Saturday, December 7, 2013

Mandela, moonbats and wingnuts


The ongoing discussion about the late Nelson Mandela has me scratching my head.  Those who are rationally examining the facts of the matter aren't the problem.  The difficulties arrive when those who've already made up their mind, and refuse to re-examine their position, get involved.  They react, rather than responding rationally.  The expression "My mind's made up - don't confuse me with the facts!" describes their perspective very well.

On the one hand you have the moonbats - people of left-wing/progressive/extreme liberal persuasion who regard Mr. Mandela as a messiah, a 'light-bringer', someone incomparable and beyond reproach.  He was none of those things.  He was a former terrorist, a man of extreme views, a man who once espoused and committed violence.  He was a very flawed human being.  He overcame most of those handicaps, and changed remarkably in the latter years of his life;  but that doesn't alter the fact that he was hardly an angelic choirboy for much of his life.

On the other hand, you have the wingnuts - people of right-wing/conservative/extreme libertarian persuasion who regard Mr. Mandela as an unreconstructed Communist terrorist, personally responsible for most (if not all) of the violence (particularly anti-White violence) perpetrated in Africa (not just South Africa) since World War II.  They flatly refuse to even consider that, despite his openly admitted alliance and association with Communists, he may not have been one himself, citing instead obscure academic references (never official, first-hand Party sources or documents) to assert that his membership of the SACP is proven (I have news for them - it's not).  They froth at the mouth at even the suggestion that he may have had any positive attributes.

Neither moonbats nor wingnuts are willing to consider the plain, objective evidence that is easily available to anyone with the inclination to obtain and study it.  That's the problem, right there.  Their minds have been made up in the light of their pre-existing ideological positions.  They aren't interested in - they may even be afraid of - anything that might cause them to have to reconsider those positions.

(The Mandela case isn't the first time I've run into this, of course.  To cite just one other example, I wrote a series of articles challenging those who condemn all Muslims because of the actions of fundamentalist religious fanatics in Islam.  They're listed in the sidebar under the heading 'Discrimination, distrust and xenophobia', if you'd like to read them.  You can just imagine the wingnut response to those articles . . . to say that 'they didn't want to know' puts it very mildly!  The objective, independently verifiable evidence I provided and the rational arguments I advanced were of no interest to them whatsoever, because their minds were already made up.)

If you want independent, balanced, fair perspectives on Mr. Mandela, I haven't found many better than these:

Rian Malan, who is a masterful observer of South Africa (and whose book 'My Traitor's Heart' is, in my opinion, not only magnificently written but an essential, indispensable perspective on the South African struggle for justice), writes a balanced and thoughtful article about Mr. Mandela's undeniable left-wing political leanings and the way he gave expression to them in and beyond South Africa.  He certainly was a revolutionary by anyone's standards.  The remarkable thing, IMHO, is that he didn't become so radicalized as to end up another Lenin or Castro or Pol Pot.  He avoided that precipice.

Tim Butcher reminds us that Mr. Mandela deliberately pulled back from the political arena after shepherding South Africa into full democracy, and allowed other leaders to emerge and the situation to stabilize.  This was perhaps his greatest gift to his country:  not to cling to the power he could have had for the asking, but to withdraw gracefully and avoid the cult of personality that's been inculcated by so many others in his position.

An editorial in the Telegraph sums up the impact he had on South Africa and the world.  It concludes:


This epic life teaches lessons of eternal relevance. The first is that nothing is inevitable. Today, we are often regaled with alleged inevitabilities, whether over a supposedly unreformable welfare state at home, or the apparently unstoppable decline of the West in the heat of Asian competition. The South Africa of three decades ago appeared set on an immovable course to civil war. Had Mandela accepted the doctrine of inevitability, then catastrophe would indeed have overwhelmed his country.

How was the allegedly inevitable avoided? The answer to this question provides the second enduring lesson of Mandela’s story. Political leadership can tip the balance of history. Politicians are not helpless playthings of irresistible forces. Instead, they can change history — or “make the weather”, in Churchill’s phrase – if they possess the resolve and the skill. Mandela’s courageous and enlightened leadership prevented catastrophe.

Like many great men, Mandela possessed glaring faults. He was shamelessly unfaithful to his first wife, Evelyn. He had strained relationships with his children. He was capable of monumental blunders, such as his decision to launch an armed struggle in 1960 that achieved nothing save for inviting the government to shut down the ANC by arresting its entire leadership, thereby setting back the anti-apartheid struggle by a decade or more.

Inexcusably, Mandela turned a blind eye to the appalling excesses of his second wife, Winnie. Yet he never claimed to be a saint and always protested when that label was foisted upon him. What, then, is his monument? It can be simply expressed: Nelson Mandela, in a moment of supreme crisis, saved his country. He did so by guile, generosity and indomitable will. He was the kind of man who comes upon this earth but rarely.

Go read all three of the articles linked above, particularly the first.  They're well worth your time.


# # # # #


I know what's going to happen next weekend, when Mr. Mandela is buried.  There'll be huge official ceremonies in all major South African centers, centering around Qunu in the Transkei where he'll be buried.  However, it's later that night that the real memorials will be held.  They won't involve politicians, or pundits, or anyone the world considers 'important'.  These will be held by and for the 'simple' people, the 'ordinary' people . . . the backbone of Africa, when all's said and done.

On hilltops and in kraals throughout the country, fires will be lit.  The old people will gather round to tell stories of the Mandela they remember - the imprisoned leader whose example inspired them through the evil years, until he emerged from behind bars to become their liberator.  For them his legend has by now eclipsed his reality.  It's the legend that will be handed down for centuries, if not millennia.  Their grandchildren and great-grandchildren will draw close to listen, and learn, and absorb the stories to pass on to their own grandchildren and great-grandchildren in years and decades and centuries to come.

As the sparks fly upward into the star-speckled sky the praise singers will intone Mandela's glory, composing songs that will be handed down for generations to come.  As the coals redden the sangomas and inyangas will sprinkle them with muti, waving leafy branches through the smoke, inviting - imploring - importuning the ancestral spirits to welcome into their midst a Great One, the Father Of The Nation.  There will already be those offering sacrifice to Mandela's spirit, asking his aid.

I can almost taste the salt of their tears, and smell the smoke of their fires, and hear their chants, and feel the vibrations in my body as they beat their drums and stamp their feet in the dance.  I won't be there in body, but I'll be there in spirit . . . because these people, the ordinary people of Africa, beyond politics or ideology, were near and dear to my heart, and a part of it will always be theirs.  I'll mourn their loss with them.  It's something I can't explain.  Only those who understand tribal Africa will understand what I'm saying here.  It's too deep for words.

It's winter here in the USA, not summer as it is in South Africa right now.  Even so, weather permitting, I might go outside next weekend and light a fire for Madiba myself.  I did it for Inyati.  Might as well do it again.  I think both of them will understand.

Peter

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sure Mandela wasn't a cmmunist. Next you'll tell us Obama loves America.

Sad when one ignores the facts and evidence. You've declared yourself a progressive.

Peter said...

@Anonymous at 1:16 AM: Thank you for making my point. You couldn't possibly have illustrated it more clearly.

I'll have to tell my friends that I've 'declared myself a progressive'. Their hysterical laughter might actually be life-threatening . . .

:-)

Old NFO said...

Peter, as you've pointed out, it's HARD to separate the truth and lies... I think it always will be with Mandela because he was such a polarizing figure. However, I do fear for the country based on what I'm reading/hearing about the current people in power.

Anonymous said...

Peter thank you for sharing this. You put into words everything I have been feeling. The right wing hate him because he is what they most fear - a black man capable of exceptional, outstanding goodness despite being very, very human. Even worse for them, he is not alone and he is not unique. I agree that the current president is pretty grim, but South African people are not stupid and there are plenty of people whose paths have meandered along similar lines. This, along with Mandela's wonderful example, is why there was not a civil war and why the country has not, despite the right wing's prophets of doom whinging for the past 20 years, descended into chaos. It's not perfect and its leaders are not perfect but the people will see it survive and flourish.

Anonymous said...

The genocide of blacks in Africa by these peace loving Arab Muslims is deferentially. Soon, we'll not have to worry about dancing spear chuckers and we can focus on praising the few peace loving muslims that do not practice islam so we don't appear to be islamophobic.

As BNI states "It isn't Islamophobia When they really ARE trying to kill you."

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Paragraph 4 should be a lesson for the USA. We need a leader who can somehow change the weather.

SiGraybeard said...

As any engineer can tell you "Reality is a bitch". Mandela appears to be a living example of one of those ambiguous figures they put in psychology books, where one person sees one thing and another person sees something completely different. In this case, neither side sees what the other does.

In reality, he did some horrible things. He also did some noble things. Doing noble things doesn't remove the commission of the horrible acts - and vice versa. What we seem to have is people who see the good and minimize the horror, and people who see the horror and minimize the good.

As others have said, I fear for South Africa now. In fact, I fear for most of Africa. Darkness is descending.

tweell said...

I do not think that Mandela was a communist. He used the Soviets much more than he was used by them.
I do think that he failed, in the end, by not speaking out against the excesses of his wife and the current leaders of South Africa. If events go on as they have been, South Africa will become another Zimbabwe. Not instantly, but it didn't happen instantly there either. The exodus of Boers is already happening, along with the laws to strip them of everything as they go.

Formynder said...

I experienced this with the http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/2013/12/two-nelson-mandela-quotes-definitely-wont-see-buzzfeed/
article. It's my first real experience with those on the right behaving like lunatics.

Angus McThag said...

Here's the problem for me.

It's very difficult to give someone who the media love so adoringly a fair shake.

It's been far simpler to assume someone they love that much is as evil as Stalin and in practical terms this is generally accurate.

I figured he must really have deserved life in prison because the media painted him as being an innocently persecuted political prisoner.

emdfl said...

At the end of the day, Peter, her's a question for you to ponder and maybe answer; how much better off are those wonderful (black as opposed to white) Africans that you so love under the present regime?
We know the original settlers - the Boars - are being killed daily which was ALWAYS the end game for the ANC. But what's going to happen to the rest of the country when those evil white folks(who built the country and kept the whole place running) are all gone?