March 29, 2024 - The History of New Zealand through a Libertarian Anarchist lens. Please enjoy the ideas and let me know what you think.

1933: Elizabeth McCombs, MHR

September 13, 2018

By AHNZ

Today in history.

I’m far less impressed by this ‘trailblazing women’ stuff and widow McCombs is always carted out for an example. In my analysis she simply rode, electorally, on sympathy over the previous (Labour) MP for Lyttleton: Her husband James.

13 September 1933, Elizabeth Reid McCombs became the first woman in New Zealand to be elected to parliament.

Today we’re remembering trailblazing NZ women, like NZ’s 1st woman MP, Elizabeth Reid McCombs

Ref. State Archives New Zealand

If there’s any doubt that the people of Lyttleton roll like that, the same would happen for her son Terence after the death of Elizabeth. It’s far from unusual in New Zealand for children to inherit political power and position from their dead parents but it does need to be sanctioned by the vote. For example, Norman Kirk would soon take Lyttleton himself and his son, John, became an MP and a criminal after PM Kirk’s death but I repeat myself.

Let’s just talk about people as people shall we? To fuss about celebrating women for being women or Maori for being Maori to show how sexist and racist you ain’t really shows, by induction, how self-conscious about being sexist and racist you really are. Leave it!

Category Fetish History

Today’s event is noted in mainstream history not because of Elizabeth as a person but because someone in the category of ‘woman’ was elected. The same Collectivism and Identitarianism is noted when another arbitrary grouping like ‘gay’ or ‘Maori’ or ‘transexual’ is elected to office as if it were not about an achievement that belonged to a person but to a category.
 
When history focuses on Identitarianism it neglects the details of who this person was and why she was elected. It also neglects her husband who had the seat before her and her son who had it next because they’re not worthy of mention because they don’t register in a catagory-fetishised perspective of our history.

UPDATE: Added link to Kirk’s Death and comments about catagory-fetishism.

#Terry McCombs

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Anarchist History of New Zealand: The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority- Stanley Milgram