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 slogan of the day

A man in New York City is suing McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s and KFC, saying they have made him fat. He is also suing Victoria Secret for making him play with himself.
– Jay Leno

Samizdata slogan of the day

Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences.
-Robert Louis Stevenson

Samizdata slogan of the day

Never become mired in defending an unworkable idea out of some misguided ego or machismo motivation. Cut your losses and move on.
– James C. Freund

Samizdata slogan of the day

Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so.
– Bertrand Russell

Samizdata slogan of the day

Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they’ve told you what you think it is you want to hear.
– Alan Corenk

RSPCA: Royal Society for the Persecution of Countryside Activities

‘Animal rights’ campaigners of the RSPCA were themselves the target of protests by rural activists who are having their entire way of life criminalised.

But the fact is, the establishment will not take any notice of well mannered protests by people from the leafy shires. Of course there is indeed an established template for a minority-within-a-minority group in the British Isles to successfully defeat a majoritarian tyranny, provided you are willing to fight your corner for many years.

Sadly that template is Sinn Fein, the ‘political wing’ of the Provisional IRA: if the deck is stacked against you, play the game by different rules, a fact that has not been lost on some of the members of the Countryside Alliance’s splinter factions… and those ‘splinters’ are rather larger than many care to admit.

Samizdata slogan of the day

Indeed the Idols I have loved so long
Have done my Credit in men’s Eyes much wrong:
Have drown’d my Honour in a shallow Cup,
And sold my Reputation for a Song
– The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 69, First Edition

Samizdata slogan of the day

The constant expansion of the market, both in extensiveness and in intensity, was the result of an absence of a political order extending over the whole of Western Europe
– Jean Baechler, The Origins of Capitalism

Samizdata slogan of the day

Gun control? It’s the best thing you can do for crooks and gangsters. I want you to have nothing. If I’m a bad guy, I’m always gonna have a gun. Safety locks? You’ll pull the trigger with a lock on, and I’ll pull the trigger. We’ll see who wins.
– Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano, Mafia hit man

Samizdata slogan of the day

The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside…Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them…
– Thomas Paine, Thoughts on Defensive War in 1775

Samizdata slogan of the day

No kingdom can be secured otherwise than by arming the people. The possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave. He, who has nothing, and who himself belongs to another, must be defended by him, whose property he is, and needs no arms. But he, who thinks he is his own master, and has what he can call his own, ought to have arms to defend himself, and what he possesses; else he lives precariously, and at discretion.
– James Burgh from Political Disquisitions: or, an Enquiry into Public
Errors, Defects, and Abuses
, London, 1774-1775

Blogger lost… then found, in London

At Brian Micklethwait’s monthly meeting of libertarian subversives in Victoria, American blogger-in-exile Robert Bauer, of Hokiepundit fame, attended after first getting spectacularly lost en-route.

He has wisely decided to keep quiet about certain secrets he has learned about me and as a result I see a long and healthy future for the young man.