How can clever people be so stupid?

11 May 2015 - 02:09 By The Times Editorial

Former Rand Daily Mail editor Allister Sparks's comment that Hendrick Verwoerd was a smart politician has understandably caused outrage. How smart could Verwoerd have been if he thought apartheid was a good idea?Sparks' clarification that "...he gave a veneer also of moral respectability to apartheid's slogan 'Die k@#** op sy plek'" has inflamed matters further.How unbelievably clever could Verwoerd have been, given that he couldn't possibly have been stupid enough to believe in it himself, to have nevertheless mounted a convincing moral argument for what has always been regarded as one of the 20th century's worst evils? And, even if he could have, who would have been dumb enough to fall for it? No points for the right answer.Interestingly, Sparks's incendiary remark was made hot on the heels of another revisionist idiocy. Last week the now-former Wits SRC president, Mcebo Dlamini, bent more than a few student minds by jabbering on about his love of Hitler."What I love about Hitler is his charisma and his capabilities to organise people. We need more leaders of such calibre," Dlamini exclaimed.What is going on here? Are we so mired in a leadership doldrums that apparently reasonable minds are rapidly losing their bearings?And why is it that we think, in this dark hour, that we can in any way split people up into their good and bad bits? That we can laud a boxer who is also a wife beater, a famous filmmaker who is also a paedophile or, for that matter, a leader for moral regeneration who is accused of rape and stealing public funds.There is always more than one side to every person but shouldn't we expect those sides to be a little more aligned in the people that we look to for leadership?And shouldn't the leaders that we ask to represent us represent the qualities that we most aspire to find in ourselves.Or is that morally dumb?..

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