Against caricature

Public debate in South Africa presents a depressing spectacle. Perhaps it most closely resembles the medieval practice of putting the miscreant in the stocks and inviting the public to hurl rotten fruit at him/her. As a result we have stock figures of fun, caricatures which can too easily be substituted for reality. This produces an orgy of finger-pointing and name-calling, the real purpose of which is self-exculpation. It provides a temporary sense of relief and release: at last we have found a target, a scapegoat, on which we can vent our indignation and blame all our ills. And there are such easy, inviting targets: shower-headed Zuma, pig-headed Malema, botoxed Helen Zille, the figure of our late Minister of Health, adorned in beetroot and garlic – one could go on . . . . But in the midst of all this, aren’t we perhaps missing something? Perhaps what escapes is that much-touted, much-abused thing called ‘truth’ (however partial or provisional), or ‘fairness’, or ‘respect for the facts’. Is the accuser always holy, one wonders? What a wonderful, simplistic solution these caricatured figures present! And how cheering it all is! But doesn’t this encourage intolerance, and produce an even more polarised society?