Lindsay Perigo
The Politically Incorrect Show - 10/11/2000
[Music - Die Fledermaus]
Good afternoon, Kaya Oraaa & welcome to the Politically Incorrect Show on the free speech network, Radio Pacific, for Friday November 10, 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!]
Forget Bush! Forget Gore! The real hero of the American elections is Mel Carnahan. He won a senate seat for the Democrats in Missouri, notwithstanding the fact - or perhaps because of it - that he was dead. The case has becoming a laughing stock around the world, but I think, operating on the estimable assumption that the only good politician is a dead one, that the good folk of Missouri have provided an excellent lead here, which we would do well to follow. From this day forth, may it be permissible for corpses only to run for Parliament. Admittedly we may not notice much difference in many cases, but a few basic precautions such as a requirement for morticians' certificates could surely take care of that? The one good thing about dead politicians is that they couldn't steal any more of our freedoms even if, somehow, they had a mandate to.
Actually, I want to close the week with some serious reflections on this very matter - the fatal confusion between democracy & freedom that afflicts the western world. These are not my words, now, but those of Paul Benjamin & Jerry Brito, writing on the internet site liberzine.com. The full text of their article, Democracy Is no Synonym of Liberty, posted on election day, can be found on the site. Here's part of it:
Freedom is the value that government is instituted among men to protect, and democracy is meant to be but a procedure for establishing the composition of that government. Unfortunately, democracy has been elevated to a value by the unwitting.
Democracy should not be treated as a value in itself. All the things that we cherish as a civilization -- freedom of speech, freedom from persecution and arbitrary arrest, freedom to trade with one another and be secure in our property - are, as the phrases themselves show, freedom. The simple act of participating in elections should never be considered more important than the freedoms we enjoy.
If democracy were more important than freedom, we would have to accept that 55 percent of the population could vote to imprison the other 45 percent. Or if 60 percent could decide where I live and with whom I may be friends, that would have to be acceptable too. Clearly it is not, but that is precisely where an idolization of democracy takes us. If democracy is an ideal, then it must override all other considerations. Those who would treat democracy so would have no principled defense against fascism if it were brought in by the vote.
Unfortunately, democracy already trumps freedom. Regardless of the victors in today's elections, some of our rights will continue to be squelched. The choice between George W. Bush and Al Gore is simply that of one kind of statism, or one degree of statism, over another.
Politically Incorrect Show, where freedom trumps democracy ... 309 3099
If you enjoyed this, why not subscribe?