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

“I ended up as an activist in a very different place from where I started. I thought that if we just redistributed resources, then we could solve every problem. I now know that’s not true. There’s a funny moment when you realize that as an activist: The off-ramp out of extreme poverty is, ugh, commerce, it’s entrepreneurial capitalism. I spend a lot of time in countries all over Africa, and they’re like, Eh, we wouldn’t mind a little more globalization actually.”

Bono, the rock musician from U2. It would be quite amusing to see him say all this on stage the next time he is in front of the crowds at Glastonbury. Watch their heads explode. (I should add that he is far from going full classical liberal, but that’s not a bad start.) He is quoted at the Marginal Revolution blog, that took the quote from a paywalled New York Times page.

7 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • Steven R

    Bono might weigh 80 Courics, but even he wants money in his pocket (remember when U2 moved their business from Ireland to Holland so they could pay less in taxes and when he said Ireland’s low coprorate tax rate was a good thing and all the protests at Glastonbury as a result) and he gets that people in developing countries want what people in the West have.

  • Kirk

    Well, at least he’s demonstrated the ability to learn. Something that’s apparently beyond about 99.999% of the ideologues.

  • Komakino75

    Nobo and his bunch of chancers were lucky to be in the right place at the right time when Ian Curtis hung himself on the night before Joy Divisions first American tour…

    AND that Ian McCullochs big mouth meant the Septics never took to Echo & The Bunnymen…

    He has always been a tw*t

  • Stuart Noyes

    Does full classical liberal mean belief in no nation states or conservatism

  • Paul Marks

    Who knows – perhaps some African nations will prove to be the future of liberty.

    When the Roman Empire collapsed the most civilised place in Western Europe was Ireland – partly because it had not been part of the Empire.

    Clear and secure private ownership of land is the foundation – it has to be clear, in Kenya and other countries, who owns what land.

    Then sound money and so on – but I often write about that, and I do not want to bore people.

  • Paul Marks

    Stuart Noyes.

    No.

    For example, Classical Liberalism holds free trade to be a ECONOMIC thing – with no need for “common institutions” and “public-private” partnerships.

    The thing about the “Internatinal Rules Based Liberal Order” is that it is not really liberal at all.

    J.M. Keynes and the other world “governance” fans who created it were NOT Classical Liberals – although the “liberal world order” did not start off as bad as it is now.

    It is got worse over time – but there were seeds of this mess in the system from the start after World War II.

    To make it simple – Classical Liberals want people to be free to trade, we do not want the IMF, the World Bank, and all the rest of this madness.

    “Can a Classical Liberal, or Old Whig, be a Conservative and can they be loyal to their nation?”

    Yes – for example, Edmund Burke.