In hierdie tweede skrywe oor Harold Nicolson se Diaries and Letters, 1930-1939, behandel ek sy ideologiese oriëntasie, met enkele toepassings op die nuwe Suid-Afrika. Hy was ’n dekade lank ’n politikus: "I ... desire politics as a sort of alibi from literary failure" (p 206). "I should not get a single vote under false pretences. I would do anything they liked except all things to all men ... I am very bad ... at prolonged deception" (p 217). "All we Nicolsons are morbidly sensitive to being placed in a false position" (p 399).
Oor die New Party waarvan hy lid was: "If we are to be the thin end of the wedge, we must have an extremely sharp point and no splinters" (p 80). Later: "The difficulty about the New Party is that it is no longer new and no longer a party" (p 114). Oor sy nooienstoespraak in die Britse parlement: "The manner was right enough but the matter was too thin" (p 233).
Harold was sinies oor die politiek. "People are so odd. They might say, 'He is a humbug: he talks Labour and lives in a castle.' But they might also say, 'How splendid of him when he lives in a castle to come and worry about our little affairs'" (p 301). "I find the House [of Commons] rather like one of those marine diving-bells in which one can sit and watch the vagaries of the deep-sea fish" (p 403). "If one makes a good speech, even the policeman at the door seems to salute with greater deference. After a failure, it is as if the very pigeons avoided one's eye" (p 309). "My speech in fact went well. They did not understand most of it but they agreed" (p 326). "The ignorance of the Tory rank-and-file in regard to foreign policy is as terrifying as the prospect of a gardener suddenly driving a Rolls Royce" (p 392).
Harold se seun, Nigel, skryf: "He knew that he belonged to an élite, an élite more of intelligence and achievement than of birth, and he tended to feel that people outside that élite had something wrong with them ... [inter alia] most Americans, Jews, all coloured or Levantine people, and the great mass of the middle and working classes" (p 24-25). Nigel verwys ook na Harold se lewenslange oortuiging "that true civilization existed nowhere outside the inner circles of certain West European capital cities" (p 291). Dit kan op vooroordeel dui, maar vir Harold was dit "to earn the respect of people whom I respect" (p 349).
Die soort elitisme wat Harold aangehang het, was nie aan afkoms te danke nie, maar is deur eie inspanning verwerf en daarom het dit sekerlik verdienste. Harold erken sy "loathing of the uneducated" (p 88). "I like my friends to be well-read and well bred." Hy hou van "an aristocrat in mind and culture" (p 164). "I follow [Wystan] Auden in his derision of patriotism, class distinctions, comfort, and all the ineptitudes of the middle-classes" (p 153).
In die aanloop tot die Tweede Wêreldoorlog was dit ’n geval van "violence is the only political factor which counts" (p 251). [Dit herinner aan die ANC se geskiedenis.] Ook: "Once a person insists on how you are to think [bv politiek-korrek] he immediately begins to insist on how you are to behave" (p 106), [waarmee ons huidige veel geroemde vryheid verydel word]. Tydens ’n besoek aan Uganda word Harold voorgestel aan "the prettiest woman in Kampala whose brain is non-existent. She chirps like a canary." Toe daar deur die plaaslike inwoners oorgegaan word na "making fun of the public school and colonial spirit" was dit vir Harold "as ungainly as a clergyman telling a dirty story" (p 293). Al antwoord wat ’n Ugandese skoolhoof op vrae kon gee, is: "Well, it is difficult to say" (p 294). [Dit is soortgelyk aan ons huidige plaaslike situasie waarin dinge nie suksesvol gedoen word nie; dit word as "uitdagings" geëtiketteer.]
Harold sou nie feministe verbly het nie. "I know that there is no such thing as equality between the sexes and that women are not fulfilling their proper function unless subservient to some man ... Love seems so wide a thing to women that unless their emotions are canalised by some sort of social discipline they get lost" (p 171). "The only thing that will make them [women] behave decently is to give them complete equality and no privileges" (p 281). [In die nuwe Suid-Afrika geniet vroue sowel gelykheid as bevoordeling, veral as hulle swart is.]
"Every American is more or less as vulgar as any other American" (p 262). Op toer in Amerika: "One never got real food, only chicken" (p 51). Oor Amerikaners: "Nobody seems to have anything behind their front" (p 137). Oor Wallis Simpson se romanse met koning Edward VIII: Sy is "a perfectly harmless type of American, but the whole setting is slightly second-rate" (p 255). "The only person who can remedy the situation is Mrs Simpson herself, but there is always the possibility that her head (which as a head is not exceptional) may become turned" (p 269). "The upper classes mind her being an American more than they mind her being divorced. The lower classes do not mind her being an American but loathe the idea that she has had two husbands already" (p 280).
Harold het nie van Duitsers gehou nie: "I did not understand them in the least" (p 40). Oor die vernedering van Jode in Oostenryk: "I retained a portion of doubt whether even Germans could behave like this," maar sy informant sê: "I have seen grown men behave like little boys who pull the wings off flies" (p 348). "The whole Nazi movement ... has mobilised and coordinated the discontented into an expectant group" (p 108). [Dit is ook wat die sogenaamde "bevrydingsbewegings" plaaslik gedoen het. Die ANC-regering kan sedert 1994 nie aan hierdie verwagtinge voldoen nie; vandaar die voortgesette onrus en geweld.]
Van die Russe het Harold ook nie gehou nie. Oor ’n onthaal by die Sowjet-ambassade: "We then went into luncheon, which was held in a winter-garden, more wintery than gardeny. We began with caviare, which was all to the good. We then had a little wet dead trout. We then had chicken in slabs surrounded by a lavish display of water-cress. We then had what in nursing-homes is called 'fruit jelly'" (p 256).
Volgende keer skryf ek oor die tweede boekdeel.
Johannes Comestor