Show me your enemies
By KEVIN BALDEOSINGH
"SHOW me a man's friends and I'll tell you who he is" goes the saying. If true, then I am a very attractive young woman. My approach is quite different: if you want to truly know someone, I think it is much more useful to take a look at their enemies. There is only one thing worse than having many enemies, and that is having none at all. If there is no one who heartily dislikes you, it usually means that you're doing absolutely nothing significant in life or love. (On the other hand, if you have most people disliking you, it means only that you're an awful human being.) Worthwhile people always have a few very good friends (bearing in mind that other saying about the man who has many friends having none) and will always be "badtalked" by the less worthwhile, who are usually just jealous. Great men and women, of course, always have their detractors. These foes usually come from the same fields as their superiors, because there is no hatred greater than that which is rooted in envy. Thus, philosophers are "badtalked" most by other philosophers, biochemists by other biochemists, economists by other economists, carpenters by other carpenters, and so on. But the person who will most likely have the widest range of detractors is the creative artist, simply because the whole of life is his subject. (This is one proof of how significant art is to human beings.) Now I'm not saying that having detractors is, of itself, anything to be proud about. Hitler was hated by millions, but that does not make him a great man. Sat Maharaj has many detractors, but that is only because he, like his minions, is seen as an unpleasant and narrow-minded human being. No, the important thing is to look at the kind of enemies an individual has. Thus, when people like Pastor Winston Cuffie and Courtenay Bartholomew attack David Rudder, it says something significant about Rudder's work. Cuffie is, of course, this country's pre-eminent Christian hypocrite. His Biblical quotes are carefully selected to promote every message but Christian love, charity and forgiveness. You will not hear Cuffie quoting Matthew 7:1-2 ("Judge not that ye be judged, for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged") or Luke 6:37 ("Condemn not and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven"). And you will certainly never hear him speak of John 12:47, where Jesus himself says, "If any man hears my words and believe not, I judge him not", for that would suggest that Cuffie is putting himself above Jesus. And even his blinkered followers might balk at that. As regards Catholic fanatic Dr Bartholomew, I have no evidence of his hypocrisy. But his stupidity is clear as day. He says, for example, "One has to be innately naive not to appreciate that this widespread advertisement of the condom has the psychological effect of inciting a carnal curiosity and a peer-pressure to be sexually active, ultimately leading to an aberrant addiction which has to be satisfied, even in the absence of a condom." It says a lot about Bartholomew's psyche that he believes sexual activity needs persuasion in order to be stimulated, and it says even more that he considers strong sexual desire to be an "aberrant addiction". But his character is most exactly delineated in the fact that, having seen the suffering brought about by Aids, he would still actively discourage condom use because of his religious convictions. Fanatics, you see, always eschew human sympathy in favour of narrow beliefs. That is why Bartholomew suggests that Christians are weak for not passing a death sentence on Rudder (a similar line, not coincidentally, was also trotted out by Pastor Cuffie during the "High Mas" controversy). "Some time ago it was perceived that nuff disrespect was written about certain verses in the Holy Qu'ran," says Bartholomew, in an obvious reference to The Satanic Verses and the fatwa passed on Salman Rushdie. "The response was swift and extreme. Too extreme, many say. On the other hand, we Christians have become wimps." I can only assume that a non-wimp Christian would readily assassinate Rudder for the greater glory of God. Luckily, though, most Christians have evolved ethically beyond the likes of Bartholomew and Cuffie. You can know a man through his enemies, then, because his character and abilities are usually antonymous to those who hate him. David Rudder may, therefore, rest assured that he is intelligent, gifted, truthful and truly spiritual. And I, for one, take comfort in knowing that his music and his message will live on long after the likes of Cuffie and Bartholomew have been forgotten by all.
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