RaDical MiDDle - ColdType

Radical Middle | 165
(bis) (iii) stipulating loud and clear that The Big Black charterist
aNc Government Shalt Not Bully You Little Guys. They had to
see it, in order to say: “of course, they’ll just tear it up.”
Perhaps that was understandable, in a society accustomed to
a single gang calling all the shots. But, yoosh, people insisted on
keeping their eyes closed. especially the single gang that called
the shots.
afrikaner Nationalism was overwhelmingly the strongest
entity in the country. You could talk change until you went blue,
but unless the Nats signed up it was empty talk. The target was
for the Nats to say, “universal franchise is coming; instead of
waiting for a simplistic franchise to knock us over let’s create an
excellent franchise, true rule of the people.” They would shuck
off the paralysis that had overcome them, and the cynicism and
the grab-and-run, and pursue democracy hell-for-leather. The
Boere were good pursuers, once they saw a way to go. No-one
doubted that. Look how hard they’d pursued their last Survival
idea, and that had been a wrong one. The right one, aside from
meaning permanence, released right instincts. Last time they’d
built their “survival” on exclusion – “away, you blacks, other
side of the fence!” – which of course overlapped into hate and
scorn and horrible stuff. This one would be built on appeal --
“please, dear new compatriots, consider the prospect of having
us, too, accountable to your free vote for the conduct of drains/
water/power/policing/other in the different tiers.”
The task was to let the Nats see themselves staying in the
game. Once they’d finished blinking their disbelief, we’d be into
rich democracy. The aNc might squawk, but whilst it could
doubtless forever denounce semi-freedom, it would not long
get away with denouncing too much freedom. We’d acquire a
palette of politicians answering to a pyramid of constituencies,
and from there we were on the tarmac. No coups: too many
majorities. No chaos: majorities vote for order. No lunacies:
majorities have no humour.
In my mind, concepts were clarifying. But they were not
flowing into this Book 3, which was Book 2 in bigger words;