs of martyrs of the past who virtuously fought for our freedom. Yet we shame them with our vulgarity and base judgements and actions. We destroy, with the fire of our own hate, the foundations that have been laid down for us by the youth of darker times. We interpret “Born Free” as “Born Deserving”, and are overcome by our own self-indulgence and selfishness. Our sense of entitlement outweighs our sense of responsibility and hard work.

The “youth” are called failures in a number of areas: we can’t pass matric and fail to complete our degrees in the minimum required time; we flippantly satisfy our carnal desires in the back seats of strangers’ cars, then fall pregnant too early and without the stability or maturity to take care of another human being; we smoke and drink our futures away in dingy back rooms where the music is too loud and the smoke too thick for us to really come to grips with our own hopelessness. And as we continue to fail in all things, we continue to thrive in our propensity to destroy. Our self-annihilation becomes so common, that we are no longer aware of our own retardation. With disregard to the struggle of braver, wiser and more honourable youths, we feed the fire of despair, hatred and shame, forging for ourselves a new future that is void of anything praiseworthy or admirable.

We think only of our own desires, what would be of greater benefit to us, and not of the consequences of our selfish acts that follow these selfish thoughts. I don’t know what made me believe that the best plan of action would be to put my hand under a steaming hot aluminium cake tin. But perhaps it was the same thoughts of want and self-satisfaction that was going through the minds of the flocks of young people who streamed to Sauer Street this week. A thought that pays no heed to rationale, logic or pure common sense; it only thinks about what you want and how you can get it, and who cares about anyone else or the consequences?

However, I want to reassure those who are reading this who are not barbaric. The part of the youth who believe in respect and hard work; they believe in wanting to be better, and knowing that the best way to achieve what you want is not to be loud and rowdy, but to be hardworking and logical. To those of you who are as disgusted as I am, I want you to read this open letter posted by Jonathan Jansen today on Times Live:
http://www.timeslive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2011/09/01/an-open-letter-to-sa-s-youth

I will not be negative enough to believe that all of South Africa’s youth are lost in the flames of their entitlement and, really bluntly, stupidity. I will hold onto the belief that most of us also build fires, but not to destroy. We build fires of knowledge and integrity; of hope and kindness. For those young people who are tired of the destruction, feed your fires with knowledge and action, and do not sit passively by as hate destroys this otherwise beautiful land. We can beat fire with fire, and as awareness grows, so ignorance will lessen, and the youth of this country can start to shine a light that doesn’t blind with hate, but that glows with pride.

Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, allowed herself to be overcome by lust and married her brother-in-law shortly after the suspicious death of her husband and Hamlet’s father. Hamlet, eventually too outraged to be submissive, implodes and says “To flaming youth let virtue be as wax/ And melt in her own fire”, referring to how easy it is to manipulate Gertude’s character and virtue. Gertrude allowed her lust to be the fire that ultimately ledto her shame. Do not fall prey to such weakness.

Shine on.