The Sunday News
Cetshwayo Mabhena
The creation of the nuclear bomb is the most vivid example of the tragic truth that politics can use science for purposes of both construction and destruction. It is also the most telling proof that in the pursuit of power and domination man can create objects and do things that can eventually destroy others and himself included; nihilism at its zenith, and tragedy at its very apex.
The nuclear bomb as an idea is very bad and as an object it is extremely evil and impossible to understand from a reasonable human stand point. Albert Einstein did not directly participate in the building of the bomb but it was his research idea and scientific formula that was used to build the monstrosity.
It is on record that he was against the use of the bomb. His wisdom was that: “I know not with what weapons World War Three will be fought but World War Four will be fought with sticks and stones.”
What he cleverly meant by that grave statement is that the nuclear bomb was to destroy the world and take man back to the Stone Age where sticks and stones would once again be the only technology of industry and war.
The burden of this short consideration is not to reflect on the evil of the nuclear bomb but to observe the spirit of political fundamentalism that leads man to wish to totally destroy his political opponents. The political desire for total victory and for what Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni calls the dream of a “world without others,” by those that wish to prevail over others and rule the world is a fundamentalist and nihilist desire because by its nature the world must be a shared place.
By its nature the world is a site of plurality and diversity where no one type of species should hold monopoly of life and domination of the world. The desire by political actors for the total absence of opponents has, in history, brought down such catastrophes as the Holocaust, world wars, civil wars and much genocide.
The dream or fantasy that one day there would be no political opponents but only our friends and allies is a genocidal desire on its own.
Political Fundamentalism
Political fundamentalism begins with an unquestioning belief in an idea by an individual or a group. What produces terrorists and fundamentalists is a burning desire to eliminate opposition to what they consider an indisputable truth and belief.
Unquestioning belief in the truth of an idea generates in individuals and groups passions and energies that are fanatically deployed in defending the idea. Most fundamentalists and terrorists do not understand that they are attacking others, they believe that they are defending a certain fundamental truth from some enemies that must necessarily be eliminated.
Political fundamentalists do not understand or know themselves as haters, no; they project themselves as lovers of a certain idea that needs their protection from attack by others. It is in that unfortunate way in which political fundamentalists sees themselves as political messiahs and deliverers that have been sent to protect certain ideas and beliefs from some dark forces and enemies.
For political fundamentalists politics becomes a religion where opponents and adversaries are seen as sinners that must either repent and be saved or must totally be destroyed in the name of some higher good. In short, political fundamentalists and extremists are blind to their own evil nature and agendas and very much awake to the evil of their opponents, real or imagined.
Political fundamentalism and its fundamentalists cannot exist without some enemies. They must always have some enemies to fight and to destroy. If the enemies do not exist they are very easily imagined and created so that fundamentalism as a political passion can feed on them. Political fundamentalism is not a vegetarian but a cannibal; it eats the meat of opponents.
From Adolf Hitler to Augusto Pinochet the political fundamentalist projects bravado and terror to terrify opponents but behind all the terror he is a terrified coward. Out of fear, not courage, political fundamentalists have caused wars and committed genocides. The nuclear bomb itself as the highest object of political and military fundamentalism was not built out of love or courage but extreme fear and cowardice.
The political fundamentalist is behind all his performances of bravado and gallantry a pathetic coward. For him political defeat is not the end of power but the end of the world hence his preparedness to kill for power. The fear of being proven wrong, being defeated and replaced is for him the fear of death itself so he would rather kill than be overcome. The political fundamentalist is a terrified animal.
From Enemies to Adversaries
Political fundamentalism is not the natural and normal mode of politics. In fact it is the corruption and perversion of true politics. Jostling and competing for political power is normal and possibly natural. What is not natural is that political opponents are elevated to enemies that must necessarily be eliminated. There is political competition and jostling for power where opponents are legitimated as adversaries that can be engaged with and not eliminated.
Navigating and negotiating the political opponent as an adversary is the true political gamesmanship in a world where others are not just tolerated but are needed. The turning of political opponents into political enemies, and not adversaries, is the true work of political fundamentalists and nihilists that desire a world without others. The production of enemies in politics is at once the creation of victims that are disposable people.
Enmity can be understood as the corruption and the fall of politics. Once others are understood as enemies and are treated as such politics does not only become a dirty game but a true killing and dying come where the life of others is cheapened and rendered dispensable. Political fundamentalists reduce their opponents first into enemies and then next into things and objects that can be thrown away and disposed for political convenience.
The thingification of opponents and their dehumanisation is the political habit of the fundamentalist. Those that were to be killed, for instance in the Holocaust, were not called other people but elements, animals and other things that could be eliminated without guilt. The fundamentalist is called an extremist because he has no half or moderate measures, there is no middle way for the fundamentalist, things are done in total.
Like the proverbial dog that is given a bad name so that it can be hanged, in the world of the political fundamentalist, opponents are animalised and dehumanised before they are crucified.
Against Political Fundamentalism
The greatest truths have always been those that are open to question and correction. The belief that as a political organisation and or institution our truths might be false or limited might be the beginning of political wisdom itself.
When we open our truths and beliefs to question and correction we build rather than destroy them because all powerful ideas are built by opening them to the test of question, critique and correction. It is the true and powerful ideas that are not afraid of challenge and opposition and do not die from negation.
Great ideas whose time has come and that can stand the test of time are not protected from opposition and critique but are surrendered to frank debate and test. The truth, after all, in politics and outside, is always too big to come from one mouth. Pieces and drops of the truth drop from different minds and mouths.
Frank and open political debates stitches the pieces together to provide tried and tested truths that can be worked with as wisdom.
Cetshwayo Zindabazezwe Mabhena writes from Gezina, Pretoria, in South Africa: mail to: [email protected].
