The
show began with Gil Warren making the pitch
for Toronto, Ontario city politician Jack
Layton as the next leader of the Federal New Democratic
Party (NDP) in Canada (the NDP were holding
a
convention to choose a new leader in January
of 2003). At the time of the show, Leadership
races were also on for federal parties in
Canada
(Progressive Conservative Party, Liberal
Party), but host Tom McConnel had been unable to
drum
up any callers into the show on the topic.
Robert Metz entered, saying that he found
political personalities entirely a non-issue: the
message,
not the messengers, are what he finds interesting.
Citing
a statistic and suggesting that a Canadian preference
for television over print makes
Canadians
shallow, Warren added that such a situation
leads people to support Nazis and...the
Freedom Party.
His assault on those who advocate individual
freedom and personal responsibility continued,
as he called Objectivist Ayn Rand a "fascist".
Metz put a rest to that slander in short
order with a to-the-point demonstration
of the fact
that Rand, in fact, was opposed to virtually
everything that Hitler and his Nazis advocated.
The
show continued to bristle with energy as Warren
attempted to defend the left's "social
justice" concept. In making that attempt,
Warren, by his language, disclosed several
assumptions that underly the philosophy
of the Nazis and
other authoritarians. He
spoke in dictator-like terms of the dangers
of "allowing" people
to have choice in education, thereby disclosing
his belief that some people should have
the right to use physical force and thereby
coerce
their
victims into doing their bidding (e.g.,
paying for a school system that they do
not want any
may not even use).
Arguing
the choice in education is a "red herring",
he then advocated a universal public education
system because,
he explained, without universality (i.e.,
forcing everyone to pay for government
schools, whether
they use them or not), there would be no
support for public education. In other
words, Warren
implicitly acknowleged that, far from being
a red herring, choice is the issue,
and that he and other defenders of
universal programs
will fight to prevent individuals from
having the power to choose.
This
is the August 7, 2002 broadcast of the Left,
Right and Centre segment of Talk of the
Town, a daily programme that aired
on radio CHRW (94.9 FM, London, Ontario, Canada)
until 2005. It features guest host Tom McConnel
(representing the Centre), guest
Gil Warren (New Democratic Party of Canada supporter
and Jack Layton backer, representing
the Left) and show
regular Robert Metz (founder of Freedom Party of
Ontario, representing the Right).
EXCERPTS
The
Left Plays the "Nazi" Card to Defame
Fp, Objectivism, Ayn Rand, and Freedom of Choice...
GW: |
[Michael
Moore, in his book "Stupid White Man"]
notes...the average American in one year
spends 99 hours reading a book and 1,390
hours watching TV...I think the numbers are
probably similar for Canada and that's sad
because it leads to a shallow society...it
leads to people supporting Nazis and the
Freedom Party.
|
RM: |
I'd
like to address Gil's comment about associating
Nazism with Freedom Party. A similar thing
just happened recently in both the Globe and
Mail and in the National Post, not with respect
to Freedom Party but with respect to one of
our icons who happens to be philosopher novelist
Ayn Rand.... |
GW: |
who
was a fascist. |
RM: |
Uh,
yeah right! .... "Writer Likened to
Hitler" says the article in the National
Post...Rand was absolutely the ... opposite of
anything Hitler could be. She was an individualist:
Hitler was a collectivist. She believed in
free markets: Hitler believed in controlled
markets. She believed in zero censorship
for anything: Hitler was a complete censorship
propagandist. She believed in individual
freedom of choice for all individuals: Hitler
did not believe that at all.... Not only
that, she was a Jew. Her intellectual heir
now is a fellow named Leonard Peikoff...
|
GW: |
okay,
enough about Ayn Rand... |
RM: |
...who
wrote a whole book, "Ominous Parallels",
which is a condemnation of the Hitler
regime and comparing it to the kind of thinking
that Gil Warren is presenting to us
today. If anyone here is a fascist it's Gil. |
RM: |
[Gil
is] against private education, not in favour
of public education. He just doesn't want anyone
to have a choice or do anything different...that
wouldn't be "social justice" to him. |
GW: |
It's
not about choice... |
RM: |
It
is all about choice... |
GW: |
That
is a red herring. Choice is a red herring because,
when you start allowing... |
RM: |
Allowing?!
My goodness, God himself. King Gil here. |
GW: |
...a
private education system to develop through
a voucher system you end up with poor schools
in the working class districts are underfunded. |
RM: |
Who
put you into a position to "allow" me
or anyone else to go to the kind of schools
and things that we want to go to? Who are you to
me? Like, what gives you that right over me?
I don't understand that, I've never understood
it. |
GW: |
You've
reduced it, once again, to individuals. |
RM: |
That's
what it is. |
GW: |
No,
it's a public system that should be available
to all... |
RM: |
That
was the problem with Hitler. He never thought
of individuals. He thought of the collective,
and he didn't care what happened to individuals
at the bottom. And that's true of all collectivists. |
GW: |
This
is more Ayn Rand right wing... |
RM: |
Yes
it is and you can't counter it without name
calling and Nazi calling. That's your only
response! |
TM: |
"Choices
are red herrings", un-be-lievable!... |