Have you ever been punched in the face?
I cannot speak for another era or a different place, but as a youngster in 1970s and ’80s South Africa, attending any open party or traversing a communal space often included watching or receiving a fist to the face.
The thing that always struck me — other than, say, a fist — was how the aggressor invariably starts an argument before doing the deed. Something silly like,
“What are you looking at?”
“Nothing.”
“You saying I’m nothing?”
“No.”
“Then why you say you’re looking at nothing?”
“Because I wasn’t looking at you.”
“You calling me a liar?”
And as you’re still trying to figure out what’s going on, WHAM!
Of course, after a few similar events, you get to see what’s playing out, but even as I got to understand the pattern of events, I still could not figure out why the events were necessary. What I mean is, can’t a guy just get on with doing what he wants to do? Why does it have to be set up so that the unwilling participant is left somehow complicit in the unavoidable end?
Later in life, I began to wonder the same thing about politics, and about war. If politicians are planning to do something sh#t, why do they have to first convince everybody? And if one country wants to f#ck up another country, why do they have to convince the world?
I guess I still don’t get it.
English
