Friday, December 06, 2013

A Mandela Moment

Most of you know by now that South African past- president and activist, Nelson Mandela, died yesterday. I wasn't sure what to think. I only remembered him from back in the day trying to bring communism to South Africa along the lines of what Robert Mugabe brought to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

I listened to a few of the obligatory and expected tributes to him on National Public Radio yesterday afternoon. He sounded pretty neat from what I heard, but was it true? I guess so, since my one go- to source for avoiding politically correct news, Reason magazine, had a short column on him yesterday:

 "And in fact Mandela cut it out with the nationalization talk once he left jail, and will be remembered for something almost no politicians outside of George Washington are ever noted for: choosing not to exercise the power he had."

"Nelson Mandela could have chosen to be–had the power to become–an even greater monster than Mugabe. Instead, Mandela chose to become a saint. A great leader, a great Christian, a great example. The world cannot honor him enough as it should hope that all people offered the complete power he was would act as he did."

I guess he was a pretty cool guy, at least in that regard.

5 Comments:

At 10:04 AM, Anonymous Snickerdoodles said...

Fred, If all you knew about Mandela was his militant history (from the early 60s) and nothing of his work as liberator and president of South Africa (everything he's done since then), well I finally see why you are such a tool. Wake up - and look for information about the world beyond your own belly button.

 
At 10:08 AM, Blogger Joe Blow said...

So, what you're admitting to doing was swallowing Nixon and Reagan's lies and line of propaganda hook line and sinker? As it turns out, history shows, their lies and obfuscating actions caused untold and unnecessary injury and death in that country. See how destructive it is to buy into the self-serving, worthless opinions of others, Fred?

 
At 10:34 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

MANDELA WAS A COMMIE LIBTARD!!!

 
At 10:58 AM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

I didn't pay much attention to Mandela, before or after he got out of prison. All I knew was what little I read in the news. I wondered if most of the glowing media coverage of him was simply because he was black. I suspect that still might be true, at least to some extent.

Illana Mercer, who I believe hails from South Africa, has a rather negative view of Mandela:
http://tinyurl.com/n6rpc2l

 
At 6:33 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

" I wondered if most of the glowing media coverage of him was simply because he was black. I suspect that still might be true, at least to some extent."

Wow. In case you hadn't noticed, many millions of people in Africa are black, as are many national leaders of countries on that continent. So it seems kind of stupid to think that this one guy was singled out for praise "simply because he was black." By the same token I'm pretty sure George Washington wasn't singled out for praise "simply because he was white."

 

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