IT seems to be taken for granted in South Africa that the pursuit of “unity” ought to happen at all costs. We fret when people disagree, when political “alliance” partners criticise one another, when there is a strong divergence of opinion.
This is because unity is misunderstood, abused and overrated.
It’s misunderstood because it is wrongly confused with consensus. The belief has taken hold that we must agree on all things or stand outside the wagon with the lepers. Those who perceive unity in this way are actually calling for a suspension of critical thinking as if this poses some sort of danger to society. The inverse is true. A lack of critical thinking or the capacity to absorb criticism and alter one’s perspective is a far graver threat to this country.
While brings me to how unity is abused. Our political leaders seem unable to accept that it is possible to be patriotic and critical at the same time. They really do believe, somewhat narcissistically, that they somehow embody “the people” and that what they say ought to go unchallenged because it comes from on high.
President Jacob Zuma began his New Year’s message with the description of South Africa as “one nation, united in its diversity.” Great.
But then he went on to call this to be a year of only “positive messages”, a year in which the “culture of negativity is put behind us”. But should we use the World Cup year to build a national consensus in which criticism is seen to be part of a “culture of negativity”? I don’t think so.
And, finally, I’m afraid to say I think unity is overrated. Diversity, disagreement, criticism and competition should be valued and encouraged. We need to unlock this society’s power to think deeply and feel strongly about the important matters of the day. We are not going to get solutions to our problems delivered from on high from some kind of faux Mount Olympus by faultless politicians.
We need to take charge of our destinies, innovate, create a lively social discussion and breed the hunger to seek out faults and improve our world.

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