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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In discussing the options that are before the Israelis I wish to make it clear that I do not, personally, wish to see any of them unfold. I am merely resigned to the fact that one of them will unfold. This is analysis not advocacy and I have to make this point crystal clear because there are seemingly no end of people who are unable to distinguish those two things.
Now if I had my way, I would like to see some sort of negotiated political settlement that would bring a sort-of peace, or, at least, some measurable abatement in the level of violence. However, such an outcome would require not just an ideal world but a whole other world because it is not going to happen in this one. In this world, negotiations, conventions, conferences and processes are nought but an exercise in futility. You don’t just have to take my word for that, you can refer to Article 13 of the Hamas Covenant:
“Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement…
Now and then the call goes out for the convening of an international conference to look for ways of solving the (Palestinian) question. Some accept, others reject the idea, for this or other reason, with one stipulation or more for consent to convening the conference and participating in it. Knowing the parties constituting the conference, their past and present attitudes towards Moslem problems, the Islamic Resistance Movement does not consider these conferences capable of realising the demands, restoring the rights or doing justice to the oppressed. These conferences are only ways of setting the infidels in the land of the Moslems as arbitraters.”
A self-fulfilling prophecy if ever there was one. Still, if you were to ask the Palestinians they would probably argue that it was nothing more than an affirmation of an extant reality. As far as they are concerned, it’s Jihad or it’s nothing.
→ Continue reading: Israel .vs. Palestine (Part II)
Following on from Perry’s reference to the event on Saturday, and prompted by Brian Micklethwait, I have decided to commit my presentation to the Libertarian Alliance meeting to the Samizdata.
It isn’t all arm-twisting. This is not just an important issue, unarguably one of the ‘hottest’ of all topics, it is one that has potentially global implications and I do think it fitting to examine it in depth.
This is not merely a recantation of the events that are plastered bloodily across our TV screens and newspapers every day for every bomb that explodes and every bullet that flies makes headline news and anyone reading this post is already likely to be conversant with the actual events.
This is more a strategic assessment and overview.
The conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians (or more accurately, this round of the conflict) can be traced back to the Oslo Accords of the mid 90’s and the subsequent rounds of complex negotiations, culminating at Camp David in July 2000 when the Ehud Barak offer of Palestinian sovereignty over 95% of the West Bank, was rejected. Very shortly afterwards the Second (or Al-Aqsa) Intifada began.
Despite the welter of accusation and counter-accusation flying back and forth at the time, the real reason for the breakdown was the Israeli refusal to countenance the Palestinian demand for ‘Right of Return’ i.e. a right for all and any Palestinians to return and reside in Israel proper. It is a proposal that the Israelis cannot, under any circumstances, accept and one that the Palestinians will not, in any circumstances, withdraw.
→ Continue reading: Israel .vs. Palestine (Part I)
It is with great pride and honour that I can report that I, along with blogger Patrick Crozier and Chris Tame of the Libertarian Alliance took part in the Liberty and Livelihood march in London today. Samizdata contributor Antoine Clarke was also on the march and, although we communicated by text-mail, there were so many marchers that we never actually managed to meet up.
Did I say there were so many marchers? That does not even begin to tell the story. It was HUGE. I cannot recall ever seeing any public demonstration in Britain of this magnitude (and I’ve seen a few). The official figures state over 400,000 marchers but, from where we stood, that would appear to be an underestimate.
It began in from two points in Central London early this morning; two start points being necessary because of the enormous numbers involved. Even so, from our start point at Hyde Park, the throng was so large that it was next to impossible to actually determine where it began or where it ended. Eventually we just melded in where we could.
The atmosphere was one of pure defiance though there was no violence or law-breaking at all. The marchers were loud, proud and spirited, blowing whistles and horns, chanting and waving back to the cheering onlookers. Not once did the palpable grim resolve compromise the joyousness. It felt like a victory parade.
The most telling juxtaposition was provided by a handful (and I do mean a handful) of animal rights protestors, who all looked, well, how can I put this? Have you ever been on your way to an important business meeting and trodden in a dog-turd? That’s what they looked like.
Not being a photography-minded chap, I have no photos to post [Editor: sorted!] but I can recall some of the slogans that stood out from the sea of banners and flags carried along with the march (the Stars and Stripes being very prominent, incidentally).
This one stiffened my back:
“Born to Hunt, ready to Fight”
This one made me smile:
“We’ll keep our cowshit in the country,
you keep your bullshit in the town”
And this one raised the hairs on my neck:
“The Last Peaceful Demonstration”
Having moved among these people today, I am left with the distinct impression that they mean it.
How very odd that Perry should decide to add a category called ‘How Very Odd’ on exactly the same day when I uncover something that I can only describe as very odd.
Or, to be precise, it was uncovered by a colleague at work when seeking the website of the The Law Society. The Law Society is the professional governing body for solicitors in England and Wales and, as one would expect, it does have a very comprehensive website which is located at www.lawsoc.org.
However, acting largely on instinct, he initially typed www.lawsociety.org into his browser and found something altogether different not to mention wholly unrelated.
Just a coincidence that they chose a similar name for their website? Well, possibly I suppose. On the other hand, is it a deliberate marketing ploy? In either event, one must conclude that it is a very effective, if not altogether transparent, way of getting their messages across to a lot of British lawyers.
The Labour government is dropping heavy hints about further tax increases in order to fund what it euphamistically refers to as ‘redistribution of wealth, power and opportunity’. Pure, coal-filtered, organic bullshit with no artificial additives or flavourings. What they really want to do is loot more money from productive wealth-creating people and hand it over to their parasitical, wealth-destroying supporters in the public sector.
Of all the high-falutin’ media responses to this, none hits the nail so squarely on the head as Richard Littlejohn in The Sun:
“Like the Lottery, Labour takes money from Sun readers and gives it to Guardian readers, who then decide how best it should be spent.
This Government has presided over a massive explosion of unproductive, worthless public sector appointments.
How many times have I written about the hundreds of millions of pounds showered every year on the Guardian-reading classes?
Each week thousands of irrelevant, unnecessary jobs in Town Halls and Government departments are advertised in that newspaper.
Some days, the Guardian’s jobs supplement is three times the size of The Sun.
The Guardian is the last great nationalised industry. Without its massive subsidy from taxpayers it would fold.”
You call it exactly the way you see it, Richard. And you see it the way it is.
Because I expect it to get negligible coverage in the mainstream media, I feel obliged to remind everyone that grassroots Britain goes on the march this Sunday.
The Samizdata Team will be duly represented and, if you wish to join us we will be meeting with several others of a like mind at Hyde Park Corner at 09.45am Sunday morning.
Are you an anti-social thug? Do you enjoy terrorising your neighbours? Stealing from them? Generally making everybodys else’s life a hell? Do you sometimes long to live in a country where you can just destroy other people’s property and get away with it scot-free?
Well, then I suggest you come and live in Britain:
“Three men collared a teenage thug who hurled a brick through a window — only to end up charged with Kidnap”.
It gives me such a warm, fuzzy glow inside to know that I live in a country where the police won’t lift a finger to help you and you daren’t lift a finger to help yourself.
[For non-British readers the word ‘nick’ in the article headline is a British slang for ‘bust’]
The proprietors and staff of the Arab News express their condolences
Eager to exploit the growing market for British fashion across the pond, British designers have launched this sexy little number:
“The British Royal Air Force has developed and tested its own conventional warhead able to generate an electro-magnetic pulse. Some of the tests were done in the US, and US officials have said that the British weapon works better than the one they are trying to develop.”
Dahhhlings, this is simply the must have addition to the armoury of every serious anarcho-militarist this season.
Looks like some yellow-bellied, tenderfoot back East is kinda gettin’ his shorts in a knot:
“Mars could resemble the lawless Wild West if privately funded adventurers seeking to exploit the planet get there before government-backed expeditions, a leading British astronomer said on Wednesday.”
Well, let’s saddle up our hosses and ride the trail, pard’nurrs
Contrary to its popular cartoon image as a quaint, bucolic idyll, Britain is, and has been for some time, the most urbanised country in the world. The corollary of this is that British country folk are a minority without the political clout and voting power of the majority city-dwellers.
British governments are elected by those city-dwellers and that means that the country people are, shall we say, surplus to requirements. In most cases, this would be a blessing in disguise but, since emerging from 18 years of electoral wilderness, the re-invigorated Labour Party had dragons to slay.
The country folk are roundly loathed by most of the Labour Party who have always characterised them as ‘robber baron’ landowners, natural conservatives (in every sense of the word) and just too embarrassingly ‘British’ at a time when everyone was expected to have discarded such prehistoric notions.
Maybe Tony Blair shares those views, maybe not but what he has done is to serve up Britain’s rural communities as fresh red meat to quieten the marxist dogs in his own party. From the BSE fiasco, to the appalling incompetence and cruelty shown during the ‘Foot & Mouth’ outbreak (and which may yet prove to have been an act of sabotage), the banning of guns, the manipulation of planning laws so as to favour factory-farms (which have squeezed out the small, independent farmer) and now the proposed ban on hunting with dogs.
Five years of systematic bullying and persecution have so traduced Britain’s rural communities that some are simply no longer viable. They have paid a heavy price for being a detested minority. By degrees, their entire way of life is being abolished.
It is always difficult for a minority to fight back against a majority, especially when that majority has its hands of the levers of state power. But a promising way to begin is by (a) getting angry and (b) getting organised. Britain’s rural folk are now both and on September 22nd tens of thousands of them will take to the streets of the Capital to tell the government that they’re as mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore.
This is no block of rampaging rednecks. As with most things, the lefty metropolitan bigots are quite wrong about the rural people for they are as multifaceted and diverse as any others but they have actively choosen to unite under a slogan that proclaims ‘Liberty & Livelihood’ and that should tell you everything you need to know.
I canot read that slogan without being reminded of a famous song lyric: ‘Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose’. Well, if that’s true, then ‘nothing left to lose’ is also another word for ‘freedom’.
When I was deciding on a category to select for this glorious bit of news my cursor flickered momentarily over the ‘Science Fiction’ section because this item has ‘Heinlein’ written all over it.
Except that it’s true. An American company has been given the go-ahead by the Federal Government to launch the first private moon landing:
“TransOrbital of California has become the first private company in the history of spaceflight to gain approval from the US authorities to explore, photograph and land on the moon.”
I can hear the sound of rusty, iron floodgates opening.
“Several other private companies are pursuing Moon missions. LunaCorp of Virginia also wants to put a satellite into lunar orbit in 2003.”
And the seductive fizz of genies escaping from bottles.
“The Moon is ripe for commercial development,” said Dennis Laurie, of TransOrbital.”
That’s what we want to see; the commercial development of the moon and the whole solar system beyond. ‘Would you like fries with your McVenus, sir?’. Next stop: the stars!
Who knows, maybe, one day, it will even spread to Europe?
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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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