South Africans should grasp at Western culture

THOSE who claim to be untouched by Western influences are to a large part indifferent to political and intellectual issues.

They adopt a gospel not of confident hope, but detachment and resignation. They think they have little to learn or unlearn.

Pericles, the Greek philosopher, said: “We listen gladly to the opinion of others and do not turn sour faces on those who disagree with us.” The non-cooperation with Western culture is a passing episode due to unnatural circumstances.

In spite of it, there are some intellectuals in our country who want to understand and appreciate Western culture. If we South Africans assimilate Western culture into our own, as India has done, it will only enhance our own intellectual development. It is true South Africans have no sympathy for cultural imperialism. One who is acquainted with the history of her past can sympathise with her anxiety to dwell in her own spiritual home, “for each man is the master of his own house.” Our political subjection in the past, which interferes with this inner freedom, is felt as a gross humiliation.

The conservative intellectual mind in South Africa must open itself to the necessity of change.

Our government should award academics who publish articles in international publications with a reward of R100000. They will also act as a role model for the younger generation. The Indian physicist CV Raman, who won the Nobel prize for physics in 1936, lacked electrical connections in his laboratory. We are at present confronted by the extent of mental poverty, the immobility, the static repetition, the cessation of science, the long sterility of art and the comparative feebleness of the creative arts.

Ideas are forces, and they must be broadcast, if the present ageing to death is averted. The SABC should contribute to robust debate with different ideas and ideologies including the views of the opposition. Today it has become the voice of the ruling party.

It is our duty to treat the parliamentary institutions with dignity and do nothing which is likely to impair their proper functions. We have a right to disagree; only the disagreements have to be honest. We should always have compassion for the poor and downtrodden. We should not judge human beings by stripping them of their humanity.

Gandhi said: “Political freedom does not represent the fulfilment of a nation’s dream. It only provides scope and opportunity for the renewal of a nation’s life.” SEARS APPALSAMY

Netherlands