Lindsay Perigo
The Politically Incorrect Show - 07/03/2000
[Music - Die Fledermaus]
Good afternoon, Kaya Oraaaa & welcome to the Politically Incorrect Show on the free speech network, Radio Pacific, for Tuesday March 7, proudly sponsored by Neanderton Nicotine Ltd, the show that says bugger the politicians & bureaucrats & all the other bossyboot busybodies who try to run our lives with our money; that stands tall for free enterprise, achievement, profit & excellence against the state-worshippers in our midst; that stands above all for the most sacred thing in the universe, the liberty of the human individual.
[Music up, music down!]
Next to being a tall poppy, the biggest sin in the Democratic People's Republic of Aotearoa is to be proud of being a tall poppy; to take credit for & pride in the achievements that have made one's light shine more brightly than the average. Even Americans are guilty of this: the endless litanies of phony "thank yous" to great aunts & similar irrelevant personages who have had nothing whatsoever to do with a star's success make such ceremonies as the Oscars, for me, unendurable.
Now it's starting here with the America's Cup. Let's not beat about the bush here. You & I can claim no credit whatsoever for Team New Zealand's success. That credit belongs to the boys on the boat & the geniuses who designed her. It belongs to Peter Blake & Russell Coutts for their inspirational leadership; to Brad Butterworth for his inspired tacticianship. It belongs to the reviled corporates who put up the money. I salute them all. Yet according to the Daily Marxist, ever eager to put a collectivist spin on everything, "the success of the America's Cup owes much to the ability of Auckland's people, particularly its young people, who thronged the city in high spirits & had fun without causing trouble." Now don't get me wrong; I too thought it terrific that so many came to celebrate achievement & generally refrained from the appalling hoonery that so often mars big gatherings in the DPRA. But "thronging" is not a major skill. It certainly doesn't rate at all next to the skills needed to design a winning boat & sail her to victory. I'm sure the throngers realised that. But according to the Herald, "They were sharing something larger than a yachting event, larger even than the sport's oldest trophy. New Zealanders proved again that they can rise to a sense of national endeavour." Wouldn't you know it? A triumph of individual achievement turned into an orgy of tribalism & egalitarianism! The Daily Marxist is at pains to point out that "Sir Peter Blake & Russell Coutts were indistinguishable by dress or demeanour from the rest of the team." Ugh!!
Now there are no surprises for identifying where the Herald is headed, but I'll spell it out for you anyway:
"It adds up to a style the new governmnent should project on a larger canvas... Through education, cultural & social welfare policies the government can promote the value of art, skills & an ethic of enterprise for [wait for it] the greater good."
The greater good be damned. The government be damned with it. Government as we know it is the antithesis of everything good about the America's Cup. The Cup is about muscle & brainpower & the conquest of nature; Government is about force & fraud & the conquest of men.
Let us salute the achievements of the supremely talented individuals who actually did the work. And acknowledge that the credit is theirs & theirs alone. It is not ours, even vicariously. If we can thus give genius its due, instead of sneers, then for that we may take a bow.
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