We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Samizdata quote of the day

This whole idea of ‘respect’ – which is a code-word for ‘fear’ – is something we have to get away from.

– Salman Rushdie (interviewed on BBC Radio 4). Indeed. And not just in where the bullying religiose are concerned. Tolerance should not mean pretending to agree.

9 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • Alisa

    Very true, but not to be forgotten is that apparently the whole “protest” wave was planned and orchestrated well in advance, with the movie used as a timely – here’s that word again -pretext.

    BTW Guy, you may have forgotten to close the italics tag…

  • Jim

    This a very astute observation, which had never occurred to me before. Fits all the uses of the word in modern parlance, Muslims who demand we ‘respect’ Islam, hoodies on the street who demand ‘respec’, right down to Don Corleone asking some poor unfortunate who about to get wacked ‘Why you no respect my family?’.

    This should become the default response for any public figure who gets the ‘respect’ issue thrown at him or her.

  • CaptDMO

    If I am asked to “respect” the chosen behavior of folks who desperately cling to a tenet that they slay or enslave folks “not like us”, that folks born into such “privilage” and “discover” it’s a load of crap must also be shunned or slain-
    Well then, I have no choice.

    Let me know when the nice folks demanding such “respect” start a purification rite that involves flinging their full auto, high capacity personal weapons of war into flowing fresh water en masse.

    But enough about syndicated ink appologists, and other loud/proud Communist Tee Vee show dupes …

    Now that I’m seeing world maps, with big shaded areas of “trouble”, along with “interviews” with (generally eximportant) “international experts”, citing “Be careful what you ask for…” in 20-20 hindsight, I also have no choice but to recall the ridiculed intellectual prophet whose contra-academia classroom blackboard lessons and lectures are now “the news”.

    His name is Glen Beck.

    TODAYS Conspiracy theory:
    “I can make an apperance of world class “respect”, generate conflict that only I can pretend to “repair”, by “appointing” my woman “opponent”(bwa ha ha ha…) to “negotiate” matters of great importance, with the folks that look the most like the ones that raised me.
    Hmmm…let’s see…good faith “gesture”…?
    Ooo….disarm, and impovrish, my own “critics”, using plausable deniability of “appointed” operatives, (Top down, and bottom up) . But I’ll need some sort of exceptional “work around” of The Rules for um…you know… (“pssst-…after the “election”).

    The more things change…

  • “When you are the stronger, I ask you for freedom, because that is your principle. When I am the stronger, I take away your freedom, because that is my principle.”
    — that 19thC French guy…

  • Laird

    TDK, I haven’t been able to get your link to work (and can’t find a relevant cartoon on The Onion’s website). Could you check the link?

  • Alisa

    I don’t even see a link…