"If in my fight I can encourage even some people to understand and to abandon policies they now so blindly follow, I shall not regret any punishment I may incur"
About this Quote
Bram Fischer speaks as a man who chose conscience over comfort. An eminent Afrikaner lawyer who defended Nelson Mandela and other Rivonia trialists, he later became a target of the apartheid state and was imprisoned for his underground work. Coming from the very community that benefitted from apartheid, he understood that dismantling a system of injustice required more than courtroom victories or clandestine action; it demanded a conversion of hearts among those who upheld and obeyed it.
The line centers moral change rather than triumph. He does not seek to vanquish enemies but to encourage understanding, a word that matters alongside abandon. He aims not merely to shame supporters of apartheid but to help them see what they are doing and choose differently. The phrase blindly follow underscores how routine, fear, and habit can sustain oppression without overt malice. By appealing to understanding, he suggests that even entrenched supporters are not beyond reach.
His readiness to accept punishment aligns him with a tradition of civil disobedience in which suffering becomes testimony. Penalty is transformed from defeat into a form of persuasion: if the state punishes a lawyer of his standing for seeking justice, perhaps others will question the laws themselves. Sacrifice, then, is not martyrdom for its own sake but a strategic and ethical wager that pain can awaken conscience.
There is humility in even some people. Fischer does not promise a mass conversion; he recognizes that structures are stubborn and propaganda is powerful. Yet each person who abandons unjust policies weakens the system’s social foundation. In this, he turns the fight inward, toward the complicity of ordinary citizens and the moral responsibility of beneficiaries.
As a lawyer who reached the limits of legal remedy, he insists that justice sometimes requires bearing the cost of principled dissent. The statement is both a personal vow and a challenge: measure success by the minds changed, not only the penalties incurred.
The line centers moral change rather than triumph. He does not seek to vanquish enemies but to encourage understanding, a word that matters alongside abandon. He aims not merely to shame supporters of apartheid but to help them see what they are doing and choose differently. The phrase blindly follow underscores how routine, fear, and habit can sustain oppression without overt malice. By appealing to understanding, he suggests that even entrenched supporters are not beyond reach.
His readiness to accept punishment aligns him with a tradition of civil disobedience in which suffering becomes testimony. Penalty is transformed from defeat into a form of persuasion: if the state punishes a lawyer of his standing for seeking justice, perhaps others will question the laws themselves. Sacrifice, then, is not martyrdom for its own sake but a strategic and ethical wager that pain can awaken conscience.
There is humility in even some people. Fischer does not promise a mass conversion; he recognizes that structures are stubborn and propaganda is powerful. Yet each person who abandons unjust policies weakens the system’s social foundation. In this, he turns the fight inward, toward the complicity of ordinary citizens and the moral responsibility of beneficiaries.
As a lawyer who reached the limits of legal remedy, he insists that justice sometimes requires bearing the cost of principled dissent. The statement is both a personal vow and a challenge: measure success by the minds changed, not only the penalties incurred.
Quote Details
| Topic | Human Rights |
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