It is a story as old as humanity itself. Icarus burns his wings when he flies too close to the sun. Icarus didn’t fail – he just aimed too high. He had a good plan: his wings were well-designed, he trained a lot, and he got off to a good start. If he had just maintained a reasonable altitude, he would have been fine. He succumbed to the curse of high expectations. South Africa is the same.
We are measuring ourselves against the aspirations of a rainbow. If our media, politicians, and citizenry stop comparing ourselves to idealistic visions that were never realistic, we can progress. We have to imagine ourselves as Icarus, picking himself up from the ground, dusting off the soot, feeling his feet on the ground and starting to walk – not soar, not fly, just a steady forward movement.
In a recent interview Frans Cronje of the Social Research Foundation said that we should remember that for centuries, South Africa has been ruled by a single party. The current state, where we have a “coalition” government or GNU (Government of National Unity), is highly unusual. It means we live in a novel state of opportunity – anything can happen. We might have many iterations of anything happening, including great things. This is not a trite statement of blind hope, but something much more powerful: we live in a universe of many shades of grey. We have more options than the few prescriptive colours of the rainbow.
If we start moving away from seeing situations as “winning” or “losing” we might see progress towards growth. By lowering our expectations, we will get more out of each other, this country, and life in general. This type of adjustment might be a challenge for people born after the Second World War; a world in which the agency and power of the individual are considered boundless. In this framing of the world, there is only “winning”. Donald Trump, with his king-like demeanour and thuggish need for dominance, is a role model for victory and will. He is the ‘champion’ archetype.
This is perfectly fine, but for many in South Africa, a collectivist approach is a more natural fit and holds many benefits.
Clash of ideologies
This is a clash of ideologies in which no clear winner can emerge. By removing ‘first prize’ and ‘excellence’ as the only two choices worth pursuing on the spectrum, we open up many more notches of positive advancement. Broaden your view of what might count as ‘worth it”, and suddenly, the world opens up. It allows for strategies that might appear optimal, but not possible, in which case you have to adjust your expectations. Instead of crying or lamenting what ‘should have been’, adapt – or die.
Think of it as betting on a game of roulette. There are 36 numbers, all with equal potential. The only thing that gives a number its perceived higher value is whether you put money on it or not. It is just your perception of what “success” looks like. If you stop putting all your money and spiritual energy on only one desired outcome, more alternatives become viable.
If placing bets on too many numbers becomes too expensive or stressful, stop playing roulette and play snakes and ladders instead; acknowledge there are ups and downs and nobody knows where the dice will land. It is a game of greys. It is a hustle, a choice, and a strategy of multitudinous adaptations.
As a performative philosopher, I sometimes get approached to help a group of people reposition their thinking. At the moment, I am working on a proposal for a school that is dealing with a problem of low morale amongst students. There is extraordinary pressure from the top for students to score higher marks. “Students must try harder!” is the instruction, which in practical terms means doing more of whatever they have been doing.
In reality, the bell curve does not tend to budge on these matters, without herculean effort and investment from the teachers and parents. It will be a tough sell for me on that score.
Goalposts
Perhaps a more important impact I can have is by shifting the goalposts for the students themselves. For them, the reality remains that for the 100 kids entering the annual cross-country race, there are only ever three spots on the podium, no matter how hard you try. Winning a medal is a great payoff, but we can add other rewards to broaden the scope. In a world of individualism and the ubiquitous “selfie”, the concept of uniqueness looms large as a prize, for instance. People like to view their place in the world as special and unusual. It is a powerful reward. If I were a parent and the child returned home in 34th place, I might say. ‘How many other kids came 34th? Only you? Wow. How many kids came first? Only one also, hmpf! That means exactly 33 kids had to be ahead of you and exactly 66 had to come in behind you. That’s quite something.”
If the kid sulks, insisting that only winning is worth it, you do the right thing and help them practise harder. Tell them to start immediately. Give them R50 and tell them to run off to the spaza to get you some ciggies and a beer and be sharpish about it. (I am a philosopher, not a parenting advice expert, but you get my drift.)
Part of the South African experience is to appreciate the uniqueness of our situation. We survived a bloodless transition of power, have a distinctive blend of cultural identities, the best city in the world, the newest language in the world and a vast array of monumental government inefficiencies.
Frans Cronje has already pointed out our singular political situation. He further points out that our voters are savvier than we think and have more common sense than they are given credit for in many respects. We should have unique expectations. To impose the narrative arc of larger, older liberal democracies on our future is irrational. It can only end in singed wings.
Altered race
I do hope the school seriously considers my proposition for an altered annual cross-country race, the aim of which is to show students that winning is an option, but there are others. There are many ways in which running a longer distance can be “worth it” for the learner. Camaraderie, exercise and the sheer joy of the suffering eventually ending, to name a few. If uniqueness is a payoff for students, which it is, add a fourth prize: award medals for first, second and third prizes – but add a prize for the student who comes 34th. Give a special bonus to a student who can come 34th two years in a row. It will show you who the hustlers are, the lateral thinkers and the people whose expectations are painted with a broader brush.
These 34th-place students have to learn not only to run fast enough to get a place in the top three but also to be aware of group progress and dynamics. They might have to negotiate and have the capacity for explosive forward or backwards movement. If you want to use the phrase, you might think they are the real “winners”.
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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Image by Tran Thanh from Pixabay