The death of Nelson Mandela, though long-anticipated, provoked nonetheless an unprecedented worldwide outpouring of emotion.
Each and every one of us recognizes the obvious fact that the world has lost a great man. Great because of his fight and his non-violent approach in leading the struggle.
So, at what for me is a highly emotional time, I have an indefinable and uncertain feeling that he was without a doubt the last « great man » still alive.
This remark may seem surprising or shocking: the world is not lacking in issues causing outrage and revulsion demanding for leaders of people: poverty, pollution, hunger, thirst, drugs, violation of human rights, human trafficking are calling for many battles to be fought. And, in a society hungry for entertainment, every battle should exist as embodied in human beings.
And yet it is difficult to name anyone alive today, anywhere in the world, acting on the political stage, whose death will create the same worldwide outpouring of emotion than that of Nelson Mandela. Unless, of course, there is an untimely and tragic death of a leader, giving rise to a great deal of emotion more directly connected to the circumstances around his passing than his death in itself.
In fact, today nobody embodies so explicitly the struggle between good and evil than Mandela did.
Aung San Suu Kyi, maybe? Or the present Pope? I do not even think so.
We can be pleased about this: plenty of leaders who have been referred to as « great men » ended their lives as tyrants.
One might wish it otherwise, we like to have a close look at illustrious examples.
It is possible to look for many reasons for this disappearance:
A first reason, which I do not believe in: at this point in time there would be no great tragedy demanding for great men, in order to lead the great battles. These great battles of course, do exist.
A second reason seems more credible: when these battles exist, they are led by social networks, (as we have seen it in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Iran) and by organizations, associations established or temporary, today far more powerful than those who founded them or are leading them.
A third reason even more credible: in the flow of images and information that engulfs us, no figure can be made to prevail permanently. From now on no battle would be embodied in the long run. Every battle is fragmented, renationalized.
A fourth reason, even deeper: in order to ensure that this fight becomes a reality through non-violent means, it is necessary to believe that one’s opponents can be swayed by remorse, and there Mandela was on the right track with President de Klerk. Today, unfortunately, the enemies of good, whether political, economic or military, are all cynical, monstrous, inaccessible to pity.
In a way, what the world also mourns today, is therefore both the disappearance, maybe temporary, of the very concept of a great man, and the victory, maybe temporary also, of inhumanity.
j@attali.com