The past week has revealed just how badly the “right” in New Zealand treat each other.
I’m not talking about the politicians. Forget them, they are not your friends. There is no salvation at the ballot box.
The “right” is a mindset, a dissatisfaction with the trajectory of this nation. Being on the “right” just means you aren’t a communist. The folk at the Wellington protests were under this umbrella. And while they deserve a better name, “right” is all we have at this point.
That whole episode seems like a decade ago, doesn’t it? But the protests were only in January.
I was reminded of those protestors when reading about the child who was kidnapped by the state to undergo a blood transfusion against the wishes of its parents and the legal issues faced by Sue Grey, the co-leader of the Outdoors and Freedom Party. I can’t help but notice a deep flaw in the way the “right” operates: they aren’t all that good at being friends.
I don’t mean the Platonic sense of the word. That type of friendship comes later. I am referring to the great German legal theorist Carl Schmit’s idea of a friend. He wrote that, politically, you are either a friend of the regime or an enemy. To Schmitt, there is no such thing as a neutral institution since someone or some group is always in charge. And what can appear to be hypocrisy is almost always better explained by friends helping friends to defeat their enemies.
If you know Schmitt at all, it’s probably because you’ve heard he was a member of the German Nazi Party. That’s also why his work isn’t widely read today. This is a shame because Schmitt was one of the top legal minds of the last century. And what is truly ironic is that you will be castigated for reading him by the very people who put his theories into practice every day as they use their sovereign power to declare that you are the exceptional enemy.
But, as I’ve pointed out before, when you’re told not to read, watch or listen to something because of who made it, that’s a sign to flip over the couch and click off the safety.
If Schmitt was around to watch the protests in Wellington, he would have been confused. Sure, the protestors had the energy, but where was the leader and where was the coordination? They wanted to strike at power, but their aim was misguided. And while they knew who their enemies were, none of them quite figured out how to construct useful and lasting friendships.
As those protestors finally trickled back to their homes, I advised them that they should now work hard to connect with each other, share phone numbers, hire each other into jobs, trade goods and services with each other and take advantage of the countless ways their newfound affinity could be leveraged to become “friends” at the political level, just as Schmitt understood.
Some saw the opportunity offered by the protests and took the first steps to create connections with like-minded Kiwis, which was great. But last month’s saga of the sick child in Auckland, whose parents were sceptical of vaccinated blood, simply revealed that the government was justified in ignoring the Wellington protests. The “right” doesn’t know how to be friends.
It was blindingly obvious in 2021 that the government had abandoned the assumption of medical freedom in this country. In fact, the entire reason people gathered in Wellington was to protest the government’s medical overreach. What happened to that child was inevitable and no one should have been surprised. Those concerned Kiwis had all year to prepare for this situation.
And yet, aside from setting up a few token Telegram groups, sending out some half-hearted emails and calling in to radio talkback shows from time to time, what have they actually done?
That child’s medical story is complicated, but the issue boils down to this: where were that family’s friends? Why hadn’t people created an alternative medical option for that child? Why wasn’t a network of sympathetic medical professionals available who could solve that child’s problems outside the state system? Where were their friends?
Setting up alternatives takes time. I get that. But 12 months is plenty of time. And sure, the regime has tight control over medicine. Yet there are always gaps, shortcuts and workarounds in any system. Did anyone spend a single minute trying to exploit those cracks?
What have the “concerned Kiwis” been doing all year?
Sue Grey is another example. Grey might not be on your Christmas list, but you probably only know her name because she took a risk to be on one side during the Wellington protests when it mattered. There are many other people who showed affinity, but Grey is the most relevant today because her legal problems are back in the news.
The thing is, the details of those troubles barely matter. The overriding issue is that she has few friends rallying to her side and may struggle to pay for her legal costs as a result. Again, the exact details of Grey’s case don’t matter. The legal process is the punishment and her enemies are happy to slow her down and hope the pain dissuades her from advancing further.
Why are Grey’s friends letting her be isolated and destroyed? If the “right” doesn’t consider Grey its friend, then why wasn’t this clearly outlined to her before she embarked on her political mission? She clearly thought she would get more support. She was wrong, but only because the people she assumed were her friends lied to her, by omission or commission. Probably both.
The “right” in New Zealand does this regularly. They complain and moan about the progressive agenda in their movies and entertainment. Yet when someone on their side offers to make films or write music that isn’t degenerate, their “friends” can barely raise $1000 to kickstart the project.
Clever people are thinking about strategic ways to return sanity to the West, some of whom put in serious effort and generate deep and important insight. Yet these smart people often struggle to make ends meet because their “friends” don’t want to spend $5 supporting their work. Those same “friends” then spend $20 on a Netflix subscription.
To paraphrase Schmitt, every dollar that isn’t spent on your friends will end up supporting your enemies. It’s that simple. There is no such thing as a neutral institution. The only way for your friends to win is to organise a genuine alternative, and that alternative must be categorically, morally and strategically better than the status quo – for everyone, not just your friends.
The word “moral” is the key here. The “right” loves to complain about degeneracy and the erosion of morals. But how do you think the family of that sick child feels about the “morality” of their friends? What is Sue Grey thinking? How about Cam Slater and his efforts with the BFD? You can’t claim the moral high ground if you consistently fail to support your friends not just in times of need, but as a default, every single day.
I’m writing about this as we near Christmas because many like to eschew gift-giving and support a charity instead. My own family always has a little box at Christmas to collect money for donations.
Unfortunately, giving to charities is a terrible strategy. It does not pass the test of what is good for your friends and bad for your enemies. Charities are not your friends. Your friends are your friends. You know who your friends are. They have debts, car problems, kids that need feeding and myriad other real, daily issues. How can you call yourself a friend if you don’t help them out first?
I can sense you pulling back. Why does it feel so weird to think about giving real money to your real friends? Do you think this feeling is useful to your enemies? It really should not feel strange to help friends in a way that builds a relationship that could help both of you in the future. The nerves you feel are not random. They are the result of millions of dollars of propaganda pumped into your brain for decades.
Your enemies want you atomised, deracinated and worshipping the false god of individualism. This strategy has worked for your political enemies incredibly well. But this puzzle is easily solved: learn to be better friends. And by “better” I mean learn to be strategic with your friendship, support genuine alternatives and spend your money in ways that improve your group’s situation.
This is not rocket science. But the simplest things are often the easiest to forget. Remember that this Christmas.