by Lorenzo A Davids
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be the next leaders of the United States. In his post-election speech, Biden called on “all Americans to turn the page” from what he described as a “grim era of demonisation” and made a plea to the country for unity and understanding.
Biden, like President Cyril Ramaphosa, takes over the leadership of a country that has been subjected, in Biden’s words, to “the grim era of demonisation”.
While South Africa and the US – and indeed the world – breathed massive sighs of relief at the outcome of its respective changes in leadership, the damage caused by their predecessors will take decades to undo. As Ramaphosa discovered, this is not just about leadership malfeasance, it is about the cultic nature of the wrongdoing. This type of leadership instils its wrongdoing as a psychology – a way of thinking – and as a value system.
Trump and Zuma are both cultic leadership phenomena, constantly appealing to their perpetual victimhood, their rejection of any criticisms and their perverted dualism of displaying an association with the life of the underdog while surrounding themselves with ever-increasing wealth by any means. They sanctify their corruption by demonising their critics. And their army of advocates mount a warfare against intellectualism.
Remember Zuma’s “clever blacks” comments in 2012 and Trump’s rejection of science in September this year?
The US president said that upon being urged to recognise the role of climate change during a briefing on the California wildfires, “it will start getting cooler, you just watch. I don’t think science knows actually”.
Such is the dangerous cultic mentality into which Ramaphosa, and now Biden, step. This populist cult of anti-intellectualism and religious dogma, led by the doctrines of messengers like Rush Limbaugh and Jacob Zuma, fuels these conservative, religious white and black nationalist movements.
Biden, like Ramaphosa, is oversimplifying the problem. Their calls for national unity as they embark on this journey is the wrong call. The call that is needed, like with the Reformation of the 16th century, must be a call to uproot the current religious, political, intellectual and cultural systems that splintered society into this dangerous and fragmented world. For unless we consciously undo this populist cult, the effects of these toxic leaders will linger on in policy and practice – and in admiration among its followers – for generations to come.
Instead of the calls for unity, these new leaders must call for an open contestation of ideas, for a dialogue on the complexities of the modern state, for science and humanities to become integral to all policy, and for a programme of relearning the values of freedom, justice and equity.
The biggest mistake Ramaphosa made and which Biden also faces, is to assume that a transfer of power is the cessation of the ideological cult. It is not.
Its angry disciples and their financiers do not take these losses lying down. Their racism, bigotry, homophobia and god-crusading rallies are now fortified with a new persecution complex that their predecessors have birthed, nurtured and groomed them for during their leadership tenures.
What both the ANC, DA and EFF must realise is that their internal nationalist factions are not figments of the imagination. However, a people longing for freedom, justice and equity will always win over a people stoking fear, division and hatred.
From modern-day Columbia to post-war Germany, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Hungary and Poland, freedom is a far greater ideal than fear and hope is a greater motivation than hatred. We cannot unite with those who instil fear and hatred. During this period of the 20th century’s reformation, as decency and justice take back the world from populist bigotry and hatred, let us contest ideas, embrace intelligence and fall in love with justice. Let us make the diversity of people a thing to celebrate and not denigrate.
The calls for unity should not underestimate the demons lurking in the shadows.
* Lorenzo A Davids is chief executive of the Community Chest.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
Cape Argus
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