The gates of knowledge have been thrown open to us, but there are many who choose not to enter...
Someone once said that it's only in the West that religion is blindly accepted, and science is always questioned. He'd obviously never considered India, where leaders since Gandhi have consulted priests and astrologers.
During apartheid years, censors made damn sure that residents of this country were deprived of any knowledge that might threaten the state.
In the absence of evidence to the contrary, many of us fell for the concepts of swart gevaar and rooi gevaar.
That coupled with basic racism, persuaded a large part of our population that those black communist terrorists were only interested in dividing up the spoils of the country for the impoverished masses under a one-party state.
Two years of ANC rule have shown that this is not the case. The underground sentiment -- exploited by the Nats -- that the rooi gevaar will resurface is not taken too seriously. Today's general view of the ANC is of an organisation wrestling with internal turmoil from being torn between labour and capitalist camps.
But not many have stopped to consider the possibility that the current crop of leaders are really intelligent and know what they are doing.
Let's leave that thought aside for a moment and talk technology.
This week, I flipped the final switches that give all of Natal Newspapers journalists access to Usenet, a massive news and information exchange system that is available to most people on the Internet, off private electronic bulletin boards, and from information providers such as CompuServe.
It's a concept that's so huge that attempting to describe what it is and how it works is almost impossible. Let's just say that if you have an opinion on any conceivable topic, Usenet allows you to share that opinion with anyone in the world who may care to listen.
Usenet is probably the most democratic medium of communication ever invented. Everyone is able to speak. No-one is forced to listen. If you are unhappy with a particular opinion you skip it and move on to another.
The downside is that not all of the opinions are popular, many of the opinions are considered reprehensible to most of modern society such as those advocating paedophilia, racism, genocide, religious fundamentalism or rugby.
And one of the first questions that was asked of me by fellow journalists was "how do we censor it"?
Let's return to the ANC. While in exile they had access to all of the information that contributed to modern Western civilisation.
They were able to read Burke on conservatism, Paine on the rights of man, Adam Smith on economics, Lucretius on the nature of the universe and JFK's profiles in courage along with the writings of Martin Luther King and Gandhi.
Apartheid allowed South Africa access to this information too, and at that level, we are all equal.
But those in exile were also able to read: Frederick Douglas on conservatism, Franz Fanon on the rights of man, Marx on economics, the Marquis de Sade on the nature of the universe and Ché Guevera's profiles in courage along with the writing of Malcolm X and Subash Chandra Bose.
Nearly all of this information was denied to South Africans under apartheid. Suddenly all of us have access to this information. And our first reaction on being presented with this treasure is to run for cover.
The ostrich is a South African bird. Most of us don't really know those who are in power today and we're not going out of our way to find out either.
We need to become familiar with all of the knowledge that was previously denied to us. And especially that which many of us may disagree with.
Hitler's Mein Kampf should be required reading for anyone concerned about racism.
De Sade's Juliette should be read by anyone concerned with the political implications of sexual abuse, violence, paedophilia, and bestiality. Marx has to be read by every capitalist.
Why? Because in order to plan a strategy against an enemy, you need to understand his tactics - the way he thinks, the way he operates.
Like the ANC know the Nats.
In the process, some of us may change our minds about a great many things.
But if you can't change your mind, how can you be sure you have one?