By Olivia Pierson
[First published on Insight @ theBFD 5/9/19]

Each and every one of us must make it our personal business to fight for our own individual happiness as if our lives depend upon it, for they actually do.

Individual human rights mean something – our lives are our own responsibility.  Nobody else can, or should, be burdened by that personal responsibility which we owe to ourselves and others to shoulder.

We are each given one life to own, to control and to cultivate.

The ethics of altruism are quite ghastly and our whole welfare system hangs on them, also it seems, much of our social standing does too.

Altruism doesn’t mean doing nice things for others, as we all like to do from time to time. Altruism means dutifully self-sacrificing to others as a moral good.

One can only ask: if all human life is valuable, including our own, why is it so often considered noble to sacrifice our own happiness, resources, goals and desires for the sake of other people? 

I’m not making the case that one should never do such a thing, there are obviously many moments during parenting, for instance, where parents do put the needs of their children before their own needs out of necessity (time, sleep, finances etc), but considering that the welfare of our children is extremely high on the personal values list which adds to our happiness, that can hardly be said to be “a sacrifice.” Our children are an immensely high value to us and maintaining our personal values is rational self interest.  

If people wish to sacrifice themselves for others, then that of course is their personal choice – especially if others may be of value to them, by why is it considered noble?

One often hears it said during obituaries or other summations of a person’s life: “Such-and-such was a good person who never put themselves first, but always thought only of others.” 

Why is that action considered to be “good”?  Only thinking of the lives of others over and above the life that one has been given, may be a mark of chronic lack of self-esteem or abject servility – and that can hardly be said to be good. 

This brand of “goodness” seems to have come down to us from 2000 years of Christian ethics, where the ethos is: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lays down his life for his friends.”

Observe that it reads: for his friends – not any old Tom, Dick or Harry.

About the only contexts that I can think of where laying down one’s life for one’s friends may be a noble act is during war-time, or during an emergency where one saves the life of another (or others) but loses one’s own life in doing so.  But the ethics of emergencies are rare and often chaotic, and they present quite different points of principle than those we can live our normal daily lives by.

To develop this topic a little further, consider the profoundly moving, so-called self-sacrificial acts of the heroic fugitive Jean Valjean, the protagonist in Victor Hugo’s great novel Les Miserables.  Valjean promises the dying young mother, Fantine, a woman he barely knows, that so long as he draws breath he will protect her small, illegitimate daughter and “raise her to the light” in fatherly devotion, despite not being her father – and despite the personal turmoil of Valjean being relentlessly hunted.  

The true heroism of Valjean’s impossibly difficult quest lies in the motive that he feels responsible for Fantine losing her job in his factory, which pushed her into poverty and prostitution, hastening her untimely death. Valjean’s personal integrity demanded that he correct this wrong, deeming it a matter which his conscience just could not ignore.

Another example of the fictional Valjean’s nobleness of spirit, when news comes to him that the known fugitive ‘Jean Valjean’ has been taken into custody and is about to stand trial, Valjean is the only person in the world who knows the authorities are holding the wrong man. Again, his sense of personal integrity in service to his conscience propels him to the scene of the trial where he reveals his identity, rather than suffer an innocent man to receive punishment on his behalf.  Valjean’s internal quandary is: “If I speak, I am condemned.  If I stay silent, I am damned.”

Can it be said then, that Valjean is self-sacrificial?  It could, but it wouldn’t be fully accurate.  He is preserving the engine of his life – the integrity of his soul – which, since his conversion at the beginning of the story, became his highest personal value.
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There are many terribly altruistic narratives at play during our time, designed to instil guilt in those who are well-off; those who are considered to be shamefully privileged; those who are “white.”

We’re told nothing less than that we must abandon our wicked white ways and sacrifice Western civilisation’s economic system on the altar of remorse:

“We all must also push for a different economic order, given the way that the twin forces of capitalism and colonisation have amplified the power of whiteness.” 
[One guilt-ridden, white, former Rhodes scholar pursuing a PHD at Oxford]

To which I say: No thank you, sir.  This white lady’s not for turning into a sacrificial animal to assuage your mawkish guilt.

The world is what each of us makes it.  Strong, joyful, just and free people remain its most potent inspirational force.  

Ayn Rand said it best in her novel Atlas Shrugged, where she exhorts readers to remember that strength of purpose and efficacy are essential to the happiness of a human being:

“In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst. In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of people be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved integrity. 

Do not lose your knowledge that our proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. 

Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it’s yours.”

So long as we count ourselves as valuable human beings, we should all live our lives acting as our own personal heroes towards the goal of attaining our happiness for the short time that we have upon this earth. The principle needs to be clear – live and let live; no sacrifice required.
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If you enjoyed this article, please buy my book "Western Values Defended: A Primer" ​​​​​​​​​​

By Lindsay Perigo
[published with permission from solopassion.com]

All right, 2019 isn't over yet, but nothing will beat this anywhere in the world: the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's Beethoven Festival, featuring all nine symphonies by The Master. It ended in Wellington last Saturday. An orgy of joy. No contest.

Of course, the Ode to Joy, with the added attraction of vocal soloists and chorus, was the highlight—apart from all the others. Seven, Five, Three and One might have taken the cake—except that Two, Four, Six (especially) and Eight took it as well. These were four nights of epic heroism and grandeur as the great Edo de Waart soared through some of the most sublime music ever written. The Band responded with exquisite precision and passion. "The total passion for the total height" writ large. The audiences responded with clamorous standing ovations.
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Harold C. Schonberg wrote of Beethoven:

He was of a special breed and he knew it. He also knew he was writing for eternity. And he had what poor Mozart lacked—a powerful personality that awed all who came in contact with him. "Never have I met an artist of such spiritual concentration and intensity," Goethe wrote, "such vitality and great-heartedness. I can well understand how hard he must find it to adapt to the world and its ways." Little did Goethe understand Beethoven. With Beethoven it was not a matter of adapting himself to the world and its ways. As with Wagner later on, it was a matter of the world adapting its ways to him. With this high-voltage personality, coupled to an equally high-voltage order of genius, Beethoven was able to dictate to life on his own terms in almost everything except his tragic deafness.

But life was having a lot to say as well. In her excellent notes for the Festival's printed programme, Feby Idrus observes:

Change is not created in a vacuum, and Beethoven's rupture of the conventional symphony occurred during a time of global upheaval. The year was 1801. The Age of Enlightenment had dawned, preaching values of rationality, freedom, and rejecting established institutions, even literally, as the overthrown French monarchy learned in the Revolution.America had followed suit, violently throwing off the British colonising yoke in its own Revolution. Science was gaining ground over irrational religious dogma; the untitled middle classes were growing. Eight years earlier, Beethoven had moved from Bonn to his new home, Vienna—far away from his abusive, alcoholic father. The past was being left behind and the world was rushing towards a completely new future.

Musically, that future was Romanticism. Bigger orchestras with more instruments, more daring harmonies and rhythms, much more personal expression and individualism, virtuoso soloists, conductors as stars (and tyrants!), the unleashing of emotion ... and most of all, melodies! Tunes, tunes, tunes! Beethoven was part of and instrumental in all of that, especially from the Eroica Symphony on, yet it's hard to classify him as a Romantic only. Romanticism was indeed the pinnacle of Western Music, but Beethoven transcended even that. It's not just a complimentary cliche but a statement of fact to say that his music was quite simply in a class of its own.

If there were a marginal quibble to be had with respect to the grand finale last Saturday night it would probably be to do with the placement of the soloists between the choir and The Band. The balance may have been fine in the live radio broadcast but in the hall the soloists were swamped whenever the full force of The Band and the formidable Voices New Zealand was unleashed. Would Stage Front have been better? Regardless, soprano Sabina Cvilak managed to stand out in the general melee.

As noted, the Ode to Joy was the logical and perfect climax to what were four evenings of unadulterated joy, with the unimpeachably vital and great-hearted Edo de Waart as our joy-master. It is great news that he'll be staying on as Conductor Laureate next year and beyond.
 
In one of the comments on the performance of the Pastoral linked to below, a YouTuber writes:

We don't know what the future holds but for certain Beethoven will be played for as long as human civilisation lasts. He is a high point of human creativity and a genius with no equal.

With the aforementioned Enlightenment values of rationality, freedom and the pursuit of joy under relentless assault, we should savour memories of this Beethoven Fest as being very probably the last time anything like it will ever happen in New Zealand. The joyless barbarians are already well within the gates, here and elsewhere. But be assured that when civilisation falls, someone somewhere will indeed be playing some Beethoven, in a spirit of defiance the Emperor Ludwig would share and applaud.

In the meantime, one can savour The Band this Friday at the Fowler Centre (and over the following week in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin) as they offer up this mouth-watering programme:

Asher Fisch Conductor
Louis Lortie Piano
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
Richard Strauss Tod und Verklärung, Op. 24 (Death and Transfiguration)
Wagner Overture to Tannhäuser, WWV 70

https://www.nzso.co.nz/concert...

By Olivia Pierson
[First published on Insight @the BFD 29/8/19]

After watching the extraordinary G7 Summit coverage and press conferences; President Trump, leading directly from the front – in contrast to his predecessor President Obama who liked to lead from behind – lends validity to the title “leader of the free world.”

This summit was all about world trade, specifically the readjustment of it, and Trump commandeered the whole event with the prowess and ease of a great businessman turned statesman.
 
Though there are still the nuts and bolts of wording and terms yet to be agreed upon, Japan and the United States struck an important deal “in principle” at the summit. Japan has agreed to buy surplus corn from America’s farmers and cut the 38.5 percent tariffs on American beef to 9 percent. 

The United States expects Japan to join a coalition to protect ships in the Strait of Hormuz.  Yasutoshi Nishimura, Japan’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, said that there were “no discussions specifically on Iran” between Trump and Abe at the summit, but previous negotiations with the United States have already been made clear on this issue.

President Trump, in a sympathetic remark about Britain’s former PM, Theresa May, reiterated just how tough and difficult the European Union were to negotiate with: “Just ask Theresa May”, he said during his press conference. 
Germany is a nation that is export-dependent, especially when it comes to their car market. With her country facing economic recession, Angela Merkel told the press that Germany wants the EU to reach a trade deal with the US as quickly as possible: 

“We want to talk now about the EU and the United States having deeper talks as quickly as possible,” Merkel told reporters, “We have a great interest in our trade being intensified. I think we can find solutions, Germany, within the framework of the EU, is working hard on this.”

President Trump, whilst hailing Boris Johnson as the right man to lead Brexit and saying that he’s “been waiting for about six years for him to become Prime Minister”, has promised the United Kingdom a speedy free-trade deal if, as planned, they leave the EU later this year. 

A notable highlight of the summit was President Trump and US Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, announcing that China had made contact on Sunday night saying that they were interested in conducting trade talks after the latest round of brutal trade-war tariff escalations. Remembering that the Chinese have a huge cultural stake in “saving face” and also that they are under the world microscope with chronic tensions and riots unfolding presently in Hong Kong, the Chinese are not admitting to much publicly about these said contacts being made to the US, but Vice Premier Liu stated on Monday at the Smart China Expo in Chongqing:

“We are willing to solve the problem through consultation and cooperation with a calm attitude. We firmly oppose the escalation of the trade war… it is not conducive to China, the U.S. and the interests of people all over the world.”

President Trump responded to that statement:  

“They want to make a deal very badly… the tariffs have hit them very hard. He wants to see a deal made, he wants it to be made under calm conditions. He used the word ‘calm,’ I agree with him.”

This is movement in the right direction, but nobody expects trade talks with China to be solved immediately; after all, the status quo has been the result of decades of appeasement.  What is clear is that Trump has now managed to get the other G7 countries to sing from the same song-sheet that he has been singing solo from since he decided to make his bid for the presidency. 

President Macron of France performed a peculiar attempted ambush on President Trump, when he invited the Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, to attend the summit with the intention of getting Zarif and Trump to the negotiating table, amidst rising tensions between their two countries due to crippling sanctions and the withdrawal of the U.S from the JCPOA deal in 2017.

President Trump refused to meet with Zarif; but he said he’d be open to talks in the near future, should the Iranian regime be so inclined – which obviously they are, despite their fanatical bravado and rhetoric to date.  

This was an excellent move on Trump’s part and a very shady one on Macron’s, however, Trump stated that he didn’t mind Macron’s actions in the least, as Macron had sought his approval with a phone call to apprise him of the situation beforehand.  Macron, slightly petulantly, counteracted that statement by saying that he had “informed” the president of the rogue invitation. An odd business indeed.  What it does make clear is how much the EU needs the US to move ahead on all matters pertaining to Iran.  Trump handled this curve-ball beautifully, showing just how diplomatically clever his instincts are.  The ambush was quashed, and Iran has now revealed just how desperate they are to alter the dire (for them) status quo. All the G7 nations remain unanimous that Iran must not get a nuclear weapon. 

President Trump floated the idea that Putin be brought back to the annual summit, considering that so many of the talks involve Russia when Putin is never in the room to answer any of the important geopolitical questions.  This is particularly strange considering how much gas and oil Europe continues to purchase from Russia; with a much higher consumption rate on the cards with the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which bypasses Ukraine.  Spearheaded by President Obama, Russia’s membership was suspended from G8 after Putin’s 2014 aggressive annexation of Crimea.  President Trump has come under harsh criticism by the American media for making the point at this summit that “Putin outsmarted Obama.”

This is actually an incredible understatement on President Trump’s part. 
 
During the 2008 American election, Sarah Palin, who was then on the Republican ticket as John McCain’s running mate, stated that “Putin’s intention might be to invade Ukraine.”  She was widely derided as an ignoramus and mocked for it while being laughed out of every single newsroom. Then later in 2012, during the election debates, Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, stated that President Obama was “naive when it came to Russia’s intentions” as a recovering world power and that they remained a “powerful geo-political foe.”   Obama laughed out loud, and told Romney that “the Cold War was over.”

So Obama was not just outsmarted by Putin, he was bent over a barrel and reamed by him. Then Putin found himself disinvited from further world summits.  Good on President Trump for reminding the folks who may have forgotten all this; especially now, when many of them may be wishing for a more naive, softer touch from an American president at the same time that the EU furthers its agenda for an even higher energy dependence on Russia while simultaneously they prefer Putin not to be in the room as world trade talks take place.

The fake news media are reporting that “President Trump demands that Putin be reinstated at world summits.”  He did no such thing.  He pointed out the facts of where the issues lie in the real world, in real time.

The main take-aways from this summit were a powerful America attracting new trade deals with Europe and the UK, a great trade deal with Japan later this year, unanimity concerning Iran’s not being able to acquire a nuclear weapon, unanimity that China has acted against WTO rules (and that it is unacceptable), potential talks between the US and Iran and the likelihood of new negotiations on the horizon to be furthered between China and the US.

But don’t look to the MSM to be anything other than a hundred percent negative about the entire event – we’re used to this bad faith reporting from them.  All they are hoping for is a world recession and an American economic collapse in order for the Democratic party to be able to run its 2020 election campaign message on “Trump brought about a recession and ruined trade.” 
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Nothing could be further from the truth.  Next, they’ll be calling the president Hitler, Stalin and Mao combined; oh wait…

If you enjoyed this article, please buy my book "Western Values Defended: A Primer"