I know that South Africans aren’t exactly known for following the rules. And I know that it’s ever so cool and trendy to “stick it to the man” by breaking the speed limit or ignoring that sign or wandering into or onto somewhere you’re not supposed to. You rebels, you! Consequently, I’m also well aware that it’s deeply uncool to i) follow the rules, and ii) comment on people not following the rules.
So here’s me, being doubly deeply uncool.
I don’t care.
The thing is, while ninety-something percent of the time that people not following the rules won’t kill, harm, damage or otherwise impede or inconvenience people; the other something percent, will. And a small percentage of a big number is still a big number. Things would run much more smoothly if people didn’t ignore the no entry sign or whatever. It’s there for a reason.
But even so, that’s not my main problem with SA’s rule breakers.
No, it’s not so much the actual breaking of the rules: it’s the attitude whereby individuals consider themselves somehow above the law, that that sign doesn’t apply to them, that they’re more important than that. That attitude pervades everything in South African society, and it is the root of many, many serious problems from excessive road deaths through to corruption.
No, I’m not saying that you parking illegally outside the pizza place “because it’s only for 2 minutes” is going to somehow influence Jacob Zuma to take a phat bribe to build a nuclear power station for Vladimir Putin. But I am absolutely saying that they are very much the same mindset: there are rules that say you shouldn’t do that thing, but conveniently, they don’t apply to you.
To say that there is no easy way of out this attitude is wrong. There is literally no way at all that we will ever be free of this mentality in the this country and it will forever hold us back.
So I’m not even going to try.
Take that self-important way of thinking to another country and you’ll soon be shut down, possibly by the authorities (in the nuclear power station example), but more likely simply by the rest of the population (in all the others) who just won’t understand why you think you’re so damn special. And I’m not saying that their country (whichever one it may be) is perfect, but I’m betting that it’ll be a whole lot less of a mess than this one.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that the SA attitude to breaking rules is one of the fundamental reasons behind the seemingly never-ending gemors in which this country finds itself.