• Cliff Buchler, former Managing Editor of Caxton West Rand writes:

How is it that the human race can be so astonishingly clever and inconceivably dumb at the same time? Technologically we’re unbelievably advanced. We create robots to function as humans, and yet we haven’t found a way of governing a country without the weakest of the species: politicians.

Medically we replace, repair and modify parts that are often more effective than the real thing. Yet we’re unable to replace crooked, incompetent and selfish politicos with honest, clever and caring individuals. We produce unfailing systems, but when it comes to systems of governance, we inherit a motley crew of self-indulgent state capturers.

Let’s take a current example of just how naïve we are. We get feverishly excited in anticipation of the president’s state of the nation speech, knowing full well that it’s repetitive garbage. Unattainable promises are made, like more jobs, less crime, effective immigration models. The list goes on.

And we swallow it all, all of the time. Thanks to live television coverage of parliamentary sittings, we witness first-hand how the ‘honourables’ perform.

It soon becomes abundantly clear that most of the ministers are out of their depth and hold portfolios about which they’re clueless. They read from scripts written by scribes who know what gullible audiences want to hear.

The only honest bunch of bananas are those sporting red overalls and slanted berets. They are what they are and the million voters who placed them there are evidently happy with what can only be termed moronic behaviour.

They are in no need of scripts as their motor mouthpiece does all the talking. At least they make no bones about acting like halfwits in reaction to his repetitive sing-song about the boers, white capitalists and colonialists.

What more proof do we need that the human frame is conflicting in its make-up. We can be both brainy and brainless. And the best example is found in the realm of politics. For some odd reason it caters for a goodly number of this particular species.

How’s this for a clever quote: ‘The consensus after an election is that 100% of South Africans think 50% of South Africans have lost their minds’.

Perhaps robots instead of humans in parliament, you ask? It won’t work, stupid, they’re created by humans.