Just guess the first sentence of Max du Preez’s presentation. Yup, you can’t go wrong with: “I apologise for not being upbeat this afternoon. This is not a time to be upbeat about democracy and leadership.”

It was the usually litany of corrupt politicians and hair-raising statistics, which was met with the typically glum chilled silence, broken only by the occasional guffaw... Words like “idealism” and “commitment” have been replaced with “bling” and “conspicuous consumption”... Lulling us all into a wonderfully cathartic state of indignance as we contemplated the greenness of our privileged valley...

Max said, “South Africa is in the shit.” Everyone nodding rhetorically, half asleep. Not but really. Seriously... He listed each province with how many sewerage systems are working, concluding with: “3% of South Africa’s sewerage systems are working.”

Bang! Raised right in human excrement, how much lower can South Africa’s human dignity sink?

Yeah, he really had to give us a few platitudes after that one to avoid mass suicide – for instance, that we must distinguish between a bad government and a bad country. South Africa itself is not a bad country. And we can change the government – although we might need to wait a while longer for voters to choose against the idealism.

Sure, all the infrastructure improvements is making us frustrated and angry, getting stuck in traffic everywhere, bla blah. But that will pass and then we and the country will be better for it. In fact, he predicts a mood change in the country after the World Cup.

Also, he revived my Bahrain memory of when Thabo Mbeki got fired. Everyone asked me if my family was okay – he was in Serbia, they asked him to. It never occurred to us that they wouldn’t be okay. And, he realised, that South Africa is a stable country – the ONLY way we will change our government is by vote.

However, the real highlight of the session was when one young guy got up and asked why the youth have no say in media and politics. Max turned it back to him – why do no youth buy newspapers, why are they obsessed with celebrity, clothes and cellphones? The guy said that it was exactly doomsday messages like the climate change, reportage on SA politics etc that scare them with visions of the end of the world. It makes them feel helpless. So they may as well have fun.

This is the toss-up one has to figure out in designing your mind - isolate and create or absorb and be paralysed. Then again, I'm sure that my coin flip is not the same as others'. So, my own platitude, Max - you do what you do well - and I will do what I do well. If everyone does everything they do well... You finish the sentence!