Post by cjm on Apr 18, 2021 8:25:56 GMT
Was it appropriate to honour Bram Fischer with a doctorate from Stellenbosch University?
Perhaps Stellenbosch University, in honouring Fischer, dimly recognised that in Fischer’s case it was a magnificent achievement to have failed to bring about the inevitable. Maybe they recognised that it had not been his to bring about in the first place. He was now a pope without a Vatican. With the advantage of hindsight they may have decided not to judge him too harshly. After all, who but the Afrikaners benefited most from the inevitable’s not coming to pass?
The more venal among those clamouring to honour him might even have had their generosity prompted by a massive sense of relief that the expropriators were not going to be expropriated after all. We can keep (almost) all the ill-gotten gains that history has bestowed on us! Moreover, whom do we have to thank? Thank the Opium of the Intellectuals. Thank bad theory. Thank Bram Fischer. He deserves our unreserved gratitude because his ideological beliefs proved to be utterly wrong as a guide to working out the secrets of humanity’s historical fate.
Tempered by relief and gratitude, some looked past his hubris and cast about for the qualities that the Afrikaners as inveterate Christian sentimentalists universally admire in the likes of Jesus of Nazareth, St Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. They found it in his acts of self-sacrifice and his fervent commitment to expending his considerable talents to the benefit of his fellow human beings. They could even share in his Communism – in the comfortable awareness that Communism is merely a heresy within Christendom and that we still hold the patent on the original.
The Fischer debate has come and gone. The issues that either consciously or subliminally prompted it have not been resolved. The issue of the traditional elective affinity between Stellenbosch University and the Afrikaans language community remains. The issue of “ownership” remains. The issue of institutional autonomy in the face of state encroachment remains. The issue of whether voluntary euthanasia of Afrikaans as a university language is the appropriate way of saving vernacular Afrikaans from extinction remains. The issue of what a clear and unambiguous operational specification of the requirements for successful and acceptable institutional transformation entails remains. Etcetera.
Until we get some clarity and take some direction on these issues, it looks as though we can expect some more Fischer-style debates in the future.
The more venal among those clamouring to honour him might even have had their generosity prompted by a massive sense of relief that the expropriators were not going to be expropriated after all. We can keep (almost) all the ill-gotten gains that history has bestowed on us! Moreover, whom do we have to thank? Thank the Opium of the Intellectuals. Thank bad theory. Thank Bram Fischer. He deserves our unreserved gratitude because his ideological beliefs proved to be utterly wrong as a guide to working out the secrets of humanity’s historical fate.
Tempered by relief and gratitude, some looked past his hubris and cast about for the qualities that the Afrikaners as inveterate Christian sentimentalists universally admire in the likes of Jesus of Nazareth, St Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. They found it in his acts of self-sacrifice and his fervent commitment to expending his considerable talents to the benefit of his fellow human beings. They could even share in his Communism – in the comfortable awareness that Communism is merely a heresy within Christendom and that we still hold the patent on the original.
The Fischer debate has come and gone. The issues that either consciously or subliminally prompted it have not been resolved. The issue of the traditional elective affinity between Stellenbosch University and the Afrikaans language community remains. The issue of “ownership” remains. The issue of institutional autonomy in the face of state encroachment remains. The issue of whether voluntary euthanasia of Afrikaans as a university language is the appropriate way of saving vernacular Afrikaans from extinction remains. The issue of what a clear and unambiguous operational specification of the requirements for successful and acceptable institutional transformation entails remains. Etcetera.
Until we get some clarity and take some direction on these issues, it looks as though we can expect some more Fischer-style debates in the future.