Defacing a statue
The recent news that some people of a certain political affiliation defaced a certain prominent statue of a well known person from South African history got me thinking.
Firstly I might be a lot of things but no one can accuse me of not thinking things through, and that seems like a skill that the people of this country earnestly need.
I can just imagine how that night must have unfolded. Vandal A says to Vandal B, “So why are we doing this again?” Vandal B responds a matter-o-factly, “isn’t it obvious. We are fighting against the oppression of the MAN!”
“O yeah, I forgot,” replies Vandal A with slight confusion. If we are talking about not giving things a second thought then I feel like I should mention the recent news that a 15-year-old was caught at Cape Town airport attempting to join the terrorist group ISIS. Those are just extreme scenarios. There are so many every day examples where the power of a second thought cannot be underestimated.
Sms scams are one such an example. Why would your cell phone number randomly win thousands of rands from an overseas lottery? Why would you win anything from any kind of competition without having to enter that competition first?
…What is a second thought? Well it is not exactly the same thing as thinking twice about something. A favourite author of mine, Terry Pratchett, invented and explained the idea perfectly in one of his books, “First Thoughts are the everyday thoughts. Everyone has those. Second Thoughts are the thoughts you think about the way you think. People who enjoy thinking have those.”
Alas, like green paint on Paul Kruger’s face, so are the days of our lives. Emalahleni is full of ‘act-first-think-later’ people and we see the consequences of that all the time. Every time an aborted foetus is found in a rubbish bin there should have been a second thought whispering in the ears of that woman saying, “Don’t have unprotected sex with a random guy in the first place.”
Every time a drunk driver kills a pedestrian there should have been a second thought that said, “You cannot even walk so logically driving a car would be even more impossible.”
How about we all have a good long look at what is making headlines in national news, and what local news, and consider how much of that can be avoided by five minutes of evaluation. Be like Brian and over-think everything up to the point of delusional paranoia, what… no rather not do that either.
