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]
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Samizdata quote of the day So my New Year message is this. Be less political. Stop caring.
– From NickM’s message for 2015.
If the world that NickM and I, and probably you, want is to happen, some of us probably do have to be very political. But I, and probably you, will know just what he means, particularly if we read the whole thing.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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Thanks Brian!
The young and strong (sadly I am neither) may get a chance to create a new situation soon. For very bad reasons – but let us “look on the bright side of life” (concentrate on the nice view – not the fact that we got nailed to this wooden thing).
Not the unpleasant business of economic and cultural collapse (and the deaths of so many of us) – but what comes AFTER this.
Let us hope that some of the young, in some places, create a non political society.
Not Somalia (several groups wanting to be the government), but a place (hopefully a lot of places) where people do not want a big government – regardless of who is in charge of it.
I think the key matter is education. If people think the state should educate (or pay for the education of) most children – everything else in Civil Society eventually follows.
And the reverse is also true – if educating the young is not considered a state function, little else is considered a matter for the “sword of state”.
All in favour of being political.
Well, you have to be, don’t you?
If you want to hang politicians you’ve got to know which ones you hang feet down & which ones feet up with their head in a sack of starving rats.
Things like this are important.
Looks like we have a few libertarians here who like being part of a tiny minority with practically no influence and would prefer to keep things that way. If this conversation is actually only about using politics to impose moral choices re marriage, family formation or drug usage I have no objection. But if it’s about conceding the field to the statists — who are ubiquitous, committed and indefatigible — it’s a recipe for disaster, or at least disaster greater than the usual level of disaster.
And as long as we’re wishing for a “non political society” can I add a few similarly feasible wishes of my own? How about:
Feral cats who don’t kill small rodents and birds.
A new type of water that doesn’t soak through my clothing when I go out in the rain sans umbrella.
Public servants anxious to abolish their own jobs at the earliest opportunity so as to conserve public resources and reduce the taxation of their countrymen.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke
I say, raise the actual personal consequences for deliberate stupidity.
Require (by foot on ass as needed-That’s the contra-do nothing bit) a “fair trade” of loss of “perks” for each “new” imagined “right”, and/or loss of revenue source for each “new” Interpretation of “authority”!
Be less “political”? Sure!
Does Political “Science” include “What is the optimum temperature for tar in subsequent application of feathers? How about “Optimal drop height, relative to height and weight of subject, for execution by hanging.”
(THAT list was in one edition of “The Book of Lists” I think.)
CaptDMO, for your edification (and, no doubt, future reference) here is the list of optimal drop heights. You’re welcome.
Wow Laird, thanks for that – I sit edified…
I made a (brief, obvious) comment at NickM’s site but it’s still stuck in moderation.
Sorted Jake…
What Gene said, etc.
You may not be interested in politics, but politics sure as hell is interested in you, and unless you’re involved you won’t be changing that.
(Yes I know this is not an original observation)
RAB > cheers
I made the same point as everybody else, i.e. that politics is a matter of self defence, but that’s not to say I disagree with NickM’s sentiments.
One wonders how many millions of potentially productive hours have been wasted in fruitless brooding and ranting on these topics by concerned individuals over time. I find taking the odd snipe at the enemy with a few choice words in a blog comment mildly cathartic (or reading other people’s), but that seems to be insufficient for some, and it’s undoubtedly a burden one would be better off without.
What I thought was an Ayn Rand quote sprang to mind, but according to WP it turns out it’s called the Serenity Prayer:
Though come to think of it, it does sound pretty defeatist.
Yes I understand what the lad has been about for some time…
But over on CCIZ I, and others, will still be putting the verbal boot where it so richly belongs… in the guts of the power hungry and venal. If and when I feel like it mind. Otherwise I’ll populate my posts with musicians and such. 😉