Thank you for your great work John! It seems you are more powerful now than you ever were in politics. I raise a glass to a great servant to Australia and its people.
Dear Mr. Anderson, thank you for this inspiring speech. Unfortunately, one sentence almost ruined it completely. "Freedom of speech doesn't mean spreading misinformation". This is such a dangerous thought nowadays.
Too many Australians have become submissive, and accepting of authoritarianism. We've been patronised, brow-beaten and oppressed by a media intent on dumbing us down and telling us what we can and can't do. Fortunately though I do believe the silent majority know what is right
Exactly. This talk of defending freedoms in the West ignores the fact that these freedoms seems to be ever diminishing at the ends of nanny statists and authoritarians in the education system, mainstream media and government. Sadly, many citizens, especially the younger ones, have fallen to this indoctrination.
It's the west as a whole honestly. I'm not sure if we are in fact a bit behind in comparison to America, the UK and Canada or if there just isn't enough people bringing attention to it.
Mr Anderson, Sir, you are a treasure. I wish we had a leader with the spine and vision that you have directing our path here in UK. I may not share your faith, but you have a fair and secular vision based upon good morality and pragmatic solutions informed by evidence and reason, things sadly lacking in this age of post-Modernity. ❤
Because of the upcoming tensions/wars with Russia and China, they’re starting to feed this ‘defend our freedoms’ narrative. Except that those of us who actually believe in freedom have seen a precipitous drop in these over the last few decades.
Wish John Anderson could be PM. So learned, so clear, so aware of history. We should celebrate our democratic freedoms. So tremendously worth defending. Loosing freedom of speech can slowly lose numerous other freedoms! Totalitarianism could be slowly creeping around the corner.
I asked myself the same question the other day, what was western culture based on, that makes us different to other cultures? You have just answered me. What a beautifully presented speech. You would be wonderful as our Prime Minister Mr. Andrews. PS. My grandfathers work on the Harbour Bridge behind you, and it still stands to this day.
Read some more books, most of our finest literature and stories from quite a while back now will help remind you as they are steeped in everything that is worthwhile and good (but easily taken for granted) about us like stoicism, individuality, personal responsibility, the value of humanity and simply always trying harder.
@@secretgoldfish "stoicism, individuality, personal responsibility, the value of humanity and simply always trying harder " . You are not describing current western conservative politics .
@@mikeboate208 That's right....and it gets even worse with supposed liberal politics unfortunately (while both sides of the political/mental-spectrum increasingly just tell themselves something pretty but delusional while sadly detached from reality more and more everyday)....Why do you think the current western world is so devolving?
Western Culture is based on the Enlightenment values introduced by John Locke - he promoted equal rights of all citizens . His ideas were written into the 1689 English Bill of Rights . This was a highly flawed democracy , and only land owners had the vote , but still ELECTED Parliamentarians said to William of Orange and Mary II here are the terms . The struggle for democratic rights , human rights and Labour rights continued by the Labour Class in 19th Century Britain . The Enlightenment also took the ideas of Issac Newton , using rational thought and the scientific method to improve the human condition . From there , there was the phasing out of child labour , phasing out of slavery , introduction of public sanitation , public police , public parks , major advances in architecture , public transportation , national railway grid which then allowed a national communications network ( mail , telegraph and news papers ) huge advances in science , technology and commerce . This 300 year period is the greatest achievement in humanity . .
Excellent ! Just one thing: Freedom of speech should include disinformation simply because who's going to decide what's disinformation otherwise? Unless perhaps disinformation is restricted to blatant lies and statements contrary to facts
There's no such thing as disinformation, at least not in the way it's being defined today. Disinformation today is code for something I disagree with or a way of thought that needs to be crushed rather than discussed. Remember the Biden administration's ill fated "Disinformation Board?" Not even today's crazy world would go for that.
If we outlawed blatant lies then most poiticains could not open their mouth but 1/2 to 3/4 the population would also be silenced half the time at least. We have to allow lying but we also have to allow ridicule and shaming the lair too. That is the problem, nobody can call out the lairs as what they are now. We need to be louder in shaming the lairs but we cannot ever stop them from lying. That is why comedy is so important as most of the good comedians call out BS on all sides.
Its a dream John. We don't have those freedoms in law. Australia is missing that kind of underpinning. We don't have a charter of rights, we have no right to free speech etc. Recently we have also seen other "rights" like freedom of movement removed. The conservatives, of which we are/were both members, have a lot to answer for. We expect these things from the postmodernists and the Marxists where individual rights must make way for the state and its mood. The vast majority of citizens are about to become second class as well. How quickly we are falling.
We should always remember Winston Churchill's quote of " democracy is the worst of all political system except for every other one." Which is of coarse a recognition that democracy isn't perfect ( nothing to do with humanity is ever perfect) but vastly better than the alternative.
That was good thanks, but your comment about freedom of speech not allowing the spread of misinformation in a monumental can of worms. So much of the stripping of our freedoms in recent years has been under the guise of stopping "misinformation".
Another huge issue is doing business with our enemies. We have allowed the international business elites ( aka the plunderers) to gut our industries and economic base.
II want it simpler to remember to consider: Individual freedom in a Western democracy is the right of individuals to act, express, and make choices without oppressive interference from the state or external forces.
If there really have a rules of law then there doesnt have an absolute freedom of individual. In a civilised sociaty there always have a laws that every citizens need to obey.
@@walhdamaskus2408 - Enough of these ‘we need rules in society’. Restrictions should be kept to a minimum. Instead, politicians have piled on the bans and restrictions for decades now, with the leftist media cheering and selling these at every step.
All fine words but after the events of the last few years I think we all know this ship has already sailed. What we perceive as freedoms are just a thin veneer, enough to keep us quiet but restrictive enough to prevent anyone getting out of line and threatening vested interest. What we are being told is obviously far from the truth, hence the panic to shut down any dissenting opinion that is now common place.
This kind of optimism is the result of many hours and days of labor in search and defense of the kinds of building materials that nations of substance are built from. God bless you sir for your stand and voice in defending them and humanity
John Anderson simply confirming that the best people who should be in politics are no longer where we need them. His words are necessary. Ufortunately I believe too many in politics are not there to serve and protect our freedoms, but for themselves and to take our freedoms when ideologically expedient. Finding ever more inventive means of power and wealth grabbing seems to be the game. The march left continues. In NZ our Dept of Internal Affairs is proposing a regulator of online content.This is on top of existing laws for material prohibiting child exploitation, terrorism, inciting violence etc. It is a direct threat to our freedom of speech! Heaven help us if Labour are returned for 3 more years. We WILL become the Hermit Kingdom of the South Pacific!
You only have to defend something when someone else is trying to change you. If you stop and think about it, no one is asking you to change. You're free to adhere to your freedoms. Nobody is trying to take them from you. Just because another country is going to be richer than you doesn't mean you are about to be taken over. If you don't want to trade you're free not to trade.
Our history and our connection to our ancestors and their achievements also makes it worth defending. We built the Ancient civilizations of the Greeks and Romans and now we just take a giant dump on our past thanks to the woke cancer.
Nice to see JA at the Lavender Bay Pier in Sydney. He's done more for public discourse post- politics than all his peers, including John Howard. Anderson should've been PM for awhile.
I've spent a lifetime fighting for these principles but unfortunately conclude it is a lost cause. My solution is to take all I have, my family and myself out of the system so that the fruits of our labour are not just there to have half confiscated to fund it. Hopefully the folly of big government and socialism in Australia fails and freedom returns in the future. Maybe then Australia can again become a worthy place to be for people that value freedom.
Some further real and honest thoughts I will add to this is that leaving your country due to be lied to and let down in this fashion does not just involve me or others just sailing off into the sunset to passively accept the situation, chock it up to experience and to write it off. There is a high level of bitterness that I and other expats feel from the betrayal, wasted time, money, etc that actively turns us against the country after we leave. We use our experience to educate and encourage others to also take their net worth and earnings out of the Australian economy. Not a single young person we encounter is not guided towards thinking and believing that better opportunities in life await them away from Australia and not a single potential immigrant, entrepreneur or tourist comes away from speaking with us more likely to go to or invest in Australia.
@M R , what do you actually need? If you've already made your money there are countless options where you can live an amazing life and significantly increase your standard of living from lower costs and lower taxation. If you're ar the other end there and starting out there are places that provide almost perfect conditions for building wealth by having no or little taxes. Almost anywhere is a better deal than Australia and much of the West these days.
Agree, John. We have to remember that we are the result of the Western Philosophical Tradition. We need to recognize that a significant portion of life that is good is the result of that tradition (objective critical analysis) and, therefore, we must continuously instill that methodology in both the present and the future of organized society. While certainly not perfect, objective critical thinking, with all of its imperfections, is the sunlight that allows us to be the best we can possibly be.
Another Great One J.A. I never hear the word "Freedom" anymore. I hear plenty of "diversity, inclusiveness, EQUITY, trans, phobes, racists, misogyny, critical race, woke and on and on but never FREEDOM.
I'm worried about being the last generation who understands what the world was like pre 9/11......while so many of the rest are deliberately and unfortunately dumbed further into serfdom more and more every day, via over-encouraged ideological non-think devolvement or by simply having no memory (or sense of context) while far too easily led to their own and everyone's detriment.
Coming from an Aussie who followed the American in every illegal war ! like a proper servant that’s why I hope the Chinese doesn’t answer your phone call when it comes to trade .
This is a good and a wise man. We don't talk about our freedoms anymore. I remember the way we looked at our country, the US, in my earlier years in school. What a wonderful speaker.
Good point. I think that is the sort of thing that he means when he talks about private property. The government attacking the farmers needs to be voted out as soon as possible.
In Canada our "stool" is very wobbly indeed. We have never had the "right" to own private property and various legislation brought into effect by the Trudeau government has restricted speech and written expression.
Individual freedom in Western democracy is the right of individuals to act, express, and make choices without repressive or tyrannical interference from the state or external forces.
The problem is that the public has lost trust in authority - particularly politicians - and the government you were a part of added to this with the way issues like "Children overboard" were fought.
And that loss is that our politicians believe that the voters are too easily swayed by our media who think they are the right people to direct the national growth
West is a garden in a jungle. Not the only one but one of the handful and I would also argue the most beautiful. That's enough of a reason to defend it. If west turns sour it will be thrown to the other end like we saw with soviet union.
By all means, defend your country, your institutions, and your freedoms. The problem I see is when that defence butts into the borders of a 'rival' nation thousands of kilometres from your own country.
John Anderson, a great leader and speaker. Human beings have different potentials, including the potential to be either conscientious, or lazy. If you don't allow for private ownership, then you automatically approve of the idea that can you do no work and still achieve. If you believe that, then what kind of person are you?
This man was deputy prime minister while our culture was being torn apart. What did he do to fight back? I'm a private citizen with almost zero net worth running for the NSW senate on a platform of Western Values. I want to save our civilisation. I ran for the senate in 2022 but could not get a single media figure to speak to me. Soon I'll visit every town square in NSW with a PA system telling people of the horrific war on our culture, and how we can save our civilisation. Politicians like this simply stood by as our culture was decimated. The media continues to kick our culture in the teeth. I'll save our civilsiation, even if I have to get support by doorknocking every house in NSW. Vote for William Flynn for the NSW Senate in 2025. I'm a private citizen, beholden to noone. The politicians have utterly betrayed us, it's time for working-class people to run for punblic office. Only cleaners, plumbers, taxi drivers, and other ordinary people can save Western civilisation. Best wishes all.
Remember ... Blowing out someone's candle ,doesn't make yours shine brighter . "social strength and cohesion" is not your goal . divide and conquer is your MO .
John needs to tell this to the hopeful-communist/authoritarians currently inflicted upon us (and telling themselves something pretty to compensate for their own backwards nastiness).
Well, based french study these people who lives in as u call an authoritarian/communist state are the happiest. So u can go to figure it out by urself why.
@@secretgoldfish, the sad and actual reality is the aussies overestimated themselves too much that the reality will shock them badly when they wake up in some day.
But freedom of speech does mean spreading misinformation. There is more danger is the concept of subjectively limiting speech than there is in simply permitting speech, and the last 10 years (at least) have shown us all how there is no general consensus regarding what does or doesn’t constitute misinformation. In a world where we can’t even agree on the definition for ‘woman’ all we can do is put it all out there and let individuals come to their own conclusions.
The West is fundamentally quite strong - even now. But if it is to be brought low, it will be from within. The disintegration of our society into numerous little competing victim-groups currently looks like the most likely source of our downfall.
Chinese hate Western way of life? Please ask any Chinese if this is true … the fact is most Chinese admire the Western way of life but that doesn’t mean they prescribe it for themselves. Most Westerners don’t realise this but the Chinese name for America is “Beautiful Country” , England is “Heroic Country”, Australia is “Profound Country”… etc. not very hateful right?
True, Western Freedoms Make Our Culture Worth Defending. But it is no reason to invade other countries to impose your 'culture' and polical system on other cultures.
It 'may' be worth defending but it definitely makes it easy for any scumbag to attack. especially now that it protects the scumbags from any criticism. Free would include the freedom to criticize bad ideas.
What good is freedom if we do not have security at home ? Can we, especially our women and our children walk in the city without ending up as victims of crime ?
Don't engage in lies. The Russian regime is not totalitarian. It has massive support by the people. The ones who are becoming evermore totalitarian are the countries of the US-led world.
Agreed. This speech would have been very true 40 years ago. At that time, the contrast between a US with an almost intact Bill of Rights and the USSR was stark. Todays, it feels like there are less freedoms in the West than there are in Russia when it comes to certain topics. I’m happy to provide examples of this.
I can understand that certain human personality types, fatigued with the imperfection which democracy and captialism have delivered, tire of the wait for perfect solutions (which they believe can be achieved under competing social and financial structures). However, there is nothing in reality (but perhaps much in the human imagination) which can deliver the solutions to the pain of life which many seek, we have to live with some pain. If you are lazy, then I can understand how Marxism with its purported "level playing field" looks enticing. However, if a surgeon is paid the same as a labourer, you can anticipate the level of committment that person is willing to devote to their craft. Simply issuing them with the equivalent of a 'Soviet Honor', is unlikely to deliver the results you seek. Intelligent people will acknowledge the persistent failure of socialism and communism. As innocuous as dreamers may seem to be, their artificial belief systems, which fail to accord with natural human behavior, can only allow the worst of human behaviour to flourish. Stalin and others killed millions of innocents, if you are truly a good person. shouldn't you learn from that?
Nowadays people always talk about China and Russia together. I remember the days when people always talked about China and India together. But today no more. I think China and Russia are fundamentally different, just like China and India. Time will tell.
The world is more than it contains two ways of living"politically" , dissolved freedoms, oppression and tyranny, and whoever supports this claim He puts all humanity between only two choices, and this is considered a confiscation on human choices and their scaling. Western democracy, how does it deal politically with the large area of the Arab world compared to the State of Israel?
You’re talking about housing for Aussie and other human needs! Well your government just spent $360 billion dollars on submarines. Money that should have been spent on your citizens !! Instead to protect Americans interests against your biggest trading partner in your history .. China ! Which account for a 1/3 of your trade no wonder they refuse to pick up the phone . The Silence is deafening isn’t it ?
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜💙💚💛🧡❤️ We are ALL the SAME PERSON experiencing life in a BUNCH OF DIFFERENT BODIES!!! which means that EVERY PERSON that you meet, is really just YOU... LIVING IN ANOTHER BODY!! you see..you are INTERACTING with YOURSELF at ALL TIMES!!! & once you understand this,you can achieve unity! I and my father are one Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself 💜💙💚💛🧡❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
You need to want to add to your discussion at few moral principles to measure our behavior ... like a doctors oath it just a starting point to reason ... example is do no harm so we have a way to measure the costs and benefits to because there are always trade-offs
But not at any cost. it would be wonderful to see less superstition as the under pinning principle of the Judeo-Christian/ Greco-Roman basis of what defines us along with a lack of a scientific basis for our economic frameworks. I would also like to see far less feeble minded scientism and more robust science as the basis of decision making in public health and education, not more over arching but suffocating bureaucratic (holier than thou), nonsense and overreach, that restricts individual intellectual and spiritual experience, pursuits and freedoms.
I agree. But before defending the West. Lets define it. The West being 1st Class West UK and her closest commonwealth dominions of Au NZ Canada Bahamas and several caribbean Islands. USA , Ireland. Then the Benelux. France . Scandinavia Plus Finland. Germany. Switzerland Austria. . 2nd tier West, Italy Spain Portugal . 3rd Tier almost West Hungary Poland Baltic countries. Doubtfully Western predigree countries like Bulgaria Romania Cyprus Greece etc. Honorary West such as Japan S Korea and Taiwan. Yes I agree . The 1st Class Western civilisation particularly of the of last half 20th century are worth defending . But against what?
