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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The price of blogging In some cases, it is a heavy price.
The Swordsman, Iain Murray, one of the brightest stars in the blogging firmament, has just been summarily dismissed from his job:
“My employment was terminated this morning, with this blog stated as the reason.
It sounds like he has been treated very shabbily indeed. He has a wife and a small child so, if you can, please make your way over to his blog and leave something in the tip-jar. If you unable to do that, then at least let him know that you care.
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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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David,
Thank you so much. This sort of thing tells me who my friends are, despite our occasional disagreements.
England shall be Free,
Iain
I am very sorry to hear this. Good luck Iain, England’s Sword is one of the finest.
Who will they come for next, I wonder.
Who indeed? If this can happen in the U.S., it can happen here, notwithstanding differences in employment law.
Increasingly, it seems that to blog with ease, you need to be self-employed. Also, I have taken the step of always blogging from home or at a private address like an internet cafe, since technically my firm could object to me writing on company time for something not connected to the job.
A shame, hope Iain gets sorted out. One of the really good guys.
I’ve only just found the Swordsman, but I’m very sorry to hear that this sort of thing can happen.
I’m going to blog about it too, and hopefully send some others your way, Iain.
It seems that blogs are becoming more and more of a thorn in the proverbial heel. I have also started to blog under a pseudonym and can no longer do so from work. And when I think of all those taking their fag breaks! (That is a cigarette break – for the benefit of the US audience)
I sometimes wonder if this is why most of my customers are libertarian or just plain compleat Capitalists who wouldn’t give a s*** what I talk about so long as I’m cheaper, better and faster…
My condolences.
Andrew and I are experienceing some rich heck at the hands of HM Immigration. See this post and comments for details.
A very interesting point – is Iain being punished for writing a diary on work time and facilities [however fatuous that idea is] – or is it a question of his identity?
Would he have been shown the door simply because his name is on the website expressing views his employer did not like, even if every letter and comma was written from home?
Shifting the idea back into an older technology for a moment, could Iain have been asked to leave his workplace because of a [non-libellous, perfectly legal] letter with his name on published in a newspaper?
Nice article