What do Donald Pols and Ye (Kanye West) have in common? Regret, a thousand regrets. “I chose a path that I now look back on with disgust,” says Pols about the racist choices in his South African youth. “It took me down a path that I regret.” Ye blames his anti-Semitism and love for Hitler on bipolar disorder, the result of a car accident twenty-five years ago. “I am not a Nazi or anti-Semite. I love Jewish people.”
Do they feel sorry because they are now confronted with their past or were they already planning to express regret publicly at some point? Asked differently: would Pols also enter without the revelation? NRC made a confession at some point, and would Ye have done the same if he had not been discredited?
I’m afraid the answer must be: no. Pols would never have become PR boss at Tata Steel if he had had plans for public penance, and the same applies to Ye.
Although they do not differ from each other in this respect, I still have more understanding for Pols than for Ye. Pols does not hide behind an excuse about some vague illness, on the contrary, he explains in detail how he came to all his wrong choices in his youth. He does not justify himself, he provides insight into his motives and the development he underwent towards other, bona fide beliefs. You sense in him an urge for sincerity now that the facts are on the table.
I see something completely different happening with Ye.
His manager enters his hotel room in yet another country where a commotion has arisen about his statements. “Fuck, Ye,” says the manager, “what are you doing? We could make fortunes together if you would finally shut up about all that Nazi nonsense you read in some book. I didn’t even know you could read. Stop it, Ye, for God’s sake, stop it, because you are ruining our entire company. I, together with my lawyers, have come up with a great story for you, a medical alibi, they call it.
“Do you know what a bipolar disorder is? No, right? It doesn’t matter, if you listen to me carefully, you will find out. From now on you have such a disorder, you understand? That is to say: you had it for a long time, but you are only now noticing the consequences. Yes, it is complicated for you, but the only thing you have to remember is ‘bipolar disorder’ and ‘accident’. With that you apologize. We will do the rest. We explain in the media that your frontal lobe of the brain was damaged at the time. No, it is not on your head, but there in. You just make your music, well, music is a big word, haha, I won’t get involved with that anymore, that’s your area.”
For example, Ye may perform in the Gelredrome of Arnhem on Saturday and Monday. The judge sees no danger to public order. Ye may have lost his honor, but not his wallet.