Like people, history and politics and society are complicated: most of us like a simple answer to a simple question and all four subjects fail to oblige the more you study them.
Wars are not explained by a single cause and especially not by the fancy that they are fought between good guys and bad guys. In 2014 ‘the Hun' is no longer solely blamed for the Great War a century ago and ‘oil' does not supply the single motive for great power intervention in the Middle East it did just a few years back.
Once upon a time, a Jewish homeland in Palestine was not the crime against humanity some say it as now, but a long overdue effort to show some humanity to the Jewish people; the Ukraine and Tibet expose the one-sidedness of the charge of ‘the imperial west'; Africa's and the world's lived experience of socialism sinks its claim to be the solution to the ‘evils of capitalism'. There is no Happy Ending in the real world. The most disastrous idea human beings can have is that a heaven on earth is possible.
Coming down to earth, then, and closer to home, are we right to frame our questions and answers as simply as we do? Are the DA really a bunch of white racists and rented blacks? Is President Zuma a ruthless tyrant destroying the constitution to stay out of jail? Once he leaves office, will all be well? These are popular assertions, common beliefs.
How often does a comment or article begin: "I hold no brief for Julius Malema and the Economic Freedom Fighters, but ..." and then follows a brief for Mr Malema and the EFF that presents them as the only chance we have of overcoming poverty and power.
In the search for a simple answer everyone can agree with, a handful of commentators dig a little deeper and discover a general lack of accountability in South African society. Accountability becomes the panacea. We must all become accountable.