Lindsay Perigo
The Politically Incorrect Show - 18/09/2000
[Music - Die Fledermaus]
Good afternoon, Kaya Oraaa & welcome to the Politically Incorrect Show on the free speech network, Radio Pacific, for Monday September 18, 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!]
What rapture has poured out of Sydney this weekend - the euphoria of the opening ceremony, the magic moment when the flame was lit, the breathtaking beauty of human bodies turned into works of art, the tumbling of Olympic & world records, the ecstasy on the faces of the gold-medal winners - their payback for all that passion, precision & perseverance in the pursuit of perfection ... as Alexander Pope exclaimed, "What a piece of work is man!"
I often wonder why life can't be like this in all spheres. In politics, for instance, I'm a great advocate of going for gold. That's why I'm a libertarian. I believe in a society from which coercion has been banished, &, along with many others, am prepared to put in the gut-busting slog required to achieve it. There are those who admire the goal but believe it to be unrealistic, who would settle for less & would have ME settle for less. Well, look at Ian Thorpe. I'm afraid compromise is not in my bones - not in my bones, not in my heart & not in my head. Less won't do. With me, it's the "total passion for the total height."
That doesn't mean, however, that I'm not prepared to make common cause with people with whom I am in agreement on a specific issue, as long as any ensuing collusion is confined to that issue, that the agreed stance on that issue is consistent with one's principles & no sacrifice of those principles is required. Last week, for example, though I would disagree with him on any number of matters, I endorsed & applauded Winston Peters' "creeping apartheid" speech; I mooted the idea on air of a Coalition Against Apartheid that could cross party lines & unite all people opposed to race-specific legislation & the separatist policies being implemented by the current government. Naturally, the people involved in such a movement would reserve the right to disagree with each other on everything else under the sun.
Over the weekend I was advised that in my magazine, The Free Radical, & on this programme, I should refrain from criticising ACT & the Business Roundtable (& by implication, the National Party as well), that I should make common cause with them in the interests of bringing down this ghastly government as soon as possible. I demurred, rather volubly. Such a course WOULD involve the betrayal of principle. When the Roundtable, ACT & the National Party say things I agree with in their efforts to bring down the government, I will say so. But that won't stop me going for gold. It won't stop me attacking National/ACT policies that would be destructive of freedom, & - most importantly - it won't stop me pointing out that at a fundamental level, National, ACT & the Roundtable endorse the moral premises that make this government as evil as it is, a fact that would render THEM only marginally less evil in government - as recent experience has confirmed.
However dimly it may be burning yet, the Olympian flame of liberty in this country has been lit. My aim is to see it burning brightly & enduringly in the Republic of New Freeland. I am not about to see it extinguished on the altar of pragmatism. Here I stand, & here I shall stay.
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