cell913blog.com #7

 As Nelson Mandela is the mentor, the guiding spirit and light of these posts, in the belief and conviction that, although his ‘fight for freedom’ differs in many ways from the current nature of the global constrictions on human freedom, human rights, human dignity, human access to clean water, clean air, adequate nourishment, access to education and work with dignity, nevertheless, only “his band” of freedom fighters, now perceived and conceived as a global initiative, will offer a credible and authentic path to ‘freedom’ for all.

In this space, I will borrow from Mandela’s own words, and then reflect on those words, in a downward search for a human psychic core that seems to have been inherent to Mandela, whether he fully realized and recognized it or not.

In a piece entitled, Light, Mandela writes:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  

    It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

                     We ask ourselves:

   Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

           Your playing small does not serve the world.

There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other

          People won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us;

         It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously

       Give other people permission to do the same.

              As we are liberated from our fear

       Out presence automatically liberates others.

To many of us in the West, having bathed in waters that imbued a profound preference for humility, for ‘hiding our light under a bushel’ and a defiant abhorrence of anything smacking of arrogance, these words of Mandela might seem counter-intuitive, even for some, blasphemous, and for others, merely a ‘pipe-dream’ to be dismissed out of hand. Like ‘too many drinks’ from a bar late at night, these words may seem so highly provocative, even seductive, if considered from the perspective of a rising tide of autocracy, tyranny and despotism. Indeed, nothing in the history of humanity is more tyrannical, autocratic, despotic and worthy of a globally inspired and regionally led “freedom” movement that was incarnated by the African National Congress, the PAC and the MK, the military arm of the ANC, the titular and recognized leader of which movement, was Nelson Mandela. The Third Reich, admittedly, carried out far more heinous and despicable measures in pursuit of white supremacy than the various governments of South Africa in the first three quarters of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, subjugation, repression, surveillance, unjust arrests and imprisonments, unjust charges and court cases, and a series of governments dedicated to ‘keeping the black Africans under their abject control, is analogous to the ‘dark cloud(s)’ that hang over the global population today.

The idealistic, optimistic, challenging and prophetic words of the “Light” piece above, has multiple, examples in personal encounters between Mandela and his many colleagues and oppressors, throughout his ‘long walk to freedom’ as recorded in the autobiography of that title.

Reflecting near the end of that work, Mandela writes these words:

It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.

When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both. Some say that has now been achieved. But I know that that is not the case. The truth is that we area not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning. (Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, pps. 624-625)

We have all witnessed a long walk into a shared and perhaps even global consciousness, about the ethical, legal moral and political pursuit of individual human rights. In Canada, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau embedded the Charter of Rights into the Constitution as one of, if not the most significant, of his accomplishments. And indeed, the global pursuit human rights and the freedom that comes with those rights, continues through such honourable non-profit agencies as Amnesty International. Daily we find stories about politically imprisoned individuals, in various parts of the world, who for merely protesting an unjust government, or an unjust law, or an unjust enforcement of the law, have lost their personal freedom, while the impunity of those who have imprisoned them continues with only the public notification of their injustice. We have just learned that the number of elections that will take place around the world this year, 2024, is the most numerous in history. And, ironically, on the ballots in all of those nations is the question of the survival and enhancement of democracy.

Even former Republicans in the U.S. who have voted only for the Republican party in previous elections are declaring that they are prepared to vote Democratic this year in order to impede, if not prevent a second trump term in the Oval Office.

The second part of Mandela’s mandate, for himself as well as for all of us, that we free the oppressor, not only the oppressed, is both challenging and seemingly ‘above all of our pay grades’. What are the chains that shackle the oppressors and even if they might be identified, how might they begin to be released?

Politics is a profession and exercise that considers the various paths to the general achievement of the ‘greatest happiness of the greatest number’ as if Jeremy Bentham’s 1789 ‘Introduction to morals and legislation’ is a model and a benchmark that is considerable achievable and thereby moral and ethical. Today, in so many situations, on so many issues, the expressed and documented attitude and will of the majority is not only being thwarted by those in power, their apparent defiance (clearly they too know of the public desires and attitudes), demonstrates that the small minority, often only a single oligarch, is manipulating the situations in which they have dominant influence, to ‘oppress’ and to defy and the ignore and dismiss the will of the majority.

The ‘fight for the survival of democracy’ while an often-echoed cliché, does not fully depict the seriousness of the situation millions are facing around the world. This cliché, glib and easily rolling off the tongues of many ‘small l liberal politicians, faces serious head winds from those who are determined to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the democratic process and the virtues of the autocratic/oligarchic/dictatorial/tyrannical alternative. And given that there is a flush of cash available to support and to endorse an agenda that includes:

·        business, personal and corporate profit,

·        the obsession with a minimal degree of government regulations along with

·        a maximum degree of military expansion,

·        the closing of national borders to refugees and immigrants (even in expanding economies where labour shortages abound)

·        the reduction of taxes for the wealthy, and

·        the suppression/oppression of minorities in favour of what can only be seen in the West as ‘white supremacy’ and in other nations as ‘nativism’ or tribalism

·        the growing isolation from shared world issues including global warming and climate change, starvation of millions of children, military actions to ‘oppress’ others in the name of revenge (think Gaza), or genetic purification (erasing fascism from Ukraine, is one example)

·        the sabotage through subterfuge of democratic elections….

It is not ‘rocket-science’ to connect the dots (not only those linking Iran with Hamas and Putin and Xi JinPing, Kim Jong Un, Liuz Inacio Lula da Silva, Jair Bolsonaro,  Benjamin Netanyahu, Viktor Orban…) and by inference and implication, donald trump… but also all of those who are in league with the forces of oppression…

And yet, ‘freeing the oppressor’ as Mandela has challenged himself and the rest of us to not only consider but to actually engage in an effective and deliberate process, is an issue that seems, from this perspective to be part of the mandate to ‘preserve and to protect democracy’ and all of the many rights and liberties, the freedoms it attempts to assure.

From one perspective, that of the modern feminist, the patriarchy can be legitimately viewed as one of the ‘systemic’ roots of male dominance, whether in the political arena or also in the domestic arena. Alpha-male models fill the offices of many of these dictatorships, and the derision of any form of evolved masculinity that, like the black smoke from the temporary chimney of the Sistine Chapel indicating “no pope,” engulfs these offices and the offices and homes of their ‘sycophant’ altar-boys whose personal pursuit of power and recognition parallels that of their hero(s). Nevertheless, to paint all wannabe autocrats as alpha-males, is another form of derision, demeaning in its generality, as well as inappropriate in its individual application.

There is an under-current of anxiety among those who select and impose a regime of oppression that, like the demon that plagues the alcoholic, is cantankerous and resistant to submission. We do not have a ‘health care’ program or modality that can or might confront the oppressors; we do not have an enforcement agency that can be discharged to consign involuntarily the oppressors to ‘time out’ and to professional treatment. Indeed, their anticipated resistance to any such idea would undoubtedly provoke even more violence. There is also no corporate ‘training program’ that might be able to convince the wannabe oligarchs that the ‘individual’ will and ‘freedom’ cannot be attained in a state in which the will of the oppressor controls and dominates.

Proposing, as it does, the ‘will of the people’ as the antidote to oligarchy and autocracy, to dictatorship and tyranny, to white supremacy and tribalism and nativism, renders democracy to the level of engagement, consciousness appreciation of, and the willingness of the ‘people’ to participate in it. And such participation, while it is supported by such ‘civics programs as I-Civics the brain-child of former, now deceased, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and civics programs in many ‘western countries,’ cannot overcome both the cash and the ingenuity and the determination of those determined to undermine democracy. Just consider for a moment, a piece of information released by The Council of Canadians today: “A typical CEO in Canada rakes in a whopping $7,162 per hour, earning the average worker’s full-year salary in just one day.” In their release they call for a wealth tax, an annual tax on net wealth over $10 million, a windfall tax on large corporations making inordinate profits especially in oil and gas, a hike in the corporate income tax rate and a closing of loopholes that allow the wealthy to avoid taxes. Such a list of proposals, reasonable, legitimate and long overdue, in Canada, might be a first step in levelling the playing field for the general public. Doubtless too, however, the lobby campaign that will be mounted in protest to counter such proposals will have the endorsement of all of those $7162/hr. CEO’s and their minions. And that is precisely the evidence that blocks most legitimate moves to free ordinary people, while seeking to retain the power, status, wealth and reputation of the top 1%. And it is the top 1% who, for the most part, are allied with the wannabe autocrats. And that dynamic is not exclusive to Russia, or China, or North Korea, or the United States.

It is a distant and sketchy vision/dream to envision more than one or two wealthy men and women to come to the realization that their choices, and the governments’ support of their choices are a form of blatant, overt and inexcusable oppression of millions. And their oppression takes many forms: polluted air and water, prohibitive prices for necessities like gas, oil, food, transportation, education and recreation. And their exclusively ‘fiscal and economic’ lens, on all public issues, is another of the insidious and less obvious constrictions on the public debate. So long as the rising numbers on the stock exchanges, and the investment portfolios and the receding interest rate and unemployment numbers confirm a healthy economy, ‘how could anything be ‘wrong’?

I am often criticized for using too many words in these posts. One critic recently opined, “You use five or ten words when only one would do!” And, while I can see that many readers would find such prose turgid and almost irrelevant, the attempt to paint some of the subtleties and the nuances and the fine print of some of the ‘shackles’ in which we are all being ‘bound’ (irrespective of whether such binding is deliberate or incidental) demands and expects a detailed analysis and exposition of the issues.

And, there is copious research that one’s ability and receptivity to reading, not only the literal meaning of the words, but also their poetic and imaginative reverberations not only demonstrates a degree of engagement and participation in the culture, but also informs that participation. Similarly, ‘telegrams’ while pointed and useful in emergencies, tend to leave out many of the important details. And telegrams, or their current equivalent, text, X, pics, and even in some cases, emails, tend to reduce both the harmonies and the dissonances in both our communications and our perceptions.

Single-word epithets, headlines, provocative propaganda pieces that slither into and through our devices, as well as into and out of our brains, have an inordinately high impact, when we need millions of men and women who are willing to see the dangers we all face, the sources of impeding a beginning of resolution to those dangers, and the motivation to rise up and challenge the status quo.

Freeing the oppressed, of course, is a first step for all of us. However, it is important that we never neglect or deny or avoid or eliminate the second step….freeing the oppressors.

And if democracy is to survive and to thrive, it is the creative, unique, resonant and imaginative responses of the best minds among us who can and will design effective strategies and tactics to disarm the oppressors both of their need to oppress and of their blindness to their own oppression.

Mandela also writes, near the end of his autobiography:

My country is rich in minerals and gems that lie beneath its soil, but I have always known that its greatest wealth is its people, finer and truer than the purest diamonds. It is from these comrades in the struggle that I learned the meaning of courage. Time and again, I have seen men and women risk and give their lives for an idea. I have seen men stand up to attacks and torture without breaking, showing strength and resiliency that defies the imagination. I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. I felt fear myself more times that I can remember, but I had it behind a mask of boldness. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. I never lost hope that this great transformation would occur. Not only because of the great heroes I have already cited, but because of the courage of the ordinary men and women of my country. I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is mercy and generosity. No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. Even in the grimmest times in prison, when my comrades and I were pushed to our limits, I would see a glimmer of humanity in one of the guards, perhaps just for a second, but it was enough to reassure me and keep me going. Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished. (Nelson Mandela, Long Road to Freedom, p. 622)

Can we collectively find, rediscover, and rebirth that ‘humanity’ of which Mandela writes, in our shared pursuit of the freedom of the oppressed, as well as of the oppressors?