Perigo’s Perspective: On The So-Called ’Leaders Debate’
Paul and Lindsay on the Leaders' Debate, followed by Perigo's Perspective:
I was deeply edified and gratified – that's for you again Henry – to receive, among many edifying and gratifying messages recently, the following, from Ann:
“I don't know much about opera but listening to the show about the two tenors this week brought tears to my eyes. I would like to say that this was all because of the extreme beauty of the songs which you shared with us, and for Lillian's story. And it was in part.
“But actually what really provoked my emotions was because the perfection of those voices got me to thinking how so much of what surrounds us today (music and otherwise) is of such poor quality, such a lack of pride in doing the very best one can, too much celebration of the crass, mediocre and awful. Thank you for sharing your memories and this music. Your show is such a breath of fresh air. Keep going!”
Thank YOU Ann. I have six words for you and a hold that thought: Daniil Trifonov, Franz Liszt, Transcendental Etudes. Hold that thought!
It's indeed easy to become dystopic when crass, mediocre and awful are the norm.
It's no coincidence that aesthetic collapse is happening in tandem with the descent into tyranny. George Orwell spoke of the laryngeal horror of the squawking of the hate mobs in 1984. But it did fair startle me to see leftist icon, Chris Trotter in a superbly written blog post, recognise just how awful his side have become:
Delirious Hatred: The Dystopic Tendencies of Twenty-First Century Progressivism.
By Chris Trotter -September 15, 2023
Quote:
I THINK I’VE WORKED IT OUT – why writing about today’s version of “progressive” politics leaves me feeling so depressed. In the end, the reason I cannot bring myself to vote for either Labour or the Greens is very simple: it’s because they are joyless; because the logical end-point of the ideology they espouse is one of universal dissatisfaction and unending conflict.
In other words, their direction-of-travel is dystopic. That’s why so many voters are pulling away from parties they’ve supported all their adult lives. They don’t like where Labour and the Greens are going, and they’ll be damned if they’ll go there with them.
Chippy can talk about “bread and butter” all he likes, but everybody knows that he and Grant Robertson have already committed themselves to less butter and thinner bread for at least the next three years.
We also know that if, by some miracle, Labour-Green wins the election, then none of the initiatives which both parties signed-up to over the past six years: radical ethnic nationalism, censorship, transgenderism; are going to be abandoned. What looms ahead of New Zealand if Labour-Green wins is grinding economic austerity and relentless cultural warfare. Thinner bread and bloody noses.
It is precisely this sort of conscious deception, this deliberate “fooling” of the voters, that has transformed progressive politics from what used to be a joyful affirmation of idealism into a joyless exercise in dishonesty.
Chris goes on to compare contemporary progressives, whom I call Woke-Fascists, to the Khmer Rouge, who “constructed an ideological system grounded in deception and death”:
Having been marched out of the cities and into the countryside, ‘bourgeois' Cambodians were encouraged to confess their ‘crimes against the people'. By no other means, the commissars told them, could they be welcomed into the rural utopia which the Red Khmers were bringing into existence. The moment they stepped forward, of course, they were denounced and suffocated.
Over the top? Barking mad? Grossly defamatory of activists who only want people to be free and equal? How I wish it were true! But one only has to visit the febrile world of social media to grasp the perverse enjoyment contemporary progressives derive from “flaming”, “de-platforming”, and “cancelling” – oh, what an ominous word that is – those who refuse to step forward and confess.
A woman like “Posie Parker”, perhaps?
Those who were in Albert Park on 25 March 2023, and those who watched the many video recordings made at the scene, could not help but note the delirious hatred of the mob, and the brutal behaviour it spawned.
Such is the praxis of the post-modern progressive: telling the news media that theirs was a gathering of peace and love – while punching a 70-year-old woman in the face. And then, shamefully, having their lies accepted by the supposedly ‘independent' intellectuals appointed to expose and condemn media falsehoods.
Chris couldn't be more correct, of course, and I congratulate him for saying all of that, though I don't know what else he expects from an ideology founded on coercion.
Mark Levin has a new book out this week called The Democrat Party Hates America, chronicling the whole history of “Progressivism” in that country. I can't wait for my copy to arrive from Amazon.
The Left, the Woke-Fascists, have long since given up on reasoned arguments, to the extent they ever used any, and resort instead to hissy fits, temper tantrums and delirious hatred and violence when they don't get their way.
The riots, the burnings, the lootings, the killings, the cancellings, were inevitable. Those are the things Woke-Fascists do.
But there is a world of decency and joy, numberless ecstasies to which humans like Ann can repair and cancel the joyless Woke-Fascists from their consciousness. Did you hold that thought, Ann? Daniil Trifonov? Franz Liszt? Transcendental Etudes?
With apologies to Mr Wordsworth: for oft when on my couch I lie, in vacant or in pensive mood, they flash upon that inward eye, which is the bliss of solitude. And then my heart with pleasure fills … and dances with the Daniils.
Our Contributor
I first encountered Liszt's Transcendental Studies when I was 16, 50 years ago. In fact they were one of the first LPs I saved up and bought. I now have the Trifonov account and listening to such music is one of the few antidotes to the rising tide of horrors happening all around.
Do keep reminding us, Lindsay.
I have seen a few columns of late from Chris Trotter that further confirm he has an open mind, is aware of the excesses of the woke left and is prepared to criticise them in no uncertain terms. Same with American show host Bill Maher. It's very gratifying to see.