I’m not a huge movie fan. When I was younger, I would watch movies but was not obsessed. Don’t ask me to recite famous quotes or watch a movie twice. It most probably had something to do with my inability to be still and present.

 

Things have changed a little over the years. I can Netflix binge just as good as anyone, though on occasion. This weekend was one of those. I watched Celeste Barber’s Wellmania over Friday and Saturday night.

 

So, in 1999 when the never-been-done-before The Matrix hit cult-like status, I watched it but didn’t really get into it. Like everything in life, if it’s not your thing, you don’t pay attention to the detail. That’s actually what’s lacking in education. It never really pays attention to what the child is interested in.

 

Society doesn’t make sense

On The Matrix, it finally makes sense. I’m increasingly feeling as though I’m living in a matrix. Most every day, ‘auto-pilot’ life occurrences just don’t add up. It’s a feeling that started pre-COVID – life for me will forever be pre- and post-COVID – but couldn’t articulate without feeling like a crazy person. The pandemic made so much dysfunction blatant.

 

While I absolutely love the freedom to socialise and go out – we had such a beautiful school market day yesterday – it’s tragic that, for the most part, we’ve reverted to what was.  And things seem crazier than ever.

 

Let me illustrate. Social media is a modern communication tool that has basically levelled the broadcasting playing field. I love it for that. If one has time and energy and appeals to a particular audience, one can gain notoriety and or fame by making videos, posting glamourous content – yes, there’s no shortage of that – doing silly things, catching some incidents on video, and so on.

 

It’s come with the rise of the “celebrity this or that”. The “celebrity doctor” is a popular one. For obvious reasons. I think doctors were bound to some professional rules that prohibited them from blatant advertising and largely relied on word-of-mouth. If indeed that was the case, social media broke that boundary.  It’s also increased the number of fake doctors.

 

Our most recent case is the infamous on-the-run criminal Dr. Nandipha and her boyfriend, the convicted murderer and ‘Facebook’ rapist who doesn’t deserve a human identity. A thought goes to the woman who gave birth to him. We have such high hopes and dreams for the souls who pass through us. I wonder what hers were.

 

Blissfully ignorant

Back to the local celebrity doctor who is not registered with the Health Professionals Council of South Africa (HPCSA). On the face of it, she’s a role model to millions of young girls. Beauty and brains in one package. Her IG account is inspirational in all the ways that most on the platform aspire to be.

 

Let me declare again, poverty must never be glorified. We’re all entitled to our wants, needs, and desires. Whatever they are. Abundance is available to all; money is merely a means of access. However, social media has skewed our view of the ‘matrix’.

 

We see someone’s amazing content and make all sorts of assumptions. The most common one is that they are happy. The next is that they are financially wealthy. Don’t we love posting our images at fabulous locations looking equally fabulous? Did it even happen if we didn’t post?

 

The not-so-good doctor had all the trappings of a ‘successful’ life. Can someone please confirm if the “Mail & Guardian 200 Young SA” and other ‘acknowledgements’ listed on her profile are real? This saga reads like a movie script so it’s ok to ask what is real in this story.

 

When I’m not at a loss for words, I have so many questions. The said murderer and rapist is very easy on the eye. Are we just suckers for good-looking people? Research has proven that the better-looking among us are more favoured for employment.

 

Or is it about wealth and status? Some of the social media posts and news stories have been around women now coming out to say that they had encounters with said fugitive after his ‘death’. One mentioned that he was driving a luxury vehicle in which she got a lift. I have no doubt that was part of the appeal.

 

The miseducation of all of us

If education is our societal solution, how do educated young women like Nandipha fall prey to wretched, evil persons? Beyond the obvious calls for better access to quality education, when we get it, it’s still lacking. Even in the private sector. Emotional intelligence wouldn’t even be a separate thing if we just educated ourselves differently.

 

Similar to culture. We need to start by understanding its role beyond ‘we’ve always done it like this’. Please. Remember that our ancestors were once walking the earth as we are. They had to make decisions based on their current circumstances. Many of us don’t even know our ancestors beyond a generation or two but here we are using culture to navigate life today. There’s got to be more.

 

Yep, it’s a matrix. A complicated mess. The only hope? To question relentlessly. Nothing is ever as it seems.