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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Bonfire Night Remember, remember, the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot,
I see no reason,
why gunpowder treason,
should ever be forgot!
– Traditional English, sung on 5th November.
I wonder if in the future, the ‘Guy’ burnt in effigy on the bonfires around Britain on the 5th November will be known by the name of other more recent traitors, as a ‘Chris’ or a ‘Ted’1 rather than a ‘Guy’.
Rest in peace, Guy Fawkes… the only honest man to ever enter Parliament.
Eurosceptic views are not a new thing in Britain
1 = Thanks to Patrick Crozier for the link
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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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This seems relevant for us Americans on this election day. It’s time to take treasonous politicians out of our offices.
At the risk of causing people to claim I’m meddling, I encourage people all over the U.S. to vote Libertarian.
Not as far-fetched as you might think.
This is completely self-aggrandizing, but in honor of Guy Fawkes Day, I put a review of Alan Moore’s excellent V for Vendetta up on BlogCritics.
Interesting that Nixon was elected in ’68 and Clinton reelected in ’96 on Guy Fawkes Day. With this track record, I’m guessing that we’ll be electing another skank into the White House in the 2024 US election.
Which also happens to be my birthday.
No, I didn’t blow out sticks of dynamite on my birthday cake.
Hello again David. I’ll try dropping the G until the other Mark comes back!
I think it might not be necessary to pander to those voters and then turn on them.
I’m not sure yet, but I am guessing they’re in two main groups:
1] Middle-class Labour voters with some coherent Socialist beliefs [income redistribution, Green sympathies, class loyalties to parents’ generation etc] whose above-average incomes are partly supported by the state sector [education, health, local councils, quangos etc];
2] Middle-class “‘New’ Labour” voters who previously voted Conservative or Liberal, and who are interested in lower taxes and a smaller state, but don’t like their free health service declining in quality and got worried by the Thatcherites’ talk of private health plans and private pensions.
I don’t have too many clear ideas at the moment, but I think there may be some clever and honest deals that could be offered to the second group. Just off the top of my head, the government could give two or three year personal tax holidays to high-earning, high-spending individuals who can prove they are living [let’s say] 250 days a year in a traditional high-unemployment area, like Liverpool or Glasgow. That should raise their spending where it can be seen to do good from the social-democratic point of view, at the same time as slowly building a constituency who find they rather enjoy the experience of paying much less in tax.
Meanwhile houseprices in those depressed areas would rise [cheering homeowners, natural Conservative voters, in those areas] and certain businesses might start to try to sell their services outside the overheated South East.
Just an idle suggestion.
The real point is I think some Conservative leaders may be confusing middle-class voters in groups [1] and [2] with each other….
My apologies – I obviously clicked on the wrong comments box.
Sorry everyone.