Mandela and Hope

Samir Mehta | December 6, 2013
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Erik Bates | December 6, 2013
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Scott Hardie | December 12, 2013
Well said, Samir and The Onion. :-) I mourn Mandela along with the world. The work that he did to heal and reconcile South Africa depended on good faith and compassion, which required him to lead by example, and so he came to personify those traits. The only other living figure who I can think of as a living embodiment of goodness and kindness of Mandela's stature might be the current Dalai Lama.

Someone asked me why Mandela's acts of violence and thuggery in his youth didn't tarnish his legacy. It's partly because of what he was fighting against when he committed them, and it's partly because there's a lot of ignorance about his full life, but (I presume) it was mostly because he achieved so much good in his later years as to excuse the wrongful deeds. Of the many things he can teach us, one is how the fiery malcontendedness of youth can and should give way to compassion and reason in one's autumn years. Malcolm X is thought of by many as an agitator and firebrand who should be remembered for galvanizing black Americans into action (for better and/or worse), but too many people forget the reversal that he made late in life that can teach us all a lesson: If this once hateful man, with all of his justifiable grievances and who has done so much for his cause, can come to regard his perceived enemies with compassion and forgiveness, then so should we all. Come to think of it, given his talents for rhetoric and leadership and emotional IQ, I wonder whether if Malcolm X had lived long enough, he might have eventually converted into a social healer and reconciler in his senior years in a manner similar to Mandela.

Samir Mehta | December 16, 2013
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