Die Brit Jonathan Bowden (1962-2012) was veral as politieke skrywer en spreker in konserwatiewe en regse geledere bekend. Sy boek, Western Civilization Bites Back (San Francisco: Counter-Currents Publishing, 2014, 238p; Amazon Kindle $7.99), is onlangs gepubliseer. Die kern van Bowden se boodskap is dat blankes ‘n skrale eeu gelede die wêreld oorheers het, maar veral sedert die Tweede Wêreldoorlog agteruit geboer het; dermate dat etniese en kulturele uitwissing blankes se voorland is. Wittes se morele selfvertroue het in duie gestort. Wat nodig is, is die morele, etniese en kulturele herlewing, selfs hergeboorte, van die blankedom.
Daar is veral twee standpunte implisiet in Bowden se redenasie. Eerstens dat die reaksie teen fascisme oordrewe is; dat ‘n bepaalde ideologie, hetsy polities of religieus, nie uitsluitlik goed of net sleg is nie. Die pendule het te ver teruggeswaai. Fascisme het ‘n onondersteunbare sondebok geword, terwyl kommunisme, wat baie meer dood en verwoesting oor ‘n veel langer tyd gesaai het, relatief skotvry daarvan afkom. Dink maar aan die sterk kommunistiese elemente in die ANC. Ons reaksie behoort veel eerder te wees dat (1) mense nie gelyk of wesenlik eenders is nie; (2) enige individu en etniese groep gewoon die reg het om trots op sy/hulle prestasies te wees; (3) ons nie kan toelaat dat ons Europese kultuur deur bv ‘n Afrika-meerderheid vertrap word nie.
Tweedens dat die verfoeiing van bv slawerny en kolonialisme eweneens eensydig teen blankes gemik word. Die swartes en Arabiere was op ‘n baie groter skaal en oor ‘n veel langer tyd as blankes by slawerny betrokke. Soos slawerny was kolonialisme nie net sleg nie. Albei het in sekere opsigte ‘n positiewe rol in die ontwikkeling van baie lande gespeel. Toegepas op Suid-Afrika kan gesê word dat sowel die blanke bewind as rasseskeiding ‘n voortsetting van kolonialisme was. Terselfdertyd was albei bv ontwikkelingsgewys ‘n groot bate vir al die inwoners. Die ANC, ons as plaaslike blankes en die res van die wêreld kan nie glo dat so ‘n land weens mandaatlose, ruggraatlose toegewings deur ‘n klein groepie swakkelinge in die skoot van swart mag beland het nie.
Die magte van die bose, bv die anti-blanke konsortium van kommunistiese/sosialistiese armlastiges, misbruik selektiewe aspekte van die verlede (slawerny, kolonialisme, imperialisme, segregasie, die twee wêreldoorloë, kapitalisme, ens) om skuldgevoelens by blankes te wek terwyl nie-wittes se nie-prestasie en droogmakery grootliks onvermeld bly. Nie-wittes het hulle suksesvol as die ewige onskuldige slagoffers gevestig. Daarom word die weerslag van kolonialisme, naamlik die grootskaalse intog van onwettige immigrante in Westerse lande, feitlik nooit eens genoem nie en nog minder veroordeel.
In sy voorwoord by Bowen se boek verwys die redakteur, Greg Johnson, na “a common thread: Bowden’s conviction that the crisis of the white race is ultimately moral” (Kindle 64). ‘n Valse waardestelsel, bv dié van die liberalisme, “elevates weakness over strength, equality over excellence, humility over pride, the guilty conscience over the innocence of becoming. This moral programming has been used to demoralize and dispossess whites not just for our many collective crimes and mistakes but also for our greatness: for the beauty of our people and their magnificent achievements … excellences which other races seldom equal and scarcely ever surpass” (64).
Hierdie skuldsgevoelens, wat meedoënloos by wittes gewek word, veroorsaak “whites being essentially ‘talked out’ of planetary dominance and onto the path of extinction within the span of less than a century … Talk of equality and pity led … to a pervasive lowering of standards and the raising – even privileging – of the marginalized within white communities” (68). In Westerse samelewings kom laasgenoemde situasie in toenemende mate voor. In Suid-Afrika is die toestand sedert 1990/1994 baie meer benard en ontstellend omdat blankes toenemend deur die nie-wit, veral swart, meerderheid verswelg word. “Even the massive use of coercion to advance white dispossession … and the pervasive drive to criminalize ethnocentric speech and thought throughout white societies could not have happened before whites – specifically elite whites in positions of power and influence – had been essentially talked into them on moral grounds” (73).
In sy voorwoord verwys Johnson vervolgens na “our will to persist as individuals and to live on through our race and a simple refusal to be robbed of our heritage and destiny by egalitarian sob stories … Vital beings with a sense of destiny and a drive for glory cannot be bothered with spurious historical crimes and mistakes or even real ones” (81). Hierna kom Bowden se tekste aan die beurt. Dit is veral die toespraak waarna in die boektitel verwys word wat vir my doeleindes van belang is. Voordat ek daarby kom, verskaf ek ‘n aantal aanhalings uit die res van die boek. Hou in gedagte dat omstandighede in Europa of die Weste aansienlik van dié in Afrika kan verskil.
* “Most people … believe that making things more equal makes them better. I don’t. I believe making them more unequal makes them better … If there’s nothing above you, there’s nothing to aspire to … I’m an elitist” (915). ‘n Soortgelyke redenasie kan gebruik word by die ANC-regering se inpalming van wittes se besittings. Diegene wat bv plase ontvang pleks van hulle self te ontwikkel, waardeer sulke onverdiende geskenke nie, gevolglik is die plase in die oorgrote meerderheid gevalle spoedig in ‘n vervalle toestand.
* “I believe in discrimination. Discrimination is a moral good and a moral law! It’s an aristocratic spirituality. Of course you discriminate. You discriminate over who’s your enemy and who’s your friend” (924). Geen mens kan sinvol lewe as hy nie op rasionele gronde tot onderskeiding in staat is nie. Dit is op grond van ondervinding dat ons weet wie om met bv misdaad te assosieer, al word amptelik herhaaldelik beweer dat die grondslag daarvan bevooroordeelde rassediskriminasie en onbillike stereotipering is.
* “People become more Right-wing as they get older … Why is that? Because death approaches, reality approaches” (929). Mense sterf meesal eers wanneer hulle bejaard is en hulle het dan meer ondervinding en moontlik ook meer kennis en beter insig as jonger mense. Sterfbedwoorde is geneig om waar te wees. Bowden verwys na die Britse skrywers Kingsley Amis (1922-1995) en Colin Wilson (1931-2013) wat na mate hulle ouer geword het, al hoe meer regsgesind was. ‘n Mens kan ook na die groter politieke realisme verwys wat tans by ons eie eens verlinkse André P Brink en Breyten Breytenbach te bespeur is.
* “History’s been made by a small group on behalf of and in the name of the groups from which they themselves derive their energy and purpose” (929). “Genuine creators are the antennae of their entire populations” (1949). “Five percent of all groups rule their own groups. And 80% always conform to the ruling ideology” (1557), bv politieke korrektheid. “Political correctness … is based upon the idea that everyone is equal” (3048). “Political correctness is a form of censorship” (3042). “It disprivileges dissenting ideas” (1570). Die ANC-regering weerspieël nie noodwendig die mening van die meerderheid Suid-Afrikaners nie. Dit is ‘n klein groepie mense in die ANC, in baie gevalle lede van die destydse terreurbendes, wat in veral eie belang die meerderheidsmening met bv propaganda en intimidasie manipuleer. Aan die anderkant kan die meer as 5 000 kiesers wat vir Front Nasionaal gestem het die potensiaal hê om die spreekwoordelike berge in hierdie droewe land te versit. Dit is waarom Front Nasionaal as rassisties uitgekryt is. “Any white self-assertion is regarded as an act of semi-criminality” (1413).
* “Right-wing views are about difference, they’re about inequality, they’re about distinction, and they’re about meaning” (1467). “Contrary to nearly all present orthodoxies, the Right is actually the side of civilization” (2707). “Firstly, cultures would be mono-ethnic. Secondly, there would be a respect for the past glories of our civilization. Thirdly, we would not preface every attempt to be strong by saying ‘I’m sorry'” (1791). “You fight for your own country, and your own group, and your own culture, and your own civilization, at your own level, and in your own way” (1806). “To be totally proud of what you are in your own confirmation of identity. Because identity is divine” (1836).
* “Open-mindedness to the future and respect for evidence does not mean woolliness and an absence of certitude in what we are” (1604). “It means that we should not begin every sentence by apologizing for our past or apologizing for who we are” (1613). “In my philosophy sympathy multiplies misery” (1617). “Many Western people feel that … variants of our group have committed atrocities, that our civilization is therefore rendered worthless, almost in its entirety” (1683). Wat nodig is, is dat ons ons selfrespek moet behou (of terugkry) en dan realisties moet evalueer in watter mate ons kritici al gepresteer het. “The point of groups like the New Right … is to create the mental space whereby greatness can come back into culture, to create the mental space for higher works of civilization again” (3099).
* Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) “believes that strength is moral glory. That courage is the highest form of morality. That life is hierarchical. That everything’s elitist. There’s a hierarchy in every group of individuals. There’s a hierarchy between groups of individuals. Inequality is what Right-wing ideas really mean” (1621). Bowden verwys selfs na “radical, total, and pitiless inequality” (2535).
* “Liberal ideas say that men and women are the same and are interchangeable, that war is morally bad, that all races are the same and should all live together” (1528). Bowden noem liberalisme “a soft form of communism” (1536). Die ANC neig kommunisties en die ANC Lite (die DA) was eens liberalisties. “Communism kills the body, but liberalism rots the soul” (1545). “Liberalism is moral syphilis” (1738). Wat nodig teen hierdie elemente is, is ‘n “storm of steel” (2781).
* “We don’t believe in anything anymore, that we’re in chaos, that a large number of our people are miseducated to the degree they hardly even know who they are. That patriotism, although it still exists in the blood and bone and in die consciousness of many people, has been partially indoctrinated out of many” (1553). “If you’re not rooted in something, you don’t come from anywhere, there are no roots that go down into the earth, then you can be moved about like a weed which has very weak roots and just rips out. And somebody stronger will rip you out” (1778). “It’s not that we’re all Germans really, although English people are primarily Germanic, but nevertheless, it’s that they’re the core to the European identity, which can have many outer chambers but without the core, doesn’t exist” (2131).
* “One of the cardinal weaknesses of the contemporary West is the feminization of all areas of life. Masculinity is a sacred thing, and yet it’s been demonized and disprivileged in the Western world, regarded as just an excuse for brutality” (1595). “Men have been emasculated by feminism” (388). Die vorm wat versustering deesdae plaaslik aanneem, het ek voorheen “ousifisering” genoem.
Goed en tersaaklik soos die voorafgaande opmerkings is, is dit eintlik die voordrag gelewer in Amerika wat in die boektitel genoem word wat Bowden se boek elke sent werd maak. “What I’d like to talk about is Western civilization and how it can be saved” (117). “Bill Clinton … said whites need political correctness … because they’re going to be a minority relatively soon” (126). Wittes “become a minority mentally” (122). “The Obama presidency epitomizes the willed decline of majority instinct in the society” (292). “Political correctness is a white European grammar” (171). “Political correctness is a methodology and a grammar. It is designed to restrict the prospect of a thought before the thought is even enunciated” (426). “Think about what it will be like when white Americans are 10% of the population of the United States … Political correctness wil not save you from the marginalization of your history and traditions, which will occur because it’s not much fun being a minority” (177). “Your culture will be disprivileged” (284). Clinton “denies the crucial harbinger of identity, which is the heart of all existence and becoming” (184).
Die relevansie van hierdie teks vir wit Suid-Afrikaners behoort duidelik te wees. Volgens Clinton is minderheidstatus die rede waarom daar politiese korrektheid moet wees. Bowden wys egter daarop dat die blankes geensins daarby baat gaan vind nie. Vir wittes is dit ‘n verloor-verloor-situasie. Na verwagting sal nie-wittes reeds teen die middel van hierdie eeu die meerderheid in die Amerikaanse bevolking wees. Wat met sekerheid voorspel kan word, is dat daar vorentoe baie groter begrip as voorheen by wit Amerikaners vir Suid-Afrikaanse blankes se situasie en die Nasionale Party-regering se apartheidsbeleid gaan wees. Sodanige begrip kom egter te laat en gaan ons niks baat nie.
Ook sal daar in die komende dekades allerhande planne in Amerika gemaak word om ‘n ramp soortgelyk aan ons 1990/1994-ramp te voorkom, bv om die immigrasiebeleid aan te pas. Dit sal die magsoorgang na nie-wittes nie voorkom nie maar hoogstens ietwat uitstel. “What may well occur in the future will be nonnegotiable” (321). Ook sal doodgewone Amerikaanse skynheiligheid waarskynlik veroorsaak dat (soos met bv die Britse immigrasiebeleid) te lank getalm word voordat iets daadwerkliks omtrent die saak gedoen word.
“Mass immigration into Britain began with the Nationality Act in 1948, which was passed by the Clement Attlee government” (451). Attlee het gesê: “If the races of the world are mixed together there will be no more war” (455). Die VSA se kookpot-immigrasiebeleid en gedwonge rasse-integrasie steun op dieselfde redenasie. Daar word selfs voorkeur aan nie-wit immigrante gegee. “What you get instead [of war] is the internalization of divisions and a bellyaching of a globalist sort inside societies instead of between them” (455). “They will exist inside multiracial marriages. They will exist inside multiracial schools. They will exist inside multiracial cities. They will exist within multiethnic housing developments. And they will certainly exist within multiracial societies” (459).
By implikasie word die onverkwiklike Suid-Afrikaanse werklikheid hierna nog verder tuisgebring. “The problem that we’re finding is that people are giving away the inheritance that they brought up. It’s as if you have a family business … and it comes down to you through the generational sort of structures of the past and you decided to give it away. You decided to squander it” (133). “The enemies that we face … are internal” (167). Dit is blankes, spesifiek Afrikaanssprekendes onder die leiding van FW de Klerk, wat die land namens al die blankes mandaatloos, dus wederregtelik, weggegee het. “If you allow your culture to be transparently disfigured by forces which are external and internal to it, and which you could have controlled in previous incarnations, you will witness your own death knell. And you will witness it in your own lifetime” (342).
Deesdae is baie blankes in die na-beskawingsera en -mentaliteit vasgevang. “Every time we think of a self-affirmative statement, it’s undercut immediately by the idea that there’s something wrong, or something queasy, or something quasi-genocidal, or something not quite right, or something morally ill about us” (175). Dit is bv bevrydingsteoloë soos Desmond Tutu en Nico Koopman wat wittes probeer wysmaak dat hulle moreel siek is en genees moet word. “This extends out beyond racial and ethnic questions to all other questions. To questions of gender … group identity and belonging … cultural affirmation, to questions of history” (179). “All real identity is underpinned by what existed before you” (188). “To have a future, people need to be aware of their past, and they need to be aware of the glory of that past” (392).
“Since the Second World War, white Europeans have felt guilty about being themselves” (221). “It’s quite shocking how, since 1960 … the West has lost its fiber and has collapsed internally and morally in terms of its spirituality and in terms of its sense of itself” (230). Na die Tweede Wêreldoorlog het die gety teen die blankes gedraai. Die vraag kan gestel word of daar nie dalk sinvolle waardes weens die vernietiging van fascisme in die slag gebly het nie, bv die elementêre waarheid dat mense individueel en groepsgewys verskil. Wittes is mislei om te dink “that much of what was wrong with the modern world is morally our responsibility and not that of any other group” (234). “There’s something uniquely oppressive about being a Caucasian” (259), dus om ‘n blanke te wees ingevolge Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840) se klassifikasie.
“Everyone in this room is regarded as immoral by the ruling dispensation in the United States … because it prevents people from identifying with ideas which are, quite transparently, in their own interest” (272). “These things are not about fairness and equity. They are about who can set the standard and the tone for the cultural domination of a civic space” (284). Dit gaan dus om beheer of mag. “When Haitian militants massacred the white population of Haiti … they would not necessarily be condemned for what they did” (408). “Why is the double standard of double moral jeopardy applied by the historians of our own group?” (413). Dit is taamlik duidelik waarom Thabo Mbeki as staatshoof dit nodig geag het om baie staatsgeld te verkwansel deur na die swartes in Haiti uit te reik. Haiti het anti-blanke simboliese waarde. Dit is die oudste swart republiek. Terselfdertyd is Haiti die agterlikste land in die Weste.
“Most people are comfortable in the middle. They’re comfortable when they’re with their fellows, when they’re part of a crowd and feel that they’re mainstream” (417). Bowden beveel aan dat ons mense moed inpraat sodat hulle bereid is om op te staan vir wat reg is. Hy verduidelik dat Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) in die 1920’s die begrip “rassisme” ontwikkel het en dat Mao Zedong (1893-1976) besef het dat daar towerwoorde is wat voordelig in ideologiese oorlogvoering gebruik kan word. Rassisme is so ‘n towerwoord wat uitnemend geskik is om teen blankes te misbruik. Dit het deel van die morele woordeskat geword.
“Only when we recover the sense of dynamism that we seem to have partly lost will we have a future … Many other groups in this world wonder about what is happened to us, wonder what has happened to our energy” (446). Diegene wat wel politieke energie het, begewe hulle soms in regse groeperings. Daardie geledere word gekenmerk deur twis en tweedrag omdat daar groot wedywering is. “Everyone who’s ever been prominent in a Right-wing group knows it involves herding cats. And the reason for that is because of the bloody-mindedness of the maverick people who are part of these tendencies of opinion. Because you have to be bloody-minded in order to attack against that which is comfortable” (496).
“We must not allow comfort and ease to sleepwalk us towards oblivion. Comfort and ease are the enemy of a decisive cultural breakthrough and a decisive implementation of the politics of the future. We have to forget the last 50 to 60 years, but remember the lessons that we should draw from it. And the lessons that we should draw from it is to believe totally in ourselves” (509). “We are the locomotive of our own destiny” (514). “All the enemies that we now face are internal. And the biggest enemies that we face are in our own minds” (518). “We’re not aggressive and assertive enough as a group” (522).
