Krugersdorp: our mask?

By Russell Pollitt SJ

When the immune system is low, the body is more vulnerable to infection; germs soon find their way in and illness strikes.

In an article in The Tablet of June 28, 2008, Fr Michael Holman SJ, the provincial of the British Jesuits, wrote about the violent crimes of teenagers in Britain. “Young people are good barometers of how well a society is doing. Our young people suggest that all is not well… we need to listen to the experience of these children.”

The killing of Jacques Pretorius with a Samurai sword allegedly by a fellow pupil in Krugersdorp in late August was chilling. He is not the first victim of school violence, which seems to be a growing phenomenon in South African schools. Aren’t youngsters safe even at school? Twenty years ago “white” schools were patrolled by armed police in case “terrorists” attacked. Now police have to patrol our schools to protect the learners from each other.

The question is: Are we listening to our children, as Fr Holman suggests we should? Actions, in these situations, are certainly much more thunderous than words.
A number of newspaper reports suggested that the parents and teachers of the perpetrator should have detected that the boy believed to have committed the killing was undergoing a change. He had withdrawn and become quiet. Apparently he had planned the alleged attack in a notebook.

He reportedly wore a mask similar to those sported by the US heavy metal band Slipknot, whose influence has been mentioned as a factor in the alleged killing. Their music is lean and aggressive, featuring themes such as darkness, anger, disaffection, love, psychosis and nihilism. Their latest and fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, was released in August. On the cover, the band members wear their trademark masks.

Perhaps the killing might have been prevented if parents or teachers had picked up some of the cues, but I wonder whether this incident is not a red light at which all of us should stop at to ask ourselves some questions.

Could this attack not say more about us, our society and our values than about the boy who allegedly did it? Is the mask he wore not a mask we all wear? Do we really know who we are, individually and as a society, or have we lost our centre? Should we be blaming Slipknot, or should we rather listen attentively to the frightening message they communicate which seems to capture a reality for young people?

The education department and schools can introduce multiple laws and searches, Slipknot can be banned, but if we have lost our very selves, no amount of law will be able to restore the loss. There are many signs that we, as a society, must urgently and critically consider; willingly engaging with the uncomfortable questions which emerge. If we fail to do so, then maybe all hope is indeed gone, as Slipknot suggest.
In a lecture I attended recently, the speaker, referring to the work of Lewis Hyde, made a distinction between a “commodity economy” and “gift economy”. The difference is simple, the consequences dangerously different. A “commodity economy” is one of “having”, there is an unrelenting pursuit of personal interests and the acquisition of goods; everything is privatised and the more you amass, the better (and more important) you are. “Value” lies in achievement and what you have.

In a “gift economy” all that is received is seen as a gift; the primary activity of its members is to keep the gifts in circulation. A sense of pride and success results not from what I have but from the value my contribution makes to others. Profit and wealth, then, help us contribute to others and are not in themselves the measure of fame or success.

These two systems are not morally equal. One clearly sees how evil is at work in one, and Gospel values in the other. Does a “commodity economy” not force people to abandon their very selves because the self is worthless? People are not happy with who they are or what they have, and so seek meaning in attaining more possessions, power or prestige.
Fr Holman, explaining the consequences of a consumerist society, says that “it promotes dissatisfaction with oneself, alienation from oneself, lack of acceptance of oneself and it does damage”. The “commodity economy” does not tell people that they are valued and that there are possibilities for them because of who they are; its message is that you are valued because of what you possess, and so the obsession to have more and consequently be of value is perpetuated.

A colleague of mine pointed to a very pertinent headline: “The Boy who wanted to be Somebody”. Doesn’t that say it all? I expect that many young people feel that their parents, school and society at large have abandoned and therefore failed them. They do not feel they have any value in themselves; they don’t see any future potential (as articulated in Slipknot’s album title), but they desperately want to be a “somebody” to fit into a destructive ideology.

Our schools too are shifting more into the commodity ideology. Sport, for example, has been exaggerated in school life and young people are valued for what they accomplish rather than who they are. Sport has developed the “celeb” culture at schools where the first team rugby squad enjoys a rank of social precedence; the “celebrities” at school (and in society) are the “somebody” many desperately want to be.
What happened in Krugersdorp illustrates to sensible people that the collective immune system is running low.

On every front South African society is being challenged – socially, politically and economically. Corruption, crime, disrespect and a general “lowering of the tone” are part of the fabric of our lives. It’s easy to shoot arrows of blame. But are we not all wearing masks because we are afraid to tackle the very root of the problem?
The commodity economy we embrace (and often worship) is taking its toll on our psyche. In our desperate attempt to “get more” we are getting less: less value, less virtue and less human. Do we recognise that Krugersdorp is a sign of something deeply troubling, an indication that the body has been struck by illness?

Of course the other extreme is moral fundamentalism, which is also rampant and just as damaging in all sectors of our society, and even church. We risk fundamentalism when we do not see that our problems are multi-faceted and complex and therefore need a multi-faceted and complex solution which involves all role-players in society. We are all engaged in the “commodity economy” and are consequently all responsible for it.
How do we take off the masks and face the truth and in doing so restore some of the lost balance?

Fr Pollitt is a Jesuit priest based in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.