Dare to be wise, Mr President

By Suntosh Pillay

“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.” This is Immanuel Kant’s short but potent definition, offered in 1748.

About 260 years later, his paper on the question of Enlightenment remains powerfully persuasive and prophetically relevant. It may even help us expose immature public office bearers.

Is Julius Malema immature (let alone to ask if he’s enlightened!)? No doubt. No long philosophical treatise necessary there. Of course he will disagree; accusing me of using a Western, even antiquated (though he won’t use that word) version of growth that is incompatible with the cultural milieu from which he’s from. But Kant is not a bad place to start.

But what about our nation’s leader? Surely he should be the most mature of us all? Is he?

Kant goes on: “Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another.”

The public sphere is horrified at, and even chastising, our president. Young people are offering him guidance on how to carry out his sex life. Can you imagine? A man past retirement age getting bedroom advice from people who weren’t even born when he was 40 — and well-needed advice, too! Surely he does not lack understanding — the ABCs are easy enough for a statesman to comprehend — so it must be, as Kant says, that he lacks resolve and courage. Oh dear.

Were we blinded by Zuma’s initially well-received public appointments? (Reflexive note: I’m not entirely sure who the “we” is). When we saw the faces that filled his cabinet — men and women, black and white, from the left and right — did we not all breathe a sigh of relief and think about maybe, just maybe, giving him a chance? I think we did. Zapiro took the shower head off, after all.

But wait — was Zuma trying to hide his immaturity in matters of national governance by ensuring his cabinet would create the façade of a mature president?

Kant notes: “It is so easy to be immature. If I have a book to serve as my understanding, a pastor to serve as my conscience, a physician to determine my diet for me, and so on, I need not exert myself at all. I need not think, if only I can pay: others will readily undertake the irksome work for me.”

Laziness and cowardice are the sources of immaturity, according to Kant. Our president must therefore address his lazy and cowardly attitude. Too lazy to put on a condom; too cowardly to stay faithful to his wives. Too lazy to keep the promises he made to a nation; too cowardly to apologise on his own accord without public pressure. Too lazy to give us concrete measurables in his national address; too cowardly to tackle the rot of corruption and cronyism that is eating away at his party’s ideals.

Lazy enough to quote someone like Mandela at length, but too cowardly to live up to such inspiring ideals.

Will the ANC’s president have the courage to use his own thinking faculties to further South Africa? He fought for a democracy. Democratic ideals are part and parcel of the era of enlightenment. Sapere Aude, Mr President. Dare to be wise; this is the motto of the Enlightenment, after all.

Suntosh Pillay is a clinical psychologist who writes independently on social issues.