I Want to Be a Moderate

I'm a child of the 1970s and 1980s. Back then, my country was the pariah of the world for reasons it would take me decades to understand. We were made to stand alone and fend for ourselves, made a mockery of by East and West alike. Sanctions were the order of the day. We were restricted in where we could travel, whether we could compete in international sport, and how much other countries were prepared to share of their newest innovations and creations with us.

To be clear, I am not and never will be an Apartheid apologist. I believe it was wrong for the minority in my country to dictate to others how they should live their lives based on their complexion. If we had differences in terms of our culture, we should have had an open discourse to better understand one another. If we felt intimidated or endangered by our fellow citizens, this should have been addressed by both sides reaching out with olive branches rather than guns or spears.

Today we reap the fruits of our ancestor's lack of foresight. We are now in a position of "us and them", a discourse that is being fanned and fueled by opportunists on both sides of the divide within political structures. Our leaders like the fact that we do not trust one another. They like the fact that we feel endangered by the persisting existence of those we least understand. They make every effort to promote that discourse, that enmity, and ultimately, that hatred. It serves their purpose.

I can only speak for myself and therefore I write this piece purely from my own perspective. I do not want to pursue radicalism in any form. That is to say, I do not want to be a woke, libtard any more than I want to be a fascist racist. What I want, perhaps more than I want anything else in my life, is to be a citizen of a country whose people I love and which I would die for as a nation. Sadly, within the political climate I find myself in, this is wholly impossible.