In her groundbreaking book Eichmann In Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt, the Jewish German intellectual who fled the Nazis, coined the expression “the banality of evil”. She reported on the Eichmann trial and, after closely studying the butcher of Auschwitz, she made the central point that, rather than being fanatics or psychopaths, many profoundly evil people are deeply normal.
This notion troubles us, because evil is always much easier to rationalise if we are comforted by the fact that evil people are not like you and me. But if they are like us, it opens the distinct possibility that we could all do something horrible, given the right circumstances.
When you walk through the gates of the Apartheid Museum here in Johannesburg, it reminds you not only how vile the South African state once was, but also that its vileness was upheld by millions of little decisions taken everyday by millions of ordinary people – people just like us.
The mass forced movement of blacks to the townships to remain out of sight, the horrible conditions of the miners who made South Africa rich, the constant violence meted out by the police: these were all deeply evil polices directed from the top.
However, the museum reminds us of the banal minutiae of apartheid – all those pass laws, the constant racial profiling of everything from going to the loo, going for a swim, waiting for a train, even just chatting to black people.
The day to-day working of apartheid depended on complicity: the complicity of millions.
How easy would it have been for Nelson Mandela, 21 years ago, to have seen this mass complicity as mass responsibility and acted to punish all whites accordingly? But, amazingly, he didn’t. He responded to mass complicity with a message of mass forgiveness.
He and his ANC comrades managed somehow to steer this amazing country away from the abyss and onto a different path, if not quite a rainbow nation, at least a nation which is dealing with its past by looking forwards not backwards.
Mandela had leadership. He was a transformative statesman. The extent of this only becomes apparent when you talk to all sides here.
Over dinner last night, three Afrikaners explained to me the symbolism of Mandela wearing the Springbok shirt in 1995 at the Rugby World Cup final. For a black man, the Springboks represented the team of the white supremacists; and yet, in one gesture, Mandela said, I am with you. I forgive you, let’s move forward together.
A young Zulu woman told me she would have happily looted white houses and killed white people but for Mandela. He “shamed us into good behaviour”, she told me. She said she had never understood the power of forgiveness, the strength of the moral high ground until she, as an angry teenager, was inspired by Mandela’s speeches. Such stories are everywhere. Mandela simply transcended the normal.
Unfortunately, leaders like him don’t come along every year. And only when they are gone do you realise how special they were. Real leaders don’t just run a country properly; they inspire people with a vision that goes far beyond the mundane formulas of economics.
Right now South Africa has plenty of economic problems, no doubt. There are up to five million unemployed here, the gap between the rich and poor is enormous, many black people still live below the poverty line. But there was no civil war, the country didn’t descend into violence, the economy continued to grow, and the black middle class – the most essential ballast for continued democracy – is growing. All this is thanks to leadership.
South Africa’s economic challenges are huge. Everywhere, the infrastructure is creaking. For example, driving to Soweto the traffic is awful, not only because of the number of cars, but because the traffic lights periodically stop because there isn’t enough electricity. This happens all the time and they even have their own word for these temporary power cuts. They aren’t known as “black-outs” but something far more innocuous called “load shedding”. Load shedding describes the national grid simply shedding power in certain places to make it available elsewhere.
However, as daunting as the economic challenges are, the political ones are greater. It’s clear that the ANC’s leadership has shifted from the long-term vision and intellectualism of Mandela and his generation, to “state populism” under President Jacob Zuma. He is widely perceived to be in the business of what he and his friends can get out of the country for the next five years rather than the Mandela approach which was much more expansive and long-term.
Again it comes down to leadership, vision and the ability to transcend your own parochial concerns and see the big picture.
Thinking about Mandela’s leadership and his ability to rise above pettiness and lead a damaged, violent and traumatised nation, I wonder, when I look at Europe this weekend: where are the European leaders?
Looking at the slagging, the sniping, the acrimony and the divisiveness of the Greek negotiations, ask yourself, where is the vision? What is the big picture? What is the end game? Is the EU a grand project which is supposed to steer the various nations of Europe into the 21st century, or is it a bickering babble of national fiefdoms led by people who are only interested in local re-election? Is it now simply a technocratic playground of rules and numerical targets, rather than a family of nations marching together? Is it merely a creditors’ paradise, where the strong creditor nations dole out punishment to the weak?
Years ago, that other great statesman Mahatma Gandhi noted that “the weak can never forgive: only the strong have the power to forgive”.
Mandela, once he was strong and was elected into a position of unassailable power, had the choice to forgive the whites or not. He used his power to forgive.
In Europe now, some of the most powerful countries on earth have the capacity to forgive Greece for its crime of economic mismanagement. But they are choosing to humiliate the Greeks instead.
A massive debt-to-GDP ratio may be a significant balance sheet misdemeanour, but it is hardly apartheid. Surely forgiveness, empathy and understanding with the Greek people represent a better tack than sneering, bullying and humiliation? If Africans could forgive whites for decades of hurt and terror, can’t the EU see beyond accountancy rules?
But it all comes down to leadership. Ask yourself: where’s the European Mandela?
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Hello to all, I’ve been following this site for years, especially the comments section which I’ve found informative and entertaining.
Comparing apples and water melons on this one David. SA at the moment is wobbling towards civil war or at least becoming a second Zimbabwae,and its certainly no ebony and ivory living together in perfect harmony society.We never hear of the dramatic increase in white woman rape or attacks on white farms and fammlies in the media here since Mandela came and went. The white SA joke is in Europe when you say good night,you say good night. In South Africa its,Did you switch on the alarm?Did you load the shotgun?Did you lock and shutter all the windows and doors?Did… Read more »
The Afrikanns were brutalised during the Boer War – The Brits put a large number of their women and children into concentration camps and a lot of them died in these – Hitler got the idea from there. The resultant shortage of females led to a decline in their population and so when the Brits pulled out they were faced with the distinct possibility of being overwhelmed by the local population – local, because not all local were native. To give leverage to their relative tiny number, they gave legal status to what was in effect apartheide practiced under British… Read more »
Hi, “He responded to mass complicity with a message of mass forgiveness” He spent 27 years in jail because he refused to condemn armed struggle. The real leaders are here you just don’t see them. At the end you whinge about the EU not looking past accountancy rules but you fall into the trap that you think the headcases in charge can make a difference even if they wanted to with a top down response. So let me demonstrate that what you need is to refocus or shape shift your own world view and when you do there will be… Read more »
no South African civil war like the US, Spain or Ireland it’s true and I would put that down to a certain pragmatism on the part of the white community. They knew the game was up in the late 80s when international lines of credit started to dwindle & the costs of maintaining an army in Angola/SWA mounted. For them, the choice was continuing to cling on politically, militarily, etc at all costs and thus likely generating a full blown civil war, or handing over power to the majority and hoping wealth redistribution would not be too harsh. Luckily for… Read more »
We once had this ! Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting… Read more »
I’m glad to have discovered your work a few days ago, David, and moved by the compassion that animates it. Needless suffering and death are the main products of the world’s present economic system, which firmly places a moral crisis at the core of the financial crisis and every other crisis in play. Quite simply, a handful of transnational grillionaires with no loyalty to any place or people have been stealing for themselves the wealth and general well-being of everybody else, ever since the Thatcher/ Reagan era. And their cabal has just about the full apparatus of power behind it.… Read more »
I believe we have already found a European Mandela in Alexis Tsipras. He and Yanis Varoufakis are playing a role in may ways even more critical than the one fought on behalf of black people by the much loved Nelson Mandela. The Greeks are fighting this existential battle on behalf of all the common people of Europe, just as Mandela fought on behalf of all the black people of the world. As in South Africa every weapon is being deployed to destroy the emergence of a left wing government in Europe. That is the real contagion the business-controlled European governments… Read more »
It takes a special kind of courage to stand up to the social norm and instigate necessary change. Mandela certainly had that quality as did Martin Luther King Jr. I think that the Greeks are right not to bow to pressure from the EU. The arrogance of the EU is demonstrated that they never figured out what would happen when the EMU failed. It is inevitable and just a matter of time before it falls apart. The ultimate demise was hastened by the financial crisis of 2008, but it was always on the cards. The fact that the Greeks were… Read more »
When I read this article, I grasped that David was onto something important. Something that very essential. And a good starting point would be an end to the denial mindset, and some frank honesty. The EU centralization project has committed massive blunders. The entire cult of faith in centralization as the answer is a load of nonsense. So also is the relentless promotion of structures, ideas and authority models that are not working. “Europe” is responsible for a mess. It started when Trichet drove down interest rates to stimulate Europe after the east ward expansion. It created a feel good… Read more »
It is not just Greece that is struggling with debt. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/11705720/European-debt-crisis-Its-not-just-Greece-thats-drowning-in-debt.html The EU centralizers who want us to believe that the Greeks are the problem, might wish to look around. If they are located in Belgium, they might wish to be particularly alert. There is a problem with the entire model of economics that has prevailed since 1990 in Europe, with respect to reliance on debt as a means of delivering economic growth. [ 13 EU nations saw their public debt accelerate at a faster rate than Greece’s over the period 2012-2014 ] Yep that is correct. Most of them… Read more »
Noonan, Kenny, Burton are having a go at the Greeks. Actually, since they got into power, they have borrowed more than Greece, fibbed more than Greek politicians, and reformed less of the Institutional state than the Greeks. So it is all another episode in pretence. In fact everything since FG/LP got into power has been a series of slick PR stunts. They have fixed……Nothing !!!!! In fact their strongest resolve was that they would look after their backers, and repair nothing. Ireland is on a similar trajectory to Greece with a time lag. The ultimate destination is bankruptcy of the… Read more »
Greece is on the frontlines for all of us.
We are all Greeks to the Trojan Horse financial system.
This is a very good documentary about the history of Britain in the EU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY_BgnZdwko Political integration was essential to the project from the start. The US role in all this needs to be clarified. Many here on this blog welcomed O’Bama’s candidature back in the day. He talks a good talk and he’s charismatic, and he is also in the pocket of the banks (isn’t he?). Here’s Icelandic tv from 17 June, their national day, where the ceremony was drowned out by protestors, at least a few of which (so I understand) are in favour of joining the EU… Read more »
Didn’t know the Greeks were forced into the Euro!
Good debate all round. but do not forget it is the monetary system that is the main culprit. when your money is freely produced without limit it becomes valueless. When it is issued as a debt it indebts all people and peoples. Now people have borrowed a worthless paper in exchange of a pledge for hard assets. Interest charged on that debt means that if the debts were repaid there would be no currency in existence but the interest owed would still be outstanding. That is one reason why our money system is dishonest. In fact it was designed by… Read more »
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11704051/The-world-is-defenseless-against-the-next-financial-crisis-warns-BIS.html
The debt accumulated cannot be paid off. Interest payments are as low as they have ever been but still cannot be paid.
BIS is the Central banks central bank. Beware of what they offer as an antidote to the current problems. The only reason for the BIS is to support and insolvent central bank and indirectly the commercial bank failures. It incidentally claims to have 100+ tonnes of gold as its basic asset??
http://www.gata.org/node/12717
file:///C:/Users/Tony/Downloads/World_Official_Gold_Holdings_as_of_February2015_IFS.pdf
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-29/juncker-greece-dont-commit-suicide-just-because-you-are-afraid-death
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-28/here-comes-prexit-puerto-rico-death-spiral-governor-says-debts-are-not-payable-refus
I don’t or won’t put any trust or faith in some “leader” to solve this mess. You are your own leader. Do you really think some wonderful leader is out there provided by providence to lead us out of this wilderness? An un-elected pope? Un-elected EU Commissioners? Come on people I know you have more brains than that. Mandela was inspiring and generous but look at the thieves who were waiting in the wings. It’s time to dismantle the political aspirations of the EU and return it to an EEC trading block. That was a more modest and realistic and… Read more »
http://www.gold-eagle.com/article/fortune-cookie-knows?utm_source=Gold+Eagle+Email+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c405a1f163-RSS_MON&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_654d25a6f9-c405a1f163-116260009
The only thing I can tell you with certainty is this; as the meltdown proceeds I can guarantee physical gold and silver will still be standing. My thought is they will be standing “much taller” than they are today as they truly are “money” and global “monies” are going to come under scrutiny. This is at the core question to be answered of it all …”what is money”? The current belief is that “debt is money”, it is not and never was. Debt may have been perceived as money or even an asset …it has and always will be a… Read more »
One of the assumptions that above criticism currently, across the mainstream media in Western world is that low interest rates are a good thing. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11704051/The-world-is-defenseless-against-the-next-financial-crisis-warns-BIS.html Well, actually, they cause bigger and more troubling cycles. The interest rate policy currently being used, facilitates the over-leveraging and complete ponzification of involved economies. We seen this in the PIGIS when Trichet drove down interest rates, and that drove debts up. There was denial afterwards about the problem. The problem lies squarely with the ECB. Greece knows it would have been better off without Trichet’s interest rate policy. Spain and Portugal likewise. And Ireland… Read more »
Tony: you ask “what kind of currency do you have in mind?” I do not think that any group of people should dictate to another group what they should accept or not accept as currency. If one group of people prefers gold and another prefers some form of fiat paper money, shells, Wampum or whatever, so be it. I know you prefer gold but not everybody agrees with you. So, my answer to your question is “whatever people will accept”. In the present open global system the trading markets decide. I must accept whatever my US dollar is worth against… Read more »
Colm McCarthy’s article from the Sunday Independent is worth reading:
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/colm-mccarthy/a-grexit-would-be-disastrous-and-could-signal-disintegration-of-euro-31335105.html
What about this awful article from John Bruton, the condescending, patronising arsehole?:
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/panic-and-uncertainty-in-greece-shows-its-struggling-leaders-have-lost-all-credibility-31339354.html
https://www.dollarvigilante.com/blog/2015/06/28/greek-banks-and-stock-market-shuttered-the-end-of-the-monetary-system-2015.html
It was on the news this evening as well.
The site is still down – I will slap in a tenner when it comes back up.
A man is walking down a dusty road trying to thumb a lift. A blonde in a convertible pulls over and asks “What do you do for a living”. I’m a farm labourer he replies”. She drives off. He keeps trying and sure enough another pretty girl pulls over and asks “What do you do for a living”. “I’m an honest working man” he replies. She drives off. He keeps trying and third time lucky another pretty girl pulls over and asks “What do you do for a living”. He thinks for a moment and says “I’m an up and… Read more »
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11708576/How-do-you-change-a-currency-fast.html
Interesting
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/616271868329373696
The European battle has clearly devolved into what it has always been but not readily seen, a battle for civilization. It is a battle for state and individual sovereignty versus AUTHORITARIANISM and FREEDOM.
Our money system is the tool of control and hides behind the rhetoric of the advancement of the one world government, financial serfdom of the masses, that is the goal of the elites.
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/07/01/greece-can-save-west-paul-craig-roberts/
“If you do not specify and confront real issues, what you will do will surely obscure them. If you do not alarm anyone morally, you will yourself remain morally asleep. If you do not embody controversy, what you say will be an acceptance of the drift to the coming human hell.” … C. Wright Mills
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-30/paul-craig-roberts-rages-truth-now-crime-against-state
Today, one trusts nobody. Remain skeptical but reserve judgement.
Here are the Five Agreements
1.Be impeccable with your word. Speak with integrity.
2. Do not take anything personally
3. Do not make assumptions
4. Always do your best
5. Be skeptical, but learn to listen
Take care, enjoy the day.
Well said Maeve Halpin, in the letters:
“The EU is no longer run by politicians for the people, but by banks for profit, at the expense of the people.”
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/this-house-of-cards-was-always-destined-to-collapse-31342923.html
Here’s the letter in full, if you don’t want to click through to the link: The establishment of the European Economic Community (later the European Union) in 1957 was an extraordinary achievement. Repairing the wounds of two world wars that had devastated Europe, it created the basis for co-operation between formerly hostile states, leading to decades of relative peace and prosperity, social and political stability and the unprecedented mingling of cultures and populations. Since 1973, Ireland has reaped enormous benefits, financially, economically and socially, from EEC/EU membership. Core to the success of ‘The European Project’ were the principles of social… Read more »
Throwing in a more human perspective.
“I’m very afraid that I will go to prison for debts,” said Tsironis. “I’m 65 and I can’t pay the bills.”
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/fdfcceb6c1eb4a1a8be9ddd89f05d7c6/greeks-struggle-daily-grind-foreigners-head-beach
And back to the headline of your article David. Nelson Mandella was a very special human being. He was the right man in the right place at the right time. I would sum him up as a visionary who always did as he said. His nation believed in him. The country followed him because they trusted his outstanding intellect and personal sacrifice; and that he would lead them and their neighbours to a better life by abolishing apartheid. He encapsulates the axiom that says:- “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never… Read more »