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

Live and let live, be and let be
Hear and let hear, see and let see
Sing and let sing, dance and let dance
You like Offenbach, I do not
So what, so what, so what

Read and let read, write and let write
Love and let love, bite and let bite
Live and let live, and remember this line
Your business is your business
And my business is mine

Live and let live, be and let be
Hear and let hear, see and let see
Drink and let drink, eat and let eat
You like bouillabaisse, I do not
So what, so what, so what

Talk and let talk, quip and let quip
Dress and let dress, strip and let strip
Live and let live, and remember this line
Your business is your business
And my business is mine

– The lyric of one of Cole Porter’s slightly lesser known songs. Cole Porter is this week’s Radio Three Composer of the Week. Yesterday, Porter himself was to be heard singing this song.

But what’s with that “bite and let bite”?

8 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • But what’s with that “bite and let bite”?

    He was a Luis Suarez fan?

    Also, I’m sure you know that the original lyrics to “You’re the Tops” contained positive references to Benito Mussolini.

  • PeterT

    Apart from rhyming with ‘write’, it might mean that you should accept that some of your actions may affect others in a negative if minor way, and that their actions may affect you similarly. A call for tolerance. ‘Freedom has friction’ if you like.

  • Laird

    I had never heard of this song before, but it’s nice. I found a YouTube clip of the great Maurice Chevalier singing it (with Louis Jourdan).

  • Karl Lembke

    Could he have been saying “bide and let bide”?

  • Nick (Natural Genius) Gray

    ‘Eat what you like, and let others eat what they like’?

  • RRS

    Are there no libertarians here who have experienced that expression of physical passion?

    Have none experienced the urge to “nibble” on their appealing infants as a mood and display of affection?

    Have none seen that in animal behaviors?

    or is everybody just “hangin’ back?”

  • Julie near Chicago

    RRS, we are Libertarians. Sort of.

    We are above such physical expression.

    Except in the case of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

  • Paul Marks

    Cole Porter was all over the place ideologically – but he was tolerant (sincerely so – not just because he was a homosexual and feared persecution).

    One of the two great men from Peru Indiana – the other being the great economist Frank Fetter.

    Who (alas) lost the battle for influence to Irving Fisher – the person who (falsely) argued that monetary expansion was O.K. as long as the “price level” was stable.

    Whether Keynesian or Friedmanite (Milton Friedman) – American economics (and Western economics generally) takes Irving Fisher’s side of the argument – and Fisher was wrong (Frank Fetter was correct).