The price of freedom: responsibility

I wonder what future generations will say about us. My parents suffered through colonisation, poverty and war. Then my generation came along and fecked it all up — the war toddlers and the born-frees, the “me” generation.

We didn’t care about politics. We simply allowed the system of our fathers to run things, as if they had earned a God-given mandate to direct our lives with no investment from us. Yeah, we finally stopped the one-party menace. But we’re the ones who let it become a menace in the first place.

See, our parents and grandparents showed us the meaning of democracy – freedom, not just in vague, abstract terms, but on a very real, individually human level. Freedom isn’t just something you have for the sake of having, you have to want something else first and then want the freedom to fight for it. That was the lesson we learned from our forebears.

They all had such grand dreams, and they’d lay down their lives for the freedom to make those dreams come true. Why else would ZANU-PF be so damned afraid of us? Our parents had already shown that, as a people, Zimbabweans don’t take any shit, so the powers had to resort to violence and oppression to keep us from voting any way but theirs.

Now here’s the problem with freedom. You can blame the politicians, the bankers, the generals, the “State” but really, if you’re looking to blame someone, blame me.

I’m the system, I’m the State.

That’s the price of living in a democracy; we all have to take the rap, the responsibility. I can see why it took so long for Russia to finally pretend to embrace it, and why China just said “feck it” and kept whatever they call their system now, that bastard mish-mash of capitalist communism.

It’s nice to be able to say, “Hey, don’t look at me, it’s not my fault.” Well, it is. It is my fault, and the fault of everyone of my generation. And it’s time to make things right.

When are those erections?

11 Replies to “The price of freedom: responsibility”

  1. feeling a bit like that boy at the jameson hostel dance,
    your post,
    looked at me flirtingly,
    from across the floor,
    batted eyelids, with long bashful lashes,
    just the slightest hint of naive naughty,
    then danced a slow dance with me,
    hands felt me across – around – and then down,
    breath on my neck,
    fingers flicking my zipper,
    johnson pinched against my zipper,

    and then her boyfriend appears,
    and she fucks off to him,
    like that last sentence in your post.

  2. nonsense. Our generation was told not to speak when the elders are talking and last time i checked they were still talking – whether what their saying makes sense or not is for you to judge. My generation did what they do best – they left the adults and went to play in the garden aka the diaspora.

  3. @anon – we back from the diaspora and playing in the backgarden 🙂

    @beezy – point was/is, the solution is not in the matrix, it is to unplug from it.

  4. VOTE FOR NOBODY!

    Nobody will keep election promises

    Nobody will listen to your concerns

    Nobody will help the poor and unemployed

    Nobody cares!

    If Nobody is elected, things will be better for everyone

    NOBODY TELLS THE TRUTH!

  5. lol dude, head firmly above ground,
    what each person needs to do is change their station in life,
    that change, in this country, can be done regardless whether zanu PF, MDC-T-X-F, Zapu or whoever is in power …

    let me jump onto this soapbox for a bit:

    waiting for, expecting, requiring certain conditions i.e. political change, constitutional amendment, sanctions dropping, free blowjobs, before one can say “Oh now I can move up in life” is all procrastination and bullshit. I like to call it buffering – buffering oneself against life and reality – against the fact that one needs to stand up and just do your shit in whatever conditions you find yourself in.
    there were people who cried about apartheid conditions and stayed poor, others took arms, others founded companies like “Black Like Me” and became millionaires …
    same in this hot dusty country, some wept and stayed poor, some became maBusiness Men ekumaGrowth Point and Rukisheni, others joined the maVhet and whatnot …

    we all need to get our revolution game on – do our thang – but not use lack of revolution, or fair erections, or constitutional change or the colour of your dog’s poo, as an excuse for not being at the level up the food chain that one believes they should be.

  6. Look we are all selfish! I’m not fighting for change coz I can pay my bills. You arent doing anything either coz when you sit with a pint at the pub tonight you aren’t interested in ideology etc. As long as we can continue to live our lives we will not do anything. Granted our lives are now all about us dollars, generators and general wheeling and dealing but we survive, and that’s all we care about.

  7. Man, I just bumped into this blog but the comments I see above give me hope. You guys have well-artciluated opinions and express them in a humorous way.

  8. @Anon – eish, and then u say, in one paragraph, what i tried to say in 15 🙁

    @Far from others – i only accept appreciation in castle lager currency. or a pretty girl.

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