Never have been one for hero worship - at least not the heroes that the pols, pundits and prevaricators feed us. So, to be honest, I cannot be sold on Nelson Mandela as hero. Survivor, someone who was imprisoned, perhaps for the wrong reasons, for many years? Perhaps. But hero is a strong word for someone with his history.
I would refer folks here to see at least the less than shiny side of today's hero. Perhaps - well, most certainly - the goals of the hero and how well they reflect the current sentiments of the people that define them will become the metric for heroism. That and the use of heroes to label others as evil. As can be seen from Mandela's own comments here - the methods of terror, no matter who uses them, may be justified in hindsight when the culture decides the cause was just. Today's "sensibilities" (perhaps inanities) help to define the hero and wipe away the taint of terror.
I would wish we could see how disingenuous this biased, backwards looking perspective can be. But we love to create heroes, most often at the whim of today's pet issues. Mandela is a hero because being downtrodden has advantage. Sadly we - they - think little about the role such heroic terrorists and the adulation they receive play in educating today's children about how to approach life. This is a game of ends justifying means - terror is justified, if decades later the ends are valued. Will there come a time when today's terrorists will also be viewed as heroes; in fact, are they already? Why should be be surprised?
'Tis a dangerous plan.
No comments:
Post a Comment