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by Mputhumi Ntabeni

G21 AFRICA Staff Writer

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Unconventional Wisdom

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Mputhumi
Ntabeni

Queenstown, SOUTH AFRICA - I was slightly amused when our esteemed publisher sent back my last contribution with a pithy note: 'Too long. Coagulated.' I happen to fully agree with him, which is why I was amused. Writing the piece I had a feeling I was going whoring after the stuffy avenues of politics. Try as I do, though, I can't shake the nagging feeling that it was also ... my unbidden attack on liberal politics that kind of unsettled the feathers of our publisher.

No one can deny our eminent publisher is a skilful and sensitive herdsman of literary cattle. [He is] a critic of urban sophistication with [the] instincts of a judge, albeit de haut en bas sometimes.

My feeling is that the piece, poor as it may have been, caught him at a wrong time -- when the American political scene is blatantly displaying its odium for liberal politics. These are times of rude awakening for liberals.

There were times in the development of ideas in the world [that] whenever a civilisation hit a cul-de-sac [of ideas there] would come a secular intellectual or two to infuse new and fertile ideas -- and explore the guilt of t he privileged -- with [the] fire of revelation forging into [an] alternative culture, or at least what was called progressive attitudes. That does seem to happening in our epoch, which seems to be post even revolutionary ideas.

Yet revolution is what is really needed for our times. We have a dominant culture that is led by the U.S. revolution as a qualitative change and shift of emphasis.

There're eras in history that are too deafened, whether by historical, economic, or intellectual contradictions to hear the voice of sanity. The American system, which is under the tutelage of big business and the spell of its grosser ideals, has brought forward these contradictions in our era. The world is gradually becoming an engulfing prison for those who don't share the ideals of American big business with its avalanche of insane greed and pride of conquest. They have dug up almost all the dangers of history -- bigotry, fanaticism, racism and all. Revolution, without the usual supporting insanities, like the burning and coercion of opponents, is the only way out for the oppressed of our era.

I implicate the liberals, too, in the present madness for not realising -- or neglecting -- that democracy, more than being a political demand, is a principle of conscience not of the free market. The loss of their political clout and historical initiative is the result of this neglect.

Politics have a spiritual dimension which liberals have failed to understand because of their assumption that the world and humanity can be transformed by ideas conjured up in the mind out of nothing, i.e., [they are] for the enthroning reason to the detriment of tradition.

Rousseau pioneered this revolt against what Ibsen called the revolt of an individual against the ancient rÈgime of inhibitions and prejudices. The likes of Russell systemised and prescribed it as progressive attitude.

Liberal politics preach liberalism illiberally to those [who find their own traditions] do not [find the philosophy to] jibe with their sacred values. [Liberals] forget that 'Liberation' consists of securing for the individual or collective community a right to free themselves according to their needs and circumstances. This is another reason why liberal politics have lost their power to provoke political freshness [and seems] like a defeated cause trapped within the machinery of its own obsolete theories.

I would not go as far as to say our eminent publisher believes in the prescribed progressive attitudes of radical liberal politics. One suspects that like all liberals, he believes in the power of the intellect, that disembodied force, to come up with total solutions. He may not have an arbitrary taste for radical ideas like the Rousseaus and Russells of this world, but he certainly is discreetly aggressive, which is what some of us love most about him.

Reading his column 'My Glass House' -- that blazing display of sincerity and injured rectitude combined with unctuous pleading -- one identifies that Rousseauean element of self-parody. One can easily say of our publisher what Henry James said of Emerson: "We get an impression of a conscience grasping in the void, panting for sensation, with something of the movements of the gills of a landed fish."

When I introduced a friend to Generator 21, he asked me how he should read the magazine. I said start on the 'My Glass House' column and work your [way through the rest] according to fancy.

"Why?" he asked.

Besides being a good idea to first read the editorial whenever you're reading a magazine, it's the best column in the magazine, I answer.

He asks why I think it's the best column in the magazine. I end up writing this piece as some form of an answer.

One thing that must be clear to anyone wishing to understand Rod is to realize they're dealing with a provocateur with the usual Voltairean mixture of irascible egotism, genuine altruism, sporadic courage playing out in an atmosphere of literary politicking. He's vexed by stupidity, especially of powerful people.

Egotism by definition is so pleased with itself that it regards other people as an extension of its ego, which is the most boring thing in the world. But when, like in Rod, egotism inter-mixes with an intense sense of empathy for others, it becomes so much more than its confining self. That is why good writers are interesting. Rod's ego is of that kind. By inflating his ego to immense proportions, he makes it a shelter for the helpless and hell for the vain.

Pope John Paul II

Whatever religion or nonreligion you happened to be, observing and reading the writings of Pope John Paul II, one got an impression of a man of sublime feelings who was baffled and preoccupied with the question of man in relation with God, who spirituality was profound and whose heart was in Heaven from the moment he was born. He lived the seasons of his life to the end.

He gave [expression to] youth and its wonderful eccentricities, like skiing, hiking, cd buying in malls and co-authoring popular books; something the more conservative in the Vatican were wary of, and [as he] he grew old he brought the frailty of his age, too, to the reign.

Thos who were calling for the Pope's resignation were forgetting that the papacy is a lifelong office. The pope is a living personal symbol of unity. Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, warned a papal retirement could threaten "the precious jewel" of church unity." He said the Pope could not be likened to the chief executive of a multi-national corporation but was a living personal symbol of the Church's unity. "A retired Pope could become an agent of division in the Church, perhaps exercising undue influence on the election of his successor; perhaps as a focus of discontent when a group of Catholics was dissatisfied with a decision of the new Pope.

Pope John Paul II recognised that growing old and being sick are important parts of life's journey. Suffering with dignity should not always be hidden from the public. The Pope tried to show us that all human stages have value, even if that value is found [to be] patient suffering and perseverance.? He certainly brought dignity back to some old men who felt useless and expendable.

As the Pope grew weaker his critics grew bolder in expressing their disrespect. There was also an increasing uncertainty accompanying petitionary prayers on behalf of the Pope among more loyal Catholics as to the authoritative status of what emanates from Rome. Manfred Lutz, a leading academy member and German psychiatrist, said the Pope's 1984 apostolic letter on human suffering (Salvifici Dolores) was the antidote to what he called the "religion of health". But the Holy Father in his old age lived out what he then wrote, which incarnated his message in the most conceivable, intensive manner. Most are now aware that the suffering of old age has a redemptive element.

John Paul II was not philosophic in a conventional sense of a philosopher. His philosophy was the moral instinct rendered effective in real life rather than consecutive thoughts turned into logical arguments. His Encyclical Letters are more read and discussed than [those of] any other pope in our modern times. Why? Because his writings had what V.S Pritchett called a "mixture of reporter, aphoristic wit, moralist and poet . . . to catch our attention at once."?

Pope John Paul II had the most of wonderful of liberal minds, that which has not been swayed by the absurdities of liberalism -- I know most liberals won't agree with me when I called John Paul II a liberal.? For me, the true liberal mind is that which is aware that history, precedence and established forms are the only reliable guards to human behaviour that is evolving towards the glory of its nature. That is why, in [the late Pope,] I see what St. Areneas called the glory of God, a man fully alive. May God have mercy on his soul, and perpetual light grant.?

Zimbabwe

Mugabe's party, the ZANU-PF has won last week's parliamentary elections convincingly in Zimbabwe, not that there was a real ques tion about [the election's outcome.]

Mugabe has done a lot of damage in Zimbabwe [because of] his insatiable hold on power. In the past few years he has enacted draconian laws to restrict the opposition's activities. He has closed down independent newspapers who were hostile to his government. He banned foreign funding for political parties. He has appointed only ZANU-PF sympathisers to the judiciary; confiscated, at some instances, food from Food Aid agencies to ensure loyalty and punish the dissident.

That said, as anyone who has been to Zimbabwe knows, all these things hurt rather than promote the ZANU-PF. The ZANU-PF is the most popular party, by far, to the people on the ground in Zimbabwe. The sad thing is how Mugabe uses that popularity to repress the minority.