The Politically Incorrect Show - 26/02/2001

[Music - Die Fledermaus]

Good afternoon, Kaya Oraaa & welcome to the Politically Incorrect Show on the free speech network, Radio Pacific, for Monday February 26, 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!]

I wish I could relive last week over & over. First came the Irish Tenors. Having them in the studio was a blast - sharing it with you, who responded so vibrantly to their presence, made it an even bigger one. Then came the launch of my SOLO site, which I told you all about on Friday. The private e-mails I received about it, including one from libertarian icon Barbara Branden, kept me on a high all weekend. To cap off this high-octane week, Friday night saw the launch of The Free Radical Foundation. Hooch Helen, Peter Cresswell, myself & philosopher Tibor Machan strutted our stuff before an audience of about 120 enthusiastic supporters. The purpose of the Foundation is to get the magazine "out there." As I said on Friday night, it has already been acclaimed as "the world's best libertarian magazine. It's also the world's best-kept secret. It's time the secret got out."

Tibor's presentation in particular was a perfect blend of reason & passion - the very thing I bang on about so much of the time. His subject was individualism - the genuine article, false versions, how the genuine article is a necessary underpinning of a free society, how the false versions play into the hands of - indeed are variations of - the views of the opponents of a free society. Ordinarily such subject matter might be considered too abstract to make a public speech about anywhere other than an academic lecture hall, especially in this age of soundbites & short attention spans - yet such were the eloquence & passion with which Tibor spoke that you could have heard a pin drop throughout.

Now he was speaking from brief notes only, so I'm not able to quote anything from Friday night verbatim. But here's a snippet from an article he wrote for the Freedom News Service, which I hope to republish in full in The Free Radical &/or on the SOLO site:

"Now I am the last guy on earth to take my clues about life from government regulators. Yet, I admit that some exceptions might be found to this rule. And I did run across one candidate on a recent California flight from Orange County to San Jose.

"You have probably heard the annoying flight announcements, too: If we lose air pressure, the oxygen inhaler will drop from above and if you are sitting next to a child, first apply the inhaler to yourself and then help the kid -- or something to that effect.

"This is interesting. It is one of the few examples in popular culture where it is recognized that in order to be an effective beneficiary to other people who need one's assistance, one must first have been good to oneself, made oneself fit and able. In short, even the most altruistic sentiments can only function properly when some egoistic ones have been well satisfied...

"While many of those preaching morality throughout the world endorse altruism, even they seem often to realize that unless you love and thus care for yourself first, you cannot much love anyone else very well. This is brought home especially clearly via the profession of psychology. All those therapies, self-help programs and the like to which people flock by the millions usually make no bones about advocating out-and-out selfishness -- of a decent variety of course, not some crass, fictional brutal selfishness that gets presented in bad movie stories such as Erin Brockovich or Wall Street."

On Thursday night, Tibor will be speaking at Auckland University. I'm especially hoping that luminaries from the Philosophy Department & other critics of Ayn Rand will attend. Let me throw down the gauntlet to Robert Nola & Tim Dare in particular. Will they pick it up? Watch this space!

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