The Politically Incorrect Show - 22/08/2000

[Music - Die Fledermaus]

Good afternoon, KAYA ORAAAA & welcome to the Politically Incorrect Show on the free speech network, Radio Pacific, for Tuesday August 22, 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]

Yesterday afternoon I finally signed off on the next issue of The Free Radical. As you've heard me confess before, it's always an exhausting time for me, but on this occasion I've been blessed with the invaluable editorial assistance of one Mr Peter Cresswell, who had already proved his credentials by taking care of a significant part of the previous issue during my absence in the United States. I always say - & often believe - of each new issue that it's the best ever, & of this upcoming edition, Number 43, there is no question that it truly IS the best ever. In variety & depth, along with lightness & humour, it has surpassed itself.

If there is a general theme pervading this issue, it is "sense of life." That indeed is the subject of my opening editorial, which announces something new for Objectivists, something which hopes to capture "the total passion for the total height" of which Objectivism's founder, Ayn Rand, spoke. This theme resounds through splendid centrefold essays by Cameron Pritchard & David Adams, two admirable young men who have maintained & nurtured THEIR sense of life in the midst of a youth culture of cynicism, illiteracy & ugliness. Earlier, Ian Fraser tells of the practical steps he took to find freedom in an unfree world, culminating in a magic moment when he was moved to shout aloud, "I'm free!" Paul McDonald offers a thumbnail sketch of some past & present Olympic heroes in "The Olympians." Bernard Darnton traces the fascinating entry of private enterprise into the area of space travel. On the dark side, Deborah Coddington relates how she was hounded unconscionably by Customs officers at Auckland airport recently. And on & on.

Undoubtedly the most daunting, but most important, essay in this issue is that by Ed Younkins, an American university professor. He called it, "Cultural Relativism & its Descendants." I've called it, "Why the World Is the Way it Is" - because that's exactly what it explains, going back to the teachings of philosopher David Hume & demonstrating how he & some of his successors paved the path to contemporary Political Correctness, moral relativism, post-modernism & other related lunacies. This is an article that would reward slow, careful & frequent study for those who wish to gain a deeper understanding of ... well, why the world is the way it is.

And for light relief, there is the curmudgeonly humour of Rex Benson, the outrageous hilarity of Carl Wyant.

I have mentioned but a fraction of the content of this next issue. It is my immodest conviction that The Free Radical #43 contains in itself enough ammunition for a revolution - one whose participants laugh a lot. It'll be available next week. Batten down the hatches!

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