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

For a couple of centuries an “Advertisement” in Philosophical Transactions expressly forbade pronouncements by the [Royal] Society as a whole on any scientific or practical matter.

… it is an established rule of the Society, to which they will always adhere, never to give their opinion, as a Body, upon any subject, either of Nature or Art, that comes before them.

That sensible “Advertisement” disappeared in the 1960s when a politically ambitious physicist, Patrick Blackett, was the President.

– From the blog of Nigel Calder, doyen of science writers, via Philip Stott, who does his bit to inject some climate realism into the Radio 4’s Home Planet.

The Royal Society should return to its former path of virtue. And The Lancet would benefit from that motto, too.

2 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • Steven Groeneveld

    WEll its all part of the politicisation (and corruption) of science. Some people say the rot started with the Manhatten project. That was when scientists started seriously feeding at the trough of government money and few have managed to ween themselves off it.

    Of course its axiomatic taht when governments fund research, they are not interested in the truth for its own sake, but only for answers that justify their ideologies

  • cjf

    The politicalization of non-political institutions and organizations is part of the collectivist tactic.

    The dogma of the Soviets was that war is political and
    the military must be politicalized. Stalin’s purges of his
    own military officers prior to war with his ally Hitler, who had followed the same policy, abeit with an older,
    traditionalized military establishment.

    In the US, the progressive politicalization has been kept quiet, as it extended throughout all non-political
    organizations and institutions. Casualties are seldom
    in body counts as in simple punishment or removal.

    Fairness, equality and diversity make good troja horses

    So does the threat of terrorism.