About the White Tiger Icon About FPI's Slogan About the FPI Logo
  Home   About FPI   Fund Freedom   Volunteer for Freedom   Contact FPI  

AUDIO DOWNLOAD

Nazis, Universality and the Left's Defence of Inequality

Recorded: August 7, 2002
Length: 21 min. 14 sec.
Audio File Format: .mp3

CLICK HERE TO START LISTENING

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.


Universality: The Way to Leave People with No Choice but to Defend Government Programs

GW: Social justice is an acknowledgement that in our society..government...and society in general has a responsibility to help those who are at the bottom...
RM: Then why do we have universal programs instead of programs that just help the poor?
GW: ...because, if you have a universal program, like medicare, that applies to the middle class, the middle class will defend it...as soon as you make a program only available to poor people, then there's no interest of the middle class or the upper classes to support that program...


Speaking of Hitler...The Left's Defence of Inequality: That Some Should Have the Right to Disallow Others the Freedom to Choose...

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!...

Return to Frank Talk Index