Sixty Issues And Ten Years On
by Lindsay Perigo
(Editorial from the current issue, #60, of The Free Radical.)
In my very first editorial in the very first Free Radical -- in May, 1994 -- I explained the magazine's mission by quoting a businessman's admonition: "The trouble with you, Lindsay, is that you reduce everything to an issue of freedom." Astonished that this businessman in particular would see such an approach as "trouble," I responded, "Don't you?" (as in, "You mean, contrary to every other discussion you & I have ever had, you don't?!"). To which he replied, "Well, the problem with that is, hardly anybody believes in freedom these days."
That, I said, is what this magazine would try to change.
At The Free Radical's official launch, Bob Jones warned me that I should not get my hopes up. "You just can't get people interested in freedom," he said. "New Zealanders like strong leaders who will boss them around." He cited the case of his New Zealand Party, which made a very strong showing in the 1984 election with its slogan, "Freedom and Prosperity." The Party's success, he assured me, was due entirely to the "prosperity" part of the slogan; whenever he had tried to talk "freedom" on the hustings, people's eyes glazed over. "Prosperity" they understood to be something that the government should provide them with. Perish the thought that the government should leave folk free to make themselves prosperous. As that canny socialist George Bernard Shaw realised, "Freedom entails responsibility -- that is why most men dread it."
More recently, a senior National MP said to me, "Freedom is the hardest thing of all to sell to voters."
Is he wrong? Is it not demonstrably the case still that "hardly anybody believes in freedom these days"? Sixty issues on, should I not deem The Free Radical to have failed in its mission?
I quoted the above MP to his new leader, Don Brash, in my interview with him in this issue. Don's answer is instructive:
Yes, I suspect that kiwis are pretty apathetic when it comes to freedom. This is no doubt because in most respects, on a day-to-day basis, people are free, and freer now than we used to be. We can import foreign goods and services without needing to get a licence and we can buy wine in supermarkets. The latter was an example of a relatively petty freedom, but once people have that additional element of choice they would not consider going back. There is plenty more to be done along these lines, as well as to build more genuine choice into some of our key institutions, such as the provision of education and health services. Most of us have never seen some of the most egregious examples of the suppression of freedom which totalitarian regimes exemplify, and people realistically know that in this society that is not a risk they face.
Now, it's true that in many respects, on a day-to-day basis, people are free; it's true that in some respects they are freer than they used to be. It's also true that people are not as free as they have a right to be, and that the overall trend is away from freedom rather than toward it. Old soldiers who fought Hitler are no longer free to smoke cigarettes in their own clubrooms. A magazine -- Cigar Aficionado -- about a legal product -- tobacco -- is illegal. Ultimately, there's no doubt the nico-nazis would like to see outright prohibition of the product itself. In the meantime, their ilk are setting their sights on alcohol and fatty foods (how long before Pritikin becomes compulsory?). De facto relationships have been nationalised and turned into marriages. Employers whose employees become "stressed" are up for a $400,000 fine. It's virtually impossible to hire and fire on the basis of merit, or on any basis of one's choosing. The portion of a person's income confiscated by the government is on an upward spiral, with 17 new taxes having been introduced by the current government alone. Property owners who cut down their own trees can be, and have been, jailed (see my speech, "Magnificent Obsession," in this issue). One can go to jail for uttering sentiments deemed to be "conducive to racial disharmony." In academia, supposedly a bastion of free speech, free speech and free inquiry are ruthlessly suppressed -- in one university, no one may conduct research that has not won the blessing of the local witch-doctors. While violent crime surges ahead, police are ordered to focus on victimless crimes such as marijuana-smoking, and on revenue-gathering via speed cameras. Anyone who defends himself with a firearm against violence, in the absence of police protection, is almost certain to be prosecuted. Government policy has led police to violate our rights more often than they protect them.
And so on, ad infinitum.
To say, in such a context, that New Zealanders are "free" because they're not subject to "the most egregious examples of the suppression of freedom which totalitarian regimes exemplify" and that "realistically this is not a risk they face" is to bury one's head in the sand. One should look with unblinkered vision at what is happening, what nearly happened, and what could easily happen still. It has been forgotten now -- but never should be -- that this Prime Minister and her Attorney-General tried to sneak through Parliament legislation that would have made it possible to jail journalists who maligned politicians, however inadvertently. If one outlined to a knowledgeable foreigner the facts of the Zaoui case (see Matt Robson's article) and asked, "In what country did this occur?" one would undoubtedly be met with the names of countries with totalitarian regimes. The War on Terrorism -- totally justified as I believe it to be -- is being used to excuse violations of the very freedoms in whose name that war is being waged.
On balance, in short, our liberties are being whittled away. The price of freedom is eternal paranoia; instead, what we see is the near-universal apathy of which Don Brash speaks -- indeed, that his answer exemplifies.
To that extent, yes, The Free Radical has failed in its mission. Not only has it not changed the fact that "hardly anybody believes in freedom these days"; it hasn't even persuaded folk to take an interest in the subject!
But that's unfinished business. No time limit was put on this project. There's our second ten years to come! During our first decade there were many shining hours. Many are the seeds that were planted. Many are the new warriors holding the flame aloft -- and though it be true that they occupy a wilderness still, that wilderness glows ever more brightly. Who's to say that those who sleepwalk through the dark, pervasive intimations of tyranny will not eventually awaken to its light?
P.S. Details of tenth anniversary celebrations for The Free Radical will be announced in the next issue!
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