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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“Good evening, this is the news from the BBC. Peace Activists are still besieging the Saudi Arabian embassy in London to protest at Saudi Arabian funding of violent terrorist organisations and aggressively exporting Wahhabist Islam. Although there are no reports of any violence, the activists have been handing out sample bottles of Vodka and girlie magazines to passers-by as a symbol of their disapproval of the Saudi regime.
A spokesperson for the activists said that the American military campaign will not stop until the root causes of American anger had been addressed.
Root causes of American anger Meanwhile at a meeting of European Heads of State in Strasbourg, Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder issued a joint statement again condemning Al-Qaeda as a gang of ruthless savages and a threat to the entire civilised world. They also issued a warning to Saddam Hussein not to indulge in any aggressive, unilateralist behaviour that would lead to more conflict and cause even more anger in the West. Monsieur Chirac was particularly forthcoming, describing the Iraqi regime as ‘simplistic bedouin warriors’. His words were warmly welcomed by Church leaders and trade union representatives. Now over to Caroline for the weather…”
When glamourous, leggy women in figure-hugging clothes are being wooed with statistics about the European Central Bank and it works; when people are toasting the imminent demise of the House of Saud; when the urgent intensity of gin-soaked geo-politics is interrupted only by the furious munching of habanero-flavoured nachos; when the sound of polite laughter at a really good joke about Tony Blair fills the air; when a man lurches up to you and says something that sounds like:
“Aarg ftmch nt’elly ‘ckin gbment shh blettin narg like fuff, cos ee dregs ding tchil oil vusso (burp) shlyinng gug nuvern else”
…and expects you to answer him, you know you’ve probably been invited to a British Blogger Bash. One could scarcely believe that these bold, shining, fearless Warriors of the Great Western Way could be transformed into a semi-amorphous mass of gibbering, leering primates merely by the application of sufficient quantities of alcohol but that is the stark truth of the matter.
But the truth, as well as setting you free, can also be a lot of fun.
I passionately believe in freedom of speech and not just for my friends but also for my enemies. Not just for people who are right but also for people who are wrong and even for people who are vile and obnoxious.
One of the many reasons for my view is that freedom of speech enables us to identify the bad guys among us. Unfettered by laws or conventions they will, in the fullness of time, display their true colours. Freedom of speech is not just desirable, it is an essential tool of survival.
I am very glad the enviro-mentalists are able to speak their minds because that enables the sane among us to learn the extent of their psychosis. Let us ponder, for a moment, on this little gem:
“Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on earth, social and environmental. — Dave Forman, Founder of Earth First!
Enviro-mentalism is not just a ‘different viewpoint’; it is a deranged, homicidal death cult and should be treated as such.
Since these people have expressed a clear (and gleeful) desire to exterminate us all, I believe it to be of the utmost importance to ensure that they never acquire the means to do so.
In the meantime, I nominate this question for debate: Is shooting an enviro-mentalist a legitimate act of self-defence?
Over on Airstrip One they’re getting themselves in something of a lather over the prospect of British involvement in any attack on Iraq. Hadrian Wise is forthright:
“There are many reasons for opposing British participation in an American attack on Iraq, but there is only one good one: that it is not in our interests.”
Really? I have what I consider to be jolly sound reasons for taking quite the opposite view.
Anyone who has not been in hibernation for the last 20 years must surely by now have noticed that Britain as a sovereign nation is being subjected to a remorseless process of extinction by degrees and I think it uncontroversial to suggest that, if Britain is subsumed into the Holy Belgian Empire, then any further discussion of British national interests will have been made entirely redundant by virtue of there no longer being a country called Britain. Are we agreed? Good. Let’s move on.
Given the above-mentioned scenario, one would have thought that the most screamingly urgent national interest would be to avoid it all costs and I suggest that a good way of avoiding it would be by steadfastly maintaining our strategic alliance with the USA whose own national interests are, as has been widely noted, growing increasingly inverse to the more nebulous concerns of the Europeans. This is an opportunity that British patriots could not, dare not miss.
As Our Glorious Leader maintains his pledge to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Americans, he alienates not only about two-thirds of his own political party but, far more importantly, drives an ever-deeper wedge between Britain and Brussels; a wedge that can only prove to be vital to our national survival. Does Blair have the political capital to throw us into the war against Iraq and get Britain into the Euro? I think not. The choice confronting us, therefore, is a) the extinction of Britain or b) the extinction of Saddam Hussein. Ooh, that’s a tough one!
Now before anybody embarks upon a lambast of my apparent callousness, I do realise that waging war on Saddam will, in all likelihood, lead to loss of both British troops and Iraqi civilians. I want to assure all that I am not indifferent to this but we’re talking about stark national interests here and, in that context, such sentimentalities do not get a look in. They never have and they never will.
So, as far as I am concerned, Tony Blair is doing the right thing and I cannot tell you how strange it feels to type those words. This is because I, along with many others, always believed that he saw his own destiny as future President of Europe. But I now suspect this may have changed. I think that the hand of history that Blair feels on his shoulder has shoved him rudely onto a different track; a track that I, as a patriotic Englishman, find most agreeable and one that I could scarcely have conceived of on September 10th 2001.
Today in Johannesburg, the delegates at the Earth Conference moved onto the next important phase in the proceedings: water sports.
Having accepted the monumental challenge of solving the problems of poverty and environmental degradation, the delegates have maintained their unanimous opening day resolution, that they were all having far too much fun to worry about that sort of thing and that the world would be far better off if they all did as little as humanly possible during the ten-day Conference.
So, this morning, the Conference moved en masse to the Lakeside Pavilion where they will have a choice of jet-skiing, windsurfing, snorkelling or simply soaking up that radiant South African sunshine with a selection of cocktails and a trashy novel. All eyes, though, will be on the Head of the Brazilian Rainforest Foundation who is rumoured to be something of a dab-hand at Beach Volleyball.
But not all the delegates have been this proactive. Back at the hotel, Indian Development Minister Laxmi Ennerjee spent the entire day languishing in the Tropical Hothouse Spa Jacuzzi, together with his, erm, ‘Research Assistant’ Trudi. While the sparkly Trudi toyed with his greying chest hairs, the Minister lay motionless in the warm, herb-infused bubbles; his head occasionally lolling to one side in order to lick a dollop of tangerine-flavoured yoghurt from between Trudi’s quivering breasts. In an attempt to explain away this apparent lack of wordly concern, he said:
“Look, it’s really very simple. We were charged with the responsibility of ending poverty, saving the planet and maintaining an economic equilibrium between all nations and people of the entire world. But when we got right down to it”, he sighed heavily, “it was all too much like hard work and we decided that we just couldn’t be bothered”
Despite what some would regard as a refreshing candour, the delegates have, nevertheless, come under fierce criticism from Inactivists who accuse the delegates of being a part of the problem not a part of the solution. Daniel Le Thargy spokesperson for the Coalition Against Movement said:
“You just have to observe the furious vigour with which these guys play Canasta around the poolside to realise they are actually heating up our atmosphere. They should learn to do something much less productive, like sleeping. Sleeping is fun and involves no carbon emissions whatsoever.”
Denying accusations that he was simply a luddite, Mr.Le Thargy went onto to explain:
“Our aim is get Third World farmers off of their knees, and put them flat on their backs.”
But the Conference has brushed aside these protests and, following the afternoon’s recreation by the waterside, the delegates then went into a delicate round of complex negotiations, wrangling and horse-trading before a resolution was passed calling for tonight’s dinner to consist of an open barbecue with a Thai & Vietnamese theme. Speaking to a Dutch correspondent, British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed confidence that agreed targets for at least 80% attendance at tomorrow’s Bingo & Billiards party would be met.
First, they came for the Haggis and I said nothing, because I did not eat Haggis
Then, they came for the Oysters, and I said nothing, because I did not eat Oysters
Then, they came for the Pheasant, and I said nothing, because I did not eat pheasant
Then, they came for the Venison, and I said nothing, because I did not eat Venison
And finally, they came for the Pate de Fois Gras, and there was nothing left worth eating!
Since curbing pollution seems to rank high among the aims of the delegates in Johannesburg they could start by dissolving back into their relatively harmless constituent parts and thereby avoid releasing into the atmosphere the several thousand tons of toxic gases that will result from the mixture of bureaucratic ambition, junk science and high-octane idiocy that is currently being manifested. Just let them mingle long enough to gobble down their ostrich canapes, give them their complimentary set of South African Airways in-flight cabin slippers and let them bugger off back to Absurdistan (or ‘Europe’ as its more commonly known) or wherever else it was they came from in the first place.
This Grand Conference for Solving All The Problems In The World should, on the fact of it, at least, prove to be a heaven-sent gift for bloggers. Over the next two weeks it will produce more Fiskable material than the Daily Wanker could produce in several lifespans.
Again, on the face of it, eye-watering, snot-inducing hilarity is just about all that will actually materialise from Johannesburg. The sheer scale of the ambitions leads me to believe that it is a project that almost seems destined to fail. However, since most people believe that the way to abolish poverty and all other problems is to gather together vast numbers of Well-Meaning People together in one big room to make grand pronouncements and write lots of impressive things on lots of bits of paper, there will be months of outrage, anguish, recriminations and accusations. Angry media pundits will turn their cynical (for the wrong reasons) indignation on caught-in-the-headlight politicians who will squirm off the hook by blaming their failure on those greedy Americans who ‘steal all the world’s resources’.
Sane people, however, will look around them and note that they still have their cars, washing machines, supermarkets and flushing toilets and breathe a sigh a relief that danger has passed.
That would be wrong.
Like all such conferences there is a primary public agenda and secondary real agenda. The real agenda is to be found among the brightest and best of Tranzi talent that is among the 65,000 or so delegates and for whom ‘Sustainable Development’ is a euphamism for a Global Economic Plan. These are the direct descendants of the people who once provided the intellectual tools for the Bolsheviks and, over the next two weeks, they will formulate their plans, cement their relationships, hammer out their various protocols and generally quicken each other. By the time the other delegates have applauded the final conference condemnation of US unilaterlism, the Tranzis will have welded together the skeleton of World Government.
At just about the same time as the rest of us are watching Baghdad light up like a Christmas Tree, various innocuous-sounding International Agreements will start materialising; this is the flesh on the bones. The process will continue step by stealthy step, away from the limelight and at a safe distance from anyone anywhere who might want to vote on any of it.
The first task in defeating an enemy is identifying the enemy and the second step is knowing how they operate. So warn your family, your friends and your neighbours and ring the village bell to warn the townsfolk. Tell them that the enemy is coming and be prepared to repel all borders.
Is Britain revolting? According to this report in the Straits Times the British are as MAD as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore.
“This week, anonymous letters were sent to national newspapers by an organisation calling itself Motorists Against Detection (Mad), claiming responsibility for the acts of vandalism against the cameras.
The growing number of attacks on cameras in recent weeks signalled the start of a British-wide assault on the devices, Mad warned.
Although thousands of cameras have been damaged, police have not received a single message from any passing driver reporting a vandalism. As a result, no one so far has been caught damaging a camera.
Strangely, though, not so much as a word about this in the British press. So what’s the score? Was it simply a slow-news day in Singapore, so time for a bit of journalistic licence? Or is it being kept quiet here for fear that publicity will only fuel further civil disobediance?
Fear and self-loathing in Johannesburg.
This deeply concerned man was going about his usual business of saving the poor and oppressed of the Earth when one them mugged him. His response?
“He had not laid a charge because he believed the muggers were the very people who needed to be helped by the summit”.
A useful pointer for those of you determined to stem the spread of Tranzi ideology: it seems to rush in to fill a vacuum. The vacuum in question here is the British medical establishment in the form of The Lancet, its leading publication.
According to the Sawbones Union, what the world needs is a global body to direct economic development. Thus proving that just because someone is a doctor doesn’t mean they’ve actually got any brains.
The article includes this thigh-slappingly hilarious assertion:
“It says there is no consensus on the best policies for development, as there has been no scientific analysis of what works and what does not.”
Hmm, I diagnose an advanced case of Economic Illiteracy. I recommend that they be locked in a room with Paul Marks three times a day before meals. If symptoms persist, then I’m afraid that the condition is probably terminal.
Chris Bertram has taken Steven Den Beste to task for his ruggedly anti-tranzi views. Chris has pointed out that Steve’s attack on the tranzis for their promotion of ‘group’ rights over individual rights is flawed by the resultant support for the Nation State which, in itself, is an exercise in ‘group’ rights over individual ones.
I am not jumping to Steve’s defence here because I am sure that he is more than capable of fighting his own corner, but I think the real grist of the complaint about tranzi ideology lies not so much in its collectivism but its basis in Gramscian Deconstruction i.e. true equality cannot be achieved until people have been stripped of their internalised bourgeois values and reconstructed as ‘new’ citizens. A philosophy which later heavily influenced Pol Pot among others. This is what Steve may have been driving at and, if so, he is quite right.
But Chris’s counterpunch is not without merit. As a libertarian, I have mistrust of national governments hard-wired into every single one of my response mechanisms but even the likes of me is not so warped by disappointments and frustrations that I am prepared to leap from the frying pan and into the fire.
The fire I speak of is World Government and that is precisely the tranzi agenda (‘Global Governance’ is already on the curriculum of every UK law school); the replacement of sovereign countries with mere districts universally bound by one set of laws, one set of standards, one set of morals and (as sure as night follows day) harmonised taxes. Elected leaders would become nothing more than the Gauleiters of the Third Reich; equipped with some degree of autonomy but finally answerable to Berlin.
This is quite the worst idea ever devised by man, not just because that World Government is likely to govern on deeply unhealthy principles but because it will render extinct the one thing that keeps stupid and rapacious politicians (and are there any other kind?) in check: a means of escape.
I have lost count of the number of men and women I have met who were born behind the Iron Curtain and in every single case they recounted the stories of how they were dazzled and inspired by the increasing preponderance of images seeping in from the prosperous West and convincing them there was a better world out there that was being denied to them. A few years of that and bang went the Soviet Union.
Just like bad ideas need to be pushed out by good ideas, so bad regimes will eventually fall because of the existence of good (or better regimes). There is nothing more sobering for political classes drunk with power than the ability of their wealth-producing and ambitious citizens to up sticks and bugger off somewhere more conducive to their aspirations, leaving said political classes without a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. Global governance will have no such impediments, having, in effect, a captive citizenry with nowhere to escape to improve their lives. One standardised world bereft of all diversity (and , ironically, diversity is one of the cornerstone principles the tranzis obsessively purport to promote). Yes, it will a borderless world in which you can roam freely but there will be no point in doing so. Different landscape, same old shit.
Besides, there is the no small matter of elections in nation states. David Blunkett may be a son of a bitch but at least he’s our son of a bitch and if he presses too many buttons on too many Britons he will rapidly become an ex-son of a bitch. Would that a similar facility existed for dealing with the likes of Kofi Annan. It doesn’t and it never will.
Free from any disincentives, it is only a matter of time before Global Governance becomes Global Tyranny. There will simply be no reason for it not to do so.
So Chris and Steve may have been having an eloquent argument but it was the wrong argument. Rather like a market in goods and services means choice and prosperity for consumers, so a market in governments, a diversity of different jurisdictions with radically different ways of doing things, gives choice and freedom to us all. For sure it means that some regimes will be rotten and vile but, equally, others will not and the latter will prevail over the former by sheer dint of their existence.
Until such time as our species has conquered the far reaches of the cosmos (an exciting prospect, but I ain’t holding my breath) then a world of sovereign, independent nations is our means of escape in case of fire. It is a universal slave railroad and an insurance policy for mankind that should be defended at any cost.
[My thanks to Patrick Crozier for the heads-up]
If I had suggested that the next head of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights would be someone like Colonel Gadaffi everyone would assume that I was making a lame attempt at satire.
Well, Colonel Gadaffi has just been appointed as the next head of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Of course, the possibility that this is the work of one or more Western intelligence agencies (MI6?) cannot be entirely discounted but regardless of whether it is or not, it is actually robustly good news. It means that the Tranzis are casting off any pretences about the true nature of their project.
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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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