Calling Ninja a poephol isn't helping

2011-01-28 09:25 by Columnists I don’t know if any of you remember the column I wrote in this space last week. It was about the end of the world. What was really interesting about that column wasn’t the column itself – it was one of my worst ever - but the comments at the bottom.

Maybe I should've known better than writing about people’s religious beliefs on an entertainment site. Once you guys got stuck into one another, it became one of those typical atheist vs Christian pillowfights, with the only mercifully light comic relief provided by Chris McEvoy.

One probably shouldn’t explain oneself after the fact, but it goes without saying that my original intention wasn’t to ridicule religious folk, just to ridicule those idiots who treat the Bible – or any spiritual book – as a paint-by-numbers game.

The future isn’t fixed, we have free will, etc. Even God himself saved the city of Nineveh after telling that fish to swallow that guy, didn’t he?

Die Antwoord

Do South Africans understand the fine art of debating a point? Wait. Let’s rephrase that. Because it’s not just South Africans, hey! Even in America, which is supposed to be the cradle of free discourse, people these days get shot for belonging to the wrong party. It’s a jungle out there.

When I read Angola Badprop’s thing in the Sondag a while ago where he said that that Ninja guy from Die Antwoord was the Poephol van die Jaar, okay it was quite funny because as you know I don’t like Die Antwoord’s music all that much.

I wouldn’t go as far as calling Ninja a Poephol, though. In fact, I like everything about the man except his music. I like his opportunism, I like his photo shoots, I like his publicity, I like his tattoos.

I just don’t like the fact that his entire musical career is based on repeating certain four-letter-words over, and over, and over, and over again. It gets sort of boring after the five hundredth time.

I know this may sound a bit self-righteous, coming from a guy who used the same word at least 69 times in Die Fokkol Song, but point is, I never got the feeling that Ninja was really, completely, heart-wrenchingly angry at anyone.

Even when he said that grossly unflattering thing about my mother, it was all just a gimmick. Nothing wrong with gimmicks, of course, we live in a free world and it beats nine to five, but still.

Poephol

Anyway, where was I? The fine art of disagreeing with someone. Is that a lost skill? Is there any single person alive in the world today whose spiritual beliefs are more subtle than Bible-thumping fundamentalism or loud and intolerant atheism?

I know there are! Just as I know that not all Moslems are active members of Al Qaeda! There definitely are lots of nice people out there, gentle souls who are more interested in playing with their kittens than participating in Internet debates.

Why don’t we ever hear from them? While they’re playing with their kittens, everyone else is beating everyone else into a pulp!

So, the bottom line is, I doubt if calling anyone a Poephol will turn the world into a better place. It’s not really constructive criticism, is it?

PS: If there’s a real Poephol, it’s Yo-landi Vi$$er (Mrs Ninja). Anyone who, by now, hasn’t even bothered to read Stieg Larsson’s books - never mind turn down a role in the movie - is infinitely worse than a Poephol! Words cannot aptly convey my disgust.