The shutdown that isn't

by Jonathan Witt

Julius Malema’s “national shutdown” doesn’t exist. Yes, you read that correctly. The leader of the poorly supported left wing party, which only rose to prominence on the back of a tongue bath from the mainstream media, does not have the ability to shut down a public toilet let alone an entire country. The only reason the majority of people even know there is a threat of such action is because journalists have spent a week acting as public relations officers for the EFF instead of mocking their ambitions.

The 20^th of March is a Monday before a public holiday – Human Rights Day on the 21^st. This period from late March until the beginning of May has become somewhat notorious for the number of public holidays it contains (5) and the resultant slow down in productivity as a result. It’s such a significant part of our culture now that it is standard for many businesses and most schools to cut services or close for days in between weekends and such holidays. This year is no different. Long before Marx’s greatest embarrassment called for protest action on the 20^th many people had already decided that this was never going to be a work day in the first place. None of this has changed.

Why then are middle class WhatsApp groups replete with warnings from someone who’s uncle was once a police reservist, together with beautifully photoshopped pamphlets from the neighbourhood security company? In a phrase this is social contagion. It’s a broader discussion but humans are exceptionally poorly adapted to coping with stress or the threat of danger in any way other than embracing fear. This is why any attempt to downplay a potential risk is almost always met with shrieks of ‘what if’ and ‘rather safe than sorry’. As a species we are highly incompetent at assessing risk in context. This is only worsened when the sources we have come to trust compound the fear by scaremongering.

It is true that the red Teletubbies plan to “shut down the country” however this needs to be understood in the same way as your 6 year old telling you they’re going to build a space station in the garden. Will they try to cause chaos and havoc next Monday? Without doubt. Will they actually achieve this in any meaningful way? Absolutely not. This is where media amplification and human hysteria plays such a crucial role. Prior to the event it is built up into a crisis. Since all news is unfortunately based on the adage “if it bleeds it leads” intrepid and foolish reporters will spend Monday searching for small sites of violence and protest. They will then frame these minor skirmishes as a national story rather than just as 8 criminals with 3 burning tyres and some decorative rocks stolen from the centre island to block a road. Simultaneously a Karen will tweet or post to Facebook about how she was ‘almost killed’ in some or other related incident. This will then go viral with bonus points if her ‘kids were in the car too’.

Much is said of the 2021 riots in Durban although quite fortunately the ridiculous cries of “insurrection” have abated. These riots in which 354 people died are now used as a kind of battering ram with which to terrify the populace in regards to future unrest. Yet somehow Durban is still standing and the 3.5 million people who live there continue to do so seemingly normally. The same is true following the floods which took place there in 2022 killing an estimated 435 individuals. Indeed you live in a country which can hardly be called safe, where murder, violent crime, and sexual assault are all at unacceptable levels, and yet you persevere. If you were to consider every risk to your person and your life as immediate ongoing threats you’d likely be a basket case who never left home.

In reality however the overwhelming majority of the more than 60 million people in this country slog on as best they can under the circumstances. This is no less true for Monday the 20^th of March. Get on with your life and don’t live in fear because the people on your screens tell you to for clicks and ad revenue. If you’re one of the very few who finds yourself face to face with the handful of troublemakers, who are going to try and make their own childish behaviour your problem, then take due care and appropriate action. Otherwise ignore the noise and reject the fear porn.