I have been vacillating about writing a blog for a number of years. Every time I decide to go for it, I run into the same questions: Why would I really want to blog? Is it to share knowledge and experience, impart some philosophical wisdom uniquely my own that will enrich the world and maybe change the course of history? No, that’s not it. I hardly have enough insight or wisdom to solve my own petty problems.
Maybe it is to serve an over inflated ego, enticing thousands of readers to accept my point of view as the only valid opinion out there on any subject I wish to address? I am an actor after all and aren’t we supposed to be so full of ourselves, being “stars” and all, that we take it for granted that our opinions carry more weight than “ordinary” peoples opinions? That can’t be the reason either. The majority of actors, singers and others related to the arts, are as ordinary and humble as any of your average Joe’s out there. In fact, I know quite a few who crave to be accepted as such. Ordinary. Just your regular, garden variety Joe, schlepping away to make ends meet, pay his or her taxes and, if you are lucky, in a good year, go on a two week vacation at the end of the year.
Added to this, is the fact that I have been a paid up member of the PPC for as long as I can remember. What on Earth is the PPC you may ask? People Promoting Cannabis? Sorry, would love to use the stuff but it gives me, apart from humungous munchies, hurricane sized depressions with an almost uncontrollable urge to reach for the Minora’s. The Pale Party Club? No, unless a club is open to all and sundry, I’m not interested.
The PPC, or Professional Procrastinators Club, of which I should be the Honorary Lifetime President, is made up of people from all walks of life, all professions, all races, all sexual persuasions and all religions, atheists and agnostics included. And we do nothing!
Oh, we work hard to build a life for ourselves and our kids, pay our dues, try to abide by the law of the land and more or less respect our fellow citizens, caught up in the same struggles of everyday life. I suspect we make up the vast majority of the of the world’s population and yet, we just sit there and do nothing.
We allow the zealots and reactionaries to the right and the left of us to set and dominate the agenda of our lives. The people on the right promoting their hatred of other races and religions, borne from a false sense of superiority. Those on the left, suffocating us with their nauseating, holier than thou political correctness, insisting that we call a spade a “well developed spoon”.
All sides flood our social media with unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, energise their supporters to vote with false news reports and “alternative truth” facts that they make up as they go along, and whichever side is the most effective in working up the emotions of their unthinking, often ignorant followers, wins the election or referendum. And those of us in the middle, proud members of the PPC, do what we’re best at. Nothing.
This doesn’t mean that we don’t get as riled up and upset as the fanatics on either side of us. Oh no, we gather around our braais (barbercues) and dining tables and have heated discussions on corrupt politicians, non delivery of services, human rights abuses and whatever subject is the flavour of the month under our fast disappearing, paper thin layer of ozone. We bandy about ideas to write a letter to this minister or that mayor, vow to form a pressure group to depose an inept President, often working ourselves up into palpitations!
Then we have a nightcap, a last one for the road, say our goodbyes and thank-you-very-much-for -a-wonderful-evening and by the time we hit the deck at home, all of that passion is gone, dissipated, lost in some kind of social Alzheimer attack. Nothing ever comes from our firm commitments to take charge, to make our voices be heard. We wait for the next election; draw our crosses, forever hoping that this time it will make a difference, knowing that we will still end up with a bunch of inept politicians at the centre of it all who will most certainly squander our futures to enrich themselves and their cronies. We fail to realise that politics has become a profession, like soccer, rugby or crime. They are in it for themselves and nobody else. The little good they do from time to time is just to keep themselves at the trough.
We, who for some reason don’t want to get involved in the real stuff that determines the course of our lives, our futures, allow them to get away with it. We do it with our silence, our procrastination and it is costing us dearly.
