Principled Assassination

"Good on ya', Bro'"

Passing into the folklore of Western civilization is the heroic attempt by some, including the Desert Fox, to assassinate Adolf Hitler.  They failed.  But we have honoured their moral judgment and their courage.  All of which serves to prove that assassination, when attempted for right reasons and true moral principles, can be a worthy deed.

When John Key was first elected Prime Minister of New Zealand we were told his nickname was Smiling Assassin--earned from his time as an international currency trader with Merrill Lynch.  Three years have passed and and it is time to reassess the moniker.  We can testify to lots of smiling.  That much is true.  But not much assassination.  Definitely not true.

His predecessor, Helen Clark gave every indication that when it came to the "sense of humour" department she was a shingle short.
  But when it came to assassination she was prodigious and prolific, ruthless and quick.  Cross her once, and you had better make a will.  Cross her twice and you could write your own obituary.  Three times, and you would be dead before you finished reading it.  We suspect in part this was due due to Clark's pique or spite.  John Key has neither.  He often shows himself as the kind of guy who takes a shot across the chops, grins, says, "Good one, bro' ", whilst inviting his assailant to have another crack.

But one thing Clark had in spades was a steely commitment to an ideology that motivated much of what she did.  That is why the Labour Party now is in the doldrums.  Clark's management style had much to do with command and control by ideological compatible allies.  She stacked the Labour Party with them and reshaped the Labour Party so that it became a cadre of its leadership--a top-down, ideologically rigorous, command and control fiefdom.  The subsequent problems are twofold: firstly, it could not survive Clark's departure; secondly, Clark's ideology was offensive and extreme to the lights of most New Zealanders.  Consequently, the Labour Party remains today a "gaggle of gays and self-serving unionists"--ideologically pure, but so out of touch with the public it risks becoming permanently irrelevant.

Clark's ideological purity, however, has left another lasting legacy.  She also stacked every government department and every quango she could with people after her own image.  These people now fly below the political radar screen but continue to have an inordinate influence over the country.  Political correctness remains alive and well as a result.  Key, for whom ideology is a foreign idea, neither notices nor cares.  He appears not see it because he does not think in ideological categories.

As a result, he is doing the country a grave disservice.  Take the Human Rights Commission, for example.  This from Stuff:

Golliwog wrapping paper has appeared on the shelves of a popular chain store.  Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres said the paper, retailing for $2 at Look Sharp stores, was likely to cause offence.

"I would prefer if they withdrew products like that from sale," he said. "Often in New Zealand we don't realise what a controversial history they have in other countries."

Controversy in other countries should control what a business sells to its customers in New Zealand.  Helen Clark continues to influence us from the political graveyard.  Because she made appointments based on ideology, her world-view continues to be imposed on us all.  The State continues to be our nanny.  We are continually lectured on how to dress, think, act, and behave correctly by the lights of a self-appointed elite who want to make the world in their own image.  We are smothered with their "good advice".

How we long for some good old fashioned assassinations.  If you do it at the right time, for the right reasons it can be a very salutary thing--or so history would appear to tell us.  John Key has lived up to the smiling "bit" of his nickname.  How we wish the "assassin" part had proved true, at least a bit.  A big ideological clean-out is desperately needed in New Zealand.  But there's the rub.  Key, being apolitical and non-ideological, is just not likely to see it. 

It would be salutary to have all those smothering government agencies that exist for the sole purpose of making us better people to be staffed by cheery, happy chaps in the image of the Prime Minister.  Having the Human Rights Commission led by people whose habitual response was, "Good on ya' bro'.  Have another crack," would be a breath of much needed free air.