Sir Elton John’s beautiful lyrics aptly describe the parlous position of the fragile candle of “Enlightenment” and “reason” as it exists in today’s world. Both are increasingly assailed by the winds of dogma, ignorance, and deliberate misinformation.
This is an insidious phenomenon which has become widely evident around the Western world, and thanks to the concerted efforts of the previous Labour government lead by an avowed Marxist it is alive and well in New Zealand. For at the heart of this assault on our way of life is the substitution of socialist values for the social norms which we have long taken for granted.
The attack has been against every institution which comprises the pillars of our democratic freedoms. The desired outcome is to replace our free and open market-oriented society with increasing state control, and to eliminate any freedoms currently enjoyed which are incompatible with that end. These are the hallmarks of every communist and quasi communist government the world over but are rarely openly stated as government policy. They must be accomplished by subterfuge and policies of welfare for all, the accompanying need for ever more taxation, and erosion of the economy by printing more and more money which has less and less value. In the realm of ideas and objective truths it is necessary that these historic benefits be subverted by “beliefs” which have no factual basis, but which will be found to be welcome by some isolated sections of the community.
There is nothing new in this. Indeed, for thousands of years it was the norm.
In the early times of the Jewish, Greek, Roman Empires science and respect for the facts, laying the basis for important components of current mathematics and sciences such as mathematics, medicine, and astronomy. This flowering of knowledge flourished alongside the spiritual belief systems then current among those peoples. That is not to say these societies have much in common with how we live today, but the notion of an objective search for truth was a common factor.
This all came to an end with the Jewish diaspora in which those people were scattered around the globe, and with the demise of the Roman and Greek empires. In their place arose the religious orthodoxy first of the Roman Catholic church and six hundred years later the birth of Mohammed and his appropriation of the Judeo- Christian religions as suited his purpose.
It was not until the advent of Queen Elizabeth 1 in England in the sixteen hundreds and the establishment of the Protestant religion which separated Church and state allowing the churches to direct their efforts to the spiritual and moral welfare of their flocks, that this merging of church and state ended. This separation of the spiritual and temporal became the norm throughout the western world and beyond.
Crucially it gave rise to that flowering of free thought and curiosity which is generally referred to as the “Enlightenment.” That flowering of science, philosophy, law, democracy, medicine, education, freedom of expression, music, economics, and technology all of which are underpinned by unhindered rational thought.
That was the social contract Captain Hobson brought to these shores in 1840. It remained the social norm since but is now as much under threat here as it is throughout the Western world. The threats are numerous and growing and they assail enlightened thought and practice on all sides.
It begins with the denigration of our shared history. This is essential to any assault on enlightened thought and practice because it attacks the very foundation from which it sprang and spread. It is achieved by denigrating the global spread of these social benefits and the history which accompanied them as “colonialism” carrying the unspoken premise that it was no more than the brutal subjection of indigenous peoples for the profit of the coloniser. In fact, in most cases (not all) it brought the benefits of advanced societies to those parts of the world which by geography had been cut off from the exchange of ideas including various European and Middle Eastern societies which gave rise to those concepts.
It is now fashionable, at all levels of society to denigrate this process as the product of “whiteness” and the oppression which accompanied it. If a society is taught from an early age to be ashamed of such history which has bought prosperity and an end to oppression it cannot survive into the future. The Marxists are well aware of this crucial fact as they seek to replace history with lies which benefit the growth of the state to the detriment of the individual.
Here are some of the practices which were initiated by the previous Labour Government in achieving these political ambitions.
Subvert education by ensuring that the schools and Universities no longer teach the essentials necessary for a student to acquire the knowledge needed to flourish in our increasingly complex society. That this malign intent is well on the way to succeeding is evidence by the truancy statistics and the number of children who now leave school unable to adequately read or write. This fatally compromises their critical faculties and renders them compliant with the dictats of the state. Add to that the denigration of the history of the Western world referred to above. This notwithstanding the evidence of their own eyes that the arrival of Europeans to these shores put an end to tribal warfare, cannibalism , slavery and provided the means to end poverty, elevated women to equal status and gave all people opportunities for their improvement and the means of a say in how they are governed.
Politicise medicine whenever possible by introducing racial considerations into the availability of treatment and by supplanting the independence of the medical profession to best manage their patients by substituting state intervention. This is best illustrated by the orders issued from the pulpit of truth during the Covid scare. These dictats had very little to do with seeking the best medical and social outcomes in dealing with a novel virus and everything to do with the imposition of state control over the lives of those who may or may not have been subject to the infection.
Seek to destabilise the legal system by which we have been governed since 1840 by introducing concepts utterly incompatible to that system such as, tribal cultural values and seeking to elevate those values to the status of law. If allowed to continue this will result in the common law no longer being certain, knowable in advance and applicable to all equally. It will lead to the Judges departing from their traditional role of interpreting and applying the law and instead deciding cases according to their personal beliefs and proclivities. There is evidence that this is occurring and will only accelerate as the judges come to enjoy their new -found freedom from “archaic” strictures. This coupled with the appointment of some Judges of dubious personal provenance and legal experience, and the Law Schools confusing law with the uncertain social customs of the few, is a recipe for a lawless society resulting in the erosion of hundreds of years of a settled legal system which has served our society so well. To the socialists it an outcome necessary if existing social norms are to be destroyed.
Introduce chaos into the Sovereign Parliament which makes the laws by: Corruption of the voting process which has necessitated a wide-ranging public enquiry of a kind hitherto unheard of in our political history. Allowing a person elected on the list for a Party to leave that Party and continue to sit as a “Member of Parliament.” Seeking to elevate a tribal body representatives of an unknown group of people to share the same status as our Sovereign Parliament in making laws applicable to all New Zealanders.
Subverting the common language by encouraging the growth of an invented competitor tongue which manufactures words to describe current notions, and which has no historic credibility thereby undermining the crucial benefits of a common tongue necessary to ensure the preservation of social values.
Science is at the very heart of the enlightenment. It involves enquiring into the natural observable world and testing those observations to destruction. Science is the anthesis of religion and superstition, but the Labour government encouraged the confusion of the two with the result that the rational public was subjected to such antics as the Royal Society of New Zealand castigating one of its eminent scientist members because he drew attention to this incontrovertible fact. The corruption of science is now widespread for example it is now widely accepted in increasingly influential circles that rivers are no longer nature’s way of draining rain-water and snow melt from high places to the sea but they have some spiritual quality which must be taken into account in planning and control of catchments and fresh water usage . This anti science leaves engineers in despair never knowing when they might encounter a Taniwha and how to deal with them when they do.
Global warming. The subject of whether or not the planet is warming because of the human use of fossil fuels is the poster child of the journey away from science. It has caused enormous social concern and resulted in the spending of eye watering sums of money which no country can afford but which have proved to be an unearned eldorado for those entrepreneurs shrewd enough to pander to the fear of the planet self- destructing. All of this notwithstanding that there is an enormous amount of scientific research which establishes beyond any rational doubt that if the planet is warming, other than in its normal cycles it is the result of forces outside of human control. Above all the literature published by many eminent scientists establishes beyond any rational doubt that the 0.04 percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has nothing to do with the temperature of the planet at any given time. Ask anybody who supports human induced warming, including politicians and some “scientists” and they will tell you that they “believe” in man-made global warming. In other words, it is an irrational quasi-religious notion which is the antithesis of the scientific method.
The main -stream media. One of the crucial benefits of the Enlightenment is that it allows and encourages free speech and the exchange of ideas. During the covid panic and beyond this is becoming a rare commodity within the tax- payer funded media. From the time that Ardern made her fifty-million-dollar bribe to the print media there remain topics which are not open to discussion. Human induced global warming is one. Try having a letter accepted by the main newspapers which seeks to expose this fraud. Write calling out some of the outrageous tribal bribes associated with the development of natural resources such as the sums paid by energy companies to tribes for the use of rivers for hydro electricity generation and it will not be published. Complain about the lack of balance in the National broadcaster in interviews and commentary and it is ignored. Beyond doubt the benefits of free speech on crucial social issues is increasingly marginalised. Those benefits are now found increasingly only in alternative media sources.
Freedom of association. During the Covid panic the Ardern government initiated the greatest assault on freedom of movement and association in our history, cloaked by the specious reliance on demonstrably unreliable computer programmes and opinions of “experts which no doubt will be exposed when part two of the Commission of enquiry produces its findings. Never before have citizens been locked up in their homes and forbidden to associate with others. Never before has it been necessary to require the compulsory wearing of face masks and the need to prove one’s identity in seeking admission to a public facility. Never before have our children been prevented from attending school with all the enormous social consequences that has produced. Never before have businesses been closed down and public access denied. The list goes on, but we need reminding that these were and are the hard-fought freedoms which the Marxists swept away and in doing so created a climate of fear and snooping on neighbours which enures to this day.
Democracy. If there is one boon which emerged from the Enlightenment it is the notion of every citizen having a vote in selecting the body by which they will be governed, and for each of those votes to have equal value. Nothing has united nations more than this right and is the standing reproach to the corrupt dictatorships be they religious or secular. Nothing has ensured growing prosperity and social cohesion as the right to select our rulers. That blessing was put at risk by the Labour government encouragement of absurd interpretations of the agreement entered into in 1840 between Captain Hobson and some tribal leaders. Much ink has been spilt on this subject, but the simple fact is that it vested the right to govern New Zealand and its inhabitants in the British Crown in Parliament. It is absurd beyond belief that after this lapse of time a government should encourage the notion that some of the descendants to the signatories, and many who are not should have an equal right to govern New Zealand. If there is one heresy which will extinguish the flame of reason and return us to the dark ages of unrepresentative dictatorial government, it is this. The cynicism by which this was fostered is no better illustrated by a recent speech given by Arden at an American political convention as she seeks to ingratiate herself into the Kamala Harris camp. In her recently acquired phoney American accent and in a veiled allusion Donald Trump she is heard warning the audience of threats to Democracy in that country.
The economy. A thriving economy was made possible by the freedoms emerging from the Enlightenment. Business decisions and the venturing of capital became the province of the individual not the state. Of course, that is anathema to the socialists and although the result of socialism is plain for all to see wherever it exists it results in the poverty of the many and the corrupt enrichment of the few. Mercifully the democratic process enabled us to rid ourselves of the socialists, step away from that path and to resume enjoying the benefits of a market economy, albeit falteringly given the damage done by the printing of money and unrestrained spending.
These are some of the ways in which the previous Labour government sought to extinguish the flame of the Enlightenment leaving a legacy littered with traps for the incoming coalition.
How to resist this attack on the precious values bequeathed to us by our enlightened forebears. It all begins in the home and family and early education of the growing child. The dictum of the Jesuits “give us the child until they are seven and we will give you the man.” A child of parents who talk and listen to their children and foster reading and an enquiring mind will prosper at school and beyond. Teachers (and there are many goods ones) must not be hobbled by a curriculum that allows a child to leave school unable to read or write or do the simple sums necessary to participate in society. Beyond that they need to know something of their history and their place in the world. Without these simple and well understood necessities social cohesion will continue to crumble. Teachers should be encouraged to further these aims by a bonus system related to the number of their students who achieve excellence in their chosen subjects.
As to what is necessary to resist the Marxist attacks on the legacy of the enlightenment listed above the answers are blindly obvious, but the implementation requires political courage. Thus: Medicine must be based solely on need and nothing else. Science must clean its house of any notions based on religious or ethnic beliefs and instead return to enquiry based solely on observable facts married to probable outcomes. There is no better example of this that the profligate insanity which underlies the global warming farrago. The main- stream media simply requires management and Board direction requiring that it report facts fairly and impartially, and that commentary be based solely on and examination of all sides of a matter. The services of an employee who is unable to achieve these standards must be dispensed with. Freedom of thought and association are at the heart of the benefits bestowed by the Enlightenment. Parliament must avoid any attempts to curtail these precious gifts. The preservation of Democracy. Again, it is plain beyond argument this can be achieved by nurturing and applying the principle of one person one vote , and all votes of equal importance. Notions such as shared democracy and racial partnerships must be consigned to the rubbish bin of history along with other confected fairy stories. An Economy which provides widespread benefits can simply be preserved by adhering to the dictates of the free market- place. Any confusion with welfare must be rigorously resisted. They belong in separate compartments.
It is childish simply to state these propositions, but they require a degree of political courage which is not often found in the politicians of any democracy where an eye must always be kept on the need to be re-elected. To their credit the present coalition Government, notwithstanding the wall-to-wall opposition of the taxpayer funded media, who are little more than the voice of the Opposition, have made a promising start in returning to our society some the many benefits of the Enlightenment which for so long we have taken for granted. One need only look to the legislation relating to the foreshore and seabed and the childish (but dangerous) tantrums this has provoked when all that is sought is to undo the mischief wrought by two Court of Appeal judges who refused to read and understand plain English. Similarly with attempts to end the misrepresentations which have emerged surrounding the meaning and effect of the 1840 Waitangi agreement. Then there are the regulations which require the teaching of tribal myths as part of all law degree courses. The task is fraught with difficulty and will require a very thick skin, and minimum of two terms to repair the damage wrought by six years of a Socialist government. Let’s hope the voting public is intelligent enough to grant the coalition at least that time in office.