HAVE THE COURAGE TO BE PREPOSTEROUS
“IT IS not enough to win a war; it is more important to organise the peace,” Aristotle wrote 2300 years ago in Ancient Greece.
Now that the guns of “Elections 2019” have fallen silent, here are four beacons to light the way.
1. Our soldiers will need to transform into statesmen.
I stood before the Gallipoli Memorial on the Turkish coast, between the Aegean Sea and the Dardanelles, the passage to Istanbul. The giant plaque reads: “Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives…
“You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace.
“There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side, here in this country of ours…
“You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well.”
The words are by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, after the WW I battle at Gallipoli claimed 88000 lives.
With this profound leadership, the revolutionary master-statesman founded the Republic of Turkey.
The Republic of South Africa could use a bit of unity now too.
2. Be preposterous.
Have you contemplated the “Anthropocene”? The new (cene) age of man (anthropo), in which “humankind has caused the mass-extinctions of plant and animal species, polluted the oceans and altered the atmosphere, among other lasting impacts” – explains smithsonianmag.com.
To arrest our runaway rampage we’ll require some preposterous thinking. Truly outlandish goals. Muhammed Ali: “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it.
“Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
3. Courage.
“Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a warrior,” wrote Prussian general Karl von Clausewitz.
“A warrior must only take care that his spirit is never broken,” said the ancient Japanese.
“The successful warrior is the average man with laser-like focus” – Bruce Lee.
4. Belief.
“A warrior has to believe, for belief is an essential part of his being.” – Théun Mares, a teacher of the Toltec people, who preceded the Aztecs.
Do we genuinely believe South Africa can finally rise – become the best we can be? As statesmen and tempered radicals, with both courage and belief:
Yes we can.
Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing
Muhammed Ali
BOXER, ACTIVIST, PHILANTHROPIST