It goes without saying that Nelson Mandela was a great man who had a hugely positive effect on South Africa in particular and the world in general. But while he was a total champ in many ways, he certainly wasn't a saint. And I think that is being forgotten in the emotive orgy of idolatry following his death.
Then there's the bizarre PC double standard displayed by so many Aussie commentators and activists. The line that all local lefties are dutifully following is that Mandela's great gift to the world was to show that rather than wallowing in bitter divisiveness you can actually forgive your enemies and affirm the humanity you share with them. In short, you can create a better world by seeing people as individuals rather than members of a group. In this interpretation, Mandela is seen as a visionary unifier in the tradition of Martin Luther King, who famously urged us to judge people by the content of their character, not the colour of their skin. I'm in furious agreement with this view.
But what do these same people do when it comes to racial politics in Australia itself? They endorse the polar opposite line. They say that Indigenous Australians are a very different mob to ol' whitey (and everyone else, for that matter). They must not be judged by the same standards everyone else is -- and woe betide anyone who dares criticize them! They must be encouraged to live their lives according to separate customs and laws in lands cut off from those dominated by eeevil European society. And rather than being urged to move on from bitterness over past injustices, they are reminded of them at every opportunity and encouraged to stew in their angry sense of victimhood (much as grizzled Whitlamites are told to "maintain the rage").
While this different treatment is not nearly as brutal and wrong as the system Mandela helped overcome, it's still undeniably toxic and subtly racist. It's kind of like apartheid with a smiley face badge whopped on it. And isn't it ironic that over the last coupla decades, just as institutionalized racism was being dismantled in South Africa, the local caring, sharing version was being increasingly firmly entrenched here.
It's revolting as all get out. Don't these leftie hypocrites just make you wanna vomit?
Interesting angle on the story, Matt. Good points.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Thanks also for the mention in the comment thread of that blog. Saw clicks coming though in my stats.
DeleteGood to hear! I've met a few Americans online who are watching our political scene with interest. We're not as remote as we used to be.
Delete"It goes without saying that Nelson Mandela was a great man who had a hugely positive effect on South Africa in particular"
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure about that. Last I heard white farmers were being murdered at a horrifying rate. There's an anti-white genocide going on there. Mandela has left a legacy of violence and hate. And the country is well on the road to being another ungovernable Marxist basket case.
I know that South Africa is in a parlous state. But I don't think it's because a more sinister state has replaced the old one -- at least not yet anyway. It seems to me to be the chaos that results when an old decaying system is destroyed.
DeleteIt's a bit like what happened in the former Soviet Union. With communism gone crime, corruption and chaos reigned in many of the newly independent states -- in particular Russia. Out of this have come tyrannical figures like Putin. Not sure how it's all gonna pan out, but at least there's no more Evil Empire.
That's what I meant when I said Mandela had a positive effect. Apartheid was a truly revolting system and it had to go. The whole concept of dividing people up according to race is totally abhorrent. The fact that we have a variation on it in place in this country, and nobody seems to notice, is truly nauseating.
"The whole concept of dividing people up according to race is totally abhorrent."
ReplyDeleteSaid as a true Liberal!