Cees Bruggemans: The South African modernity groundswell and digesting a democracy

Posted below is a fantastic piece by our regular columnist, Cees Bruggemans, and political commentator, Professor Willie Esterhuyse. Having done my Honours degree in English Literature, I have discussed, analysed and written lengthy essays on the concepts and issues of modernity and post-modernity. As South Africans (and as a developing country), continuously adjusting to a developing democracy and modernist developments in what (I believe) is a post-modern world can be incredibly overwhelming. I enjoyed this piece by Bruggemans and Esterhuyse as it is thoughtful, sensitive, intelligent and most importantly, positive about South Africa’s development. – Tracey Ruff 

by Cees Bruggemans and Prof Willie Esterhuyse      

Johannesburg South Africa (slider)
Johannesburg – the economic hub of an ever-developing SA.

For many South Africans the social and economic structures from the past are unacceptable and need to be changed. It is the “how” that inflames passions, missionary zeal in some, deep anxiety in others.

Can one bake an omelette without breaking a few eggs? Napoleon & Stalin certainly didn’t think so, and Mao offered the view that a revolution wasn’t the same as an invitation to a Sunday cocktail party.

Revolutions have a way of forcibly breaking old structures and replacing them with new ones, often from the ground up.

That invitation keeps on being offered in SA, too, even as cooler heads suggest that it isn’t quite necessary to destroy in order to build new.

Perhaps a more interesting question is whether, before true revolutionaries gain full control and commence their full demolition, there is in any case a change process in the works that overcomes structural rigidities and renews fundamentally, if at its own pace, not abrupt but insidiously, and not to be gain-said, not even by the greatest entrenched vested interests.

Over time, such evolutionary change of structures is revolutionary in its own right. It overcomes not through the frontal assault, but by the flanking and overtaking of resistance, leaving such elements to the care of time.

Even as we argue the toss in SA whether we are on the brink of revolutionary upheaval, with political populists on offer to do the job by thoroughly thrashing the status quo out of recognition, thereby engendering deep fears all round, long-term structural forces are doing their own quiet work in preparing for the future.

There are impersonal forces, such as demographics, urbanization and technological change. And there is something that could be termed “digesting democracy”, an active social & political learning curve.

We are no longer doubling the population in one generation as we once did, instead of simply adding to poverty now focusing more on what we already have. Our cities keep expanding as the rural poverty traps depopulate, creating more opportunity even in a slow growth transition, as new information technology and ways of doing things spread ever wider & deeper.

We are like a sponge, absorbing new technology, especially communication linked, but not limited thereto, as we adapt to new modes of transport (taxis, buses, trains, cars, bicycles), new consumer products (and the electricity that drive them), the ease of water access.

So it isn’t only new foods, drinks, addictions like tobacco as in olden days. There is a lot more being absorbed, becoming dependent on, being demanded.

And looking with new eyes on those denying us these things?

This is where “digesting democratization” comes full circle. For it is less and less about taking from some in order to favour others, as failing all. And that at some point sinks in deep enough with a wide enough cross section to connect.

Quality schooling & post-Matric education. Health care that is affordable. Housing that will last. Personal security instead of always having to look over both shoulders. Dependable electricity and water access. Municipalities & provinces that function rather than become personal fiefdoms. Roads that are cheaply accessible. Entertainment that is propaganda free. Labour relations that don’t end with a pink slip of redundancy. 

Managing such modern complexity is not a simple matter. It should not be left to amateurs, as communities up & down the country have to discover every new day. It feeds a learning curve, a slow one perhaps, but even tortoises get there in the end.

Digesting democratization is a long process, but ultimately the tide turns. The arrow of causality reverses.

Lying & cheating may for a while prevail, while carpet bagging is possible as the old is made to make way for the new. But at some point that is no longer quite acceptable, with personal gain no longer elevated over community interests.

So those “running” things become increasingly called to account, with even the President earlier this year asking what those people at Eskom thought they were doing (besides collecting incentive bonuses).

To be weighed, found out and found wanting is not pleasant, not for those leading the discovery process, as the long duped, or for those in denial fighting rearguard actions against the inevitable.

A much older era knew this business of sniffing out (and thereafter snuffing out). This is the modern equivalent, but not conspiracy or superstition driven. Instead, it is modernity driven, in support of what works and against what falls short.

The changes may at first be imperceptible, as with any changing process. Only well into the tide reversal, with evidence building, may it become obvious that a corner has been turned.

Old vested interests resisting change and new revolutionary populists manfully manning barricades are usually the last ones to find out that a sea-change has occurred.

It does not immediately mean only tailwinds, as the headwinds will take a long time dying out. But the crossover is at the watershed.

Have we crossed ours yet or is it hopelessly too early? Judging by municipalities held to account, state enterprise boards revolving doors, and the Eskom saga, 2014-2015 is a crucial watershed reckoning.

But we may take up to a decade or two to make a full turn. That wouldn’t be too bad after a century of floundering badly.

 

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