The Politically Incorrect Show - 15/03/2001

[Music - Die Fledermaus]

Good afternoon, Kaya Oraaa & welcome to the Politically Incorrect Show on the free speech network, Radio Pacific, for Thursday March 15, 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!]

Today I'll be signing off on the next issue of my magazine, The Free Radical. It'll then go to press & be out & about the week after next. This one's a bit different. It begins with a major piece of cultural commentary written especially for The Free Radical by political scientist Chris Matthew Sciabarra from New York University. It's an analysis of the Eminem phenomenon. What are we to make of an artist, if such he can be called,
whose lyrics contain commands like "Suck my dick, bitch" & other profanities I'd be prosecuted for repeating on air; who glorifies mother-raping & wife-killing? On the face of it, the answer's obvious - but Sciabarra asks us to step back & take in the total picture. He doesn't ask us to excuse Eminem, but rather to ask questions of ourselves & the culture as well. After all, Eminem is immensely popular, & recently won a Grammy Award. Surely that says as much about the state of the culture as it does about Eminem himself?

Sciabarra is more lenient with both Eminem & the culture than I would be; he holds out the possibility that both can be redeemed. I think they're  beyond redemption from within their own ranks, that any kind of cultural renaissance can only come from other forces working determinedly to get their voices heard. Interestingly, in putting forward this point of view I'm often accused of being anti-freedom; it is assumed that because I express disapproval of contemporary pop music & the like I want it banned. I do not. But I do reserve the right to criticise & condemn - & promote alternatives. I believe that freedom cannot endure in a culture whose dominant icons extol wife-killing & mother-raping, & that, for freedom TO endure, part of what is necessary is for people like myself to shout better values from the rooftops. If I may quote again from Alexandra York's From The Fountainhead to the Future:

"Those of us who love life & the art that enhances living must seek out other like-minded individuals & join together in camaraderie & good will to enjoy & enrich our moments on this earth through experiences that lift up our spirits, move us to contemplative thought & remind us why life is worth living."

My new SOLO web site is my own contribution to this seeking-out & joining-together process. This next Free Radical, meanwhile, focuses heavily on cultural & spiritual issues. It has its own celebration of excellence in the form of a tribute to the late Sir Donald Bradman by cricket enthusiast Robert Winefield. I don't know what views on the state of the culture Sir Don might have held, but I suspect that, confronted with Eminem, he would have had a strong urge to apply bat to butt. I hope you read both pieces & make up your own minds. For now, let me borrow from enemy parlance & proclaim: the next FreeRad rocks, OK?

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