SA has a long way to go before it’s a civilised society

It was his “man bun” which first drew my attention. Seriously, bru? You won’t see 40 again, so what “statement” are you trying to make? That you’re artistic or creative? That you “think out of the box”? Or that you are not a “sheep” who follows society’s “silly” rules?

The last one sums you up to a tee, bru, judging by the way you brushed past people, well within the Covid-19 “danger zone” for social distancing, without a care in the world … or a mask on your face.

To be fair, you weren’t the only one out in the three-hour “parole” period to be not giving a toss about the fact that it is mandatory to wear a face mask in public. And public, bru, means a place where other human beings are … not that you’d even notice when your head’s so far up the rectum of your own importance.

I saw a young father out cycling with his two kids. None wore masks. Those choosing to defy the requirement – and please don’t tell me any human with at least one brain cell is not aware of it – are a broad cross-section of South Africa.

Selfishness knows no boundaries in terms of race, gender … or even age. Most surprising for me was a pensioner couple – the most vulnerable people in society to the effects of coronavirus infection – who were not wearing masks either. Perhaps, Darby and Joan, your comorbidity is stupidity…

This phenomenon, though, cuts to the heart of the debate about what it is to be a citizen in a civilised country.

Many of those who refuse to wear masks – like cartoonist Jerm, who has said so publicly – do so apparently on the grounds that their “human rights” are being infringed by a totalitarian state … and that the rest of us are just “sheeple” who allow the authorities to commit egregious abuses in our name.

Like not letting the surfers surf, bru, or making people walk their dogs on a leash…

The point everyone seems to be missing in their orgiastic libertarian tirades is that the flip side of the rights you have as a citizen is the fact you have responsibilities, too.

In its most basic form, your first duty as a citizen is to do no harm to your fellow citizens. Or as a well-known book puts it, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

And whether you mask protesters like it or not, the restriction is there for a reason.

Wearing face coverings cuts down on the spread of the virus. The Czech Republic and Germany have proved that. The argument that the masks are not 100% effective in blocking virus particles misses the point.

In wearing a mask, you are reducing the chances that your infection will spread to others. And that is critically important because many cases of Covid-19 are, in the early stages, asymptomatic.

Even if there is a one in a thousand chance of you infecting – and possibly even killing – a vulnerable person, why would you take it? That’s serious assault, bru.

Another argument the cool rebels will flight is that the civil protest is identical to the refusal to pay e-tolls because both are unjust. Wrong again. There are serious questions about the whole e-toll project – and not paying toll does not put other people in harm’s way … or kill them.

The mark of a civilised society is thinking about people other than yourself. Clearly, in South Africa, we have a long way to go to meet that standard.

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