No, it's not April 1st

The ANC Youth League wants to ban Twitter.  Yes, it’s true.  No, it won’t succeed in anything more than being scorned.  This is a beautiful example of how fact really is stranger than fiction and will elicit many a hearty laugh for weeks to come.

However, it raises a broader issue at the heart of statism: leaders using coercive methods to snuff out freedom and the unlimited arrogance and deluded grandeur of the megalomaniac.

Julius Malema is more than just a joke, he’s the logical outworking of what happens when you give a few people too much power.  It’s happened hundreds of times in history and will happen again in South Africa unless the people en mass decide to strip the state of its power.

Yes it takes a certain type of strange personality to become so corruptly enamoured with their own importance so as to entertain such fanciful notions far beyond their realistic scope of influence.  BUT, two important points are worth noting on this: 1) every generation in every country has such people, and they flourish if not checked. 2) Their influence may start out small, and they will be laughed at, but many of their goals are realisable if they were in power.  Hitler wrote some pretty radical verbage from a stuffy prison cell. 

Let’s jump across to Turkey.  Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office recently announced he would be putting in an application to have his initials “RTE” patented.  One of his two applications was for the web domain rte.com.tr, while the other is for the “brand” RTE for “business lines, such as stationery equipment, media products, advertising and business administration, radio & television, communication, and education.”

Mmmm, when the cult of “Me” gets going you have problems, especially when it’s your national leader, the person with the power to translate that cult into real life coercion on your life, liberty and property.

Back to Malema.  He is cultivating the cult of Stupid right now to be sure, and he and his organisation the ANC Youth League should be scorned with all the humour the BlogoTwittersphere can muster.  Don’t be surprised if Mr. Malema too tries to patent his name at some stage in the future.

But let’s also not forget the serious undertones here.  If people like this achieve real power they do real damage…

…Stranger things have happened too often in the past.