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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Subliminal propaganda? I am not a serious photographer like some other Samizdatistas. I’ve never had a camera before. So my apologies for the quality of my snaps. I thought I might start using my new phone, which comes with a camera, to record the bullying advertising I see everywhere in London.
That was my intention. However, the first thing that struck my eye yesterday was not direct scaremongering or threat on behalf of the authorities, more an accidental declaration of the New Labour credo:
This is what life is like in the convergence to the total state: ordinary traffic markers acquire political meaning. The dumb stones and steel become eloquent of our masters’ will.
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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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I’ve been quite struck for some time by the use of the “bare participle” as the grammatical category of choice for propaganda. I’m always meaning to collect real world examples, but it’s easy to just think them up off the top of your head – I’m sure the following can be found somewhere:
Keeping you informed.
Looking after your needs.
Making sure you are safe.
“NEW NO LEFT TURN BAN AHEAD”
Is this a ban on new ‘no left turn’s?
Or a new ban on ‘no left turn’s?
We drove from Heathrow Airport into Central London last night and my Ukrainian girlfriend wondered why there are stripes denoting a separate lane along the M4. When I explained that they are ‘priority’ lanes for buses and politicians she immediately understood. “Ah, Chaika* lanes for the Politburo” was her response. Another sign of our times perhaps?
* – ‘Chaika’ (gull – from the GAZ M13 Chaika) was the slang used for the limousines favoured by the Soviet Politburo. They had similar ‘priority’ lanes painted along streets in Moscow and other cities.
Good God – you have separate lanes for your politburo. Even in an America groaining under the jackbooted heel of Bushitler, I can assure you no such thing would be tolerated. I don’t even think our political masters would attempt such a thing.
No – we have priority lanes for Buses, which arrogant politicians decide don’t apply to them.
“The dumb stones and steel become eloquent of our masters’ will.”
Man, you oughta be a writer.
That’s a sensational turn of phrase, right there.
That M4 bus lane is also open to motorcycles, nothing beats hooning past the herd at seventy while they’re stuck unmoving.
I get most annoyed by that ‘C’ congestion zone sign; ” beyond here these are no longer your streets, but belong to the nastiest little ginger twat ever to oil his way into a post”