sellout

i read this article on the train this morning. it's about how nelson mandela's name (and prison number, and home town, etc) are becoming marketing icons in south africa. while i technically don't really approve of this kind of thing, i also think it is, to some extent, inevitable. people take things for granted. it's part of how we work. it takes special effort to sit back and appreciate the true meaning of everything. if you actually made that effort to appreciate the true meaning of everything, it you really wouldn't have time to do anything else.

so as "ought" implies "can," i really can't get on too much of a high horse about mandela's name being trivialized through commercialism.

but, while i think it's inevitable, that does not mean that people need to come up with highfalutin' justifications for when they sell out. selling out is just that. it's always a big stretch to try to turn cashing in into some part of a idealistic moral struggle against evil.

so at the end of this times article, it mentions Nelson Mandela Square, a shopping center in a suburb of johannesburg. the use of the name was officially sanctioned by the mandela foundation (which received a generous donation in return). there's nothing wrong with selling a name to receive a charitable donation, and i have no reason to believe that the foundation is not a good cause. nelson mandela's granddaughter, ndileka mandela, attended the unveiling of the ugly statue that greets shoppers in front of the mall entrance and she could not resist evoking a highfalutin justification for the sale of her grandfather's name:

This center epitomizes where all people can shop, and it doesn't matter which background you come from

the photo accompanying the article is here. now tell me, do you see people of all backgrounds shopping in nelson mandela square?

NOTE: corrected a bunch of particularly bone-headed spelling errors thanks to the nagging of my good pal sarah