Last week Gerry Brownlee announced, on behalf of the new National-led government, that plans by the previous administration to ban incandescent light bulbs were to be shelved. This is, of course, a fairly minor change in itself - but it offers a glimmer of hope to those who believe that people should be encouraged to think for themselves and act in accordance with their judgment.
The Clark/Cullen/Simpson troika and would-be Light-Bulb Czar David Parker thought they could chop away more of our freedom by spending three-million dollars telling people how they should light up their homes. This blew the fuse for most voters.
Weary after nine years of taking orders, they finally rejected Helen and her endless micromanagement of their lives. And so, the Blue Team once again occupy the treasury benches. Yes, this is the same Blue Team that gave us the Resource Management Abomination, and many New Zealanders are justifiably nervous at what other plans the Nats might have up their sleeves.
However, one of their first moves has been to put the kibosh on the proposed light bulb lunacy. The Libertarianz Party, while recognizing this as a small blow for freedom, is hopeful that it may represent the start of at least three years of quiet but steady deregulation, which is surely the route to prosperity and working our way out of the economic recession.
The word ‘Illuminati’ literally means enlightened ones. Fortunately, the National/ACT/Maori grouping have become enlightened on the issue of light bulbs, and have conspired to defeat Nanny and her army of interfering busybodies.
New Zealanders can choose, if they wish, to use the energy saving fluorescent light bulbs that look like coils of plasticine. I use them at home, but I’m not yet sure how much they will trim off my power bill. But at least I have a choice now. Helen Clark’s ban was an insult to every thinking person.
Look for more from Doc McGrath in the New Year ...
8 comments:
...people should be encouraged to think for themselves and act in accordance with their judgment.
In utopia Richard. Look at Muslim countries, their cultures and traditions encourage them not to think for themselves. Muslim culture is destined for self-destruction but they can be saved if someone else from outside that culture does the thinking for them.
This is one weakness in the Libertarianz belief, that the individual is all one needs. Individuals don't live on their own in isolation. They form groups (aggregate) and live as a society, and the very fact of aggregation of individuals to live like that, that changes the dynamics of how individuals interact with each other. The whole is no more made up of the individuals, but the collective behavior of individuals.
"This is one weakness in the Libertarianz belief, that the individual is all one needs.."
Benjamin - can you point to where you read this?
I sure don't know what you're talking about.
Benjamin, libertarians don't try and creaste Utopia - they leave people free to improve their lives with their own money and sweat. I agree the Islamic cultures are self-destructive, as they are death-worshippers. I sincerely hope the Muslim culture dies the death it deserves without harming the rest of us.
I have never read anywhere in libertarian literature of the belief that every man is an island, separate and independent, atomised. That has never been the way humans live. We have tended to form communities, but such groupings only thrive under terms of voluntary co-operation, not under forced collectivism. Atomisation is another straw man promoted by statists who oppose the ideas of self-reliance and personal responsibility.
So yes, individuals don't live in isolation, but their RIGHTS are distinctly separate. You have you rights and I have mine, and they are the same, but there is no "collective right" unique to some minority group such as women or gays, in the same way that a grouping of individuals does not have a collective brain, stomach or pancreas.
"Society" or "the market" are nothing more or less than the summation of the behaviour (and consequences of this behaviour) of the people of which these entities are comprised.
A refusal (by an adult) to think and act in a self-interested fashion is an abdication of responsibility for one's welfare. Selfishness should, therefore, be encouraged.
"the start of at least three years of quiet but steady deregulation"
Hey, there's that gradualism again. Doc McGrath you are immoral*.
(*Not really: its just the slur that some commentators use here when you suggest that Rome wasn't built in a day and perhaps our freedoms won't be, either.)
A refusal (by an adult) to think and act in a self-interested fashion is an abdication of responsibility for one's welfare. Selfishness should, therefore, be encouraged
Gosh, Richard...that is splendid!
Finally a party leader who actually stands up and says that rather than ummmmm-ing and ahhhh-ing.
The Libz future certainly looks impressive.
You are correct, however, at how so many people deliberately misunderstand what is meant by individuality in a libertarian context; so frustrating.
CF
"Our freedoms"? What are you on about now?
Anyway, since when have you been interested in anyone else's freedom? Remember, you're the guy who wrote that he was looking forward to a "new" political force featuring "pragmatic collectivism". It's since been pointed out to you that your position is immoral and unprincipled. That has nothing to do with what Mr McGrath posted.
Look, EITHER you have freedom OR you are under the yoke of collectivism. They are mutually exclusive. In the end it all boils down to the choice- do you want freedom or its antithesis?
LGM
Hey, there's that gradualism again. Doc McGrath you are immoral*.
(*Not really: its just the slur that some commentators use here when you suggest that Rome wasn't built in a day and perhaps our freedoms won't be, either.)
It's not gradualism that's immoral, it's the pursuit of gradualism - the suggestion that that's the way to achieve any goal. "Gradualism in theory is perpetuity in practice" is a true statement...and so is this: radical immediate sea-change in theory will turn out to be gradualism in practice.
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