Mandela: Embodying Hope for a Better World

In the dramatic climax of one of my favorite movies, V for Vendetta, hundreds of thousands of Englishmen and women peacefully storm Trafalgar Square on the 5th of November as V had urged them to do. (SPOILER ALERT) Faced with a sea of Guy Fawkes masks, army officers attempt to communicate with Supreme High Chancellor Sutler and Party Leader Creedy for commands. No commands come, for reasons obvious to those who have seen the movie. Faced with the choice to gun down thousands of his countrymen, the general orders the army to stand down. Miraculously, not a shot is fired as V's supporters climb over barricades and walk right through ranks of soldiers. The movie ends on a high note with the explosion of Parliament, an emotionally powerful monologue by Natalie Portman's character, and the promise of a fresh new start for Britain. Peaceful resistance, along with V's genius intellect and knack for knife throwing, have freed the country from authoritarian rule. 

I've often imagined what a sequel might look like. I doubt it would be as positive as the ending of the first movie. It would, perhaps, involve someone from Adam Sutler's old group of friends coming to power after guaranteeing political and economic stability to the British voters. Or maybe the new leader would be Chief Inspector Finch, whose public support by Evie Hammond would cement him as an embodiment of the revolution. Upon election, he would soon fall prey to the temptations of power and become as despotic as Sutler had been, violently putting down all protests and dissent. During either scenario, Evie Hammond would be looking on helplessly as her country falls apart and wonder if V's years of planning and self-sacrifice had all been for nothing. 

Of course, the plot of this sequel is purely imaginative on my part. But the pages of modern history are filled with similar sequences of events of brutally crushed revolts and failed revolutions. Even when people with honorable intentions do manage to overthrow a government, one must often expect decades of political upheavals, economic instability, and backsliding into violence and oppression. Unfortunately, this fact isn't limited to history books. Egyptians, for example, are living in a country that was full of hope after its 2011 revolution. Since then, the vision of fair government and prosperity that led so many people to Tahrir Square has been marred again and again by people who want nothing but power and money, and are willing to play on Egyptians' fears and doubts about the future to justify human rights abuses and political exclusion. Watching a country that I love continue to be held hostage in this way confirms for me that, when it comes to human government throughout the centuries, abuses of power and unsuccessful attempts to establish peace and justice are the norm. 

And then, there are the extremely rare occasions when things change decisively for the better. There are the apparent miracles in which the widespread clashes and violent opposition that one would expect to accompany drastic political and social change is nowhere to be found. There is no greater example of this in recent history than the first free elections in South Africa in 1994. When the African National Congress party and Nelson Mandela came to power through a peaceful transition, the world looked on as apartheid died, not with one last bang but with a fizzle. It was a fitting death for an evil system that had already destroyed so many lives. In the years after the elections, instead of perpetuating the cycle of violence and retribution in a way similar to the Nuremberg Trials, Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and others chose the much more difficult path of national and individual healing through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In the years to come, I hope that the country continues to be molded into the vision imagined by Mandela. With remnants of apartheid like racism and economic inequality persisting to this day, South Africa has a long way to go before his dream is fully realized. 

But Mandela's importance isn't contingent on South Africa's GDP or crime rate. He didn't only lead the country into a time of hope; he embodied that hope himself. Through his compassion and selflessness, he made people believe that racial equality could be the norm rather than an unattainable goal. He gave South Africans and all peace-loving people reason to have faith that there is good left in the world, that justice can be restored. Not easily, not magically overnight, but through constant hard work and open minds and hearts. 

In his fierce determination to serve other people, he redefined what it meant to be a leader in a world where the machinery of government is so often based on self-aggrandizement and exclusion. He gave us hope that more leaders like him can spring up in times when restoration and healing are sorely needed. Considering the enormous impact he has had on people's lives, it is tempting to despair at our own inability to change the way things are. It's easy to mourn his death and lament the fact that there will never be anyone quite like him again. As a man, he's dead and buried. But as a symbol of hope, of love, of peace, he is still out there in the world, reminding us that the only life worth living is one lived for the betterment of others. He was you. He was me. At our most hopeful. At our best. Gone, but never forgotten.