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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Tom Burroughes makes a great point with his new phrase, “False Market Fundamentalism Syndrome”. However, I think that for reasons of making it simple for the simpleton members of the press we should call it FMFS. It then sounds like a disease and we all know how the press like reporting on diseases, even ones that don’t necessarily exist. If it sounds nasty, press outlets like the BBC in the UK and CBS in the USA just on trying to be cutting edge in convincing the populace that absolutely nothing in life is safe.
Further the thoughts on ‘paleos’ of both left and right, it never ceases to amaze me to hear a senior politician make a pronouncement about how ordinary people feel about their freedom. It generally runs along the lines of; “they are too busy to be concerned with theoretical arguments about freedom. They are concerned with the money in their pocket, the state of the roads and public services.” The first time I heard this it amazed me to the core of my being.
Of course the general public has a lot to answer for, after all the natural reaction to almost anything is: “the government ought to do something.” It is critical for libertarians to counter this belief that the government is the answer to all problems. This suits statists of course since it is they who have been convincing the populace that the state is the answer to all their problems. Most depressing is that this belief pervades both the traditional left and right.
Andrew Ian Dodge
“What Sucks? Statism Sucks!“
Be at war with your vices; at peace with your neighbors, and let every New Year find you a better man
– Benjamin Franklin
Hear the joyous cry from the minarets as they announce that the Fastest Burqa in Blogistan is back in business… spread the word around, guess who’s back in town?
Yes indeed, Natalie Solent had returned!
So we are told the year 2002 is significant because it reads the same beginning to end as end to beginning. We are somehow fortunate, if we are a certain age, to be alive for two of them (1991 being the other one). 2002 is significant for those of us of a libertarian ilk, however numerology has nothing to do with it.
We face a world in a flux, no more than usual, but in flux nonetheless. As I sit here writing this missive, Tony Blair is heading off to prevent a war on the Indian sub-Continent, convinced that his “president of the world” trick will prevent a 4th war between the two countries. Is Blair, even while still in office, to become the Jimmy Carter of the new century? Just the mere threat of his being sent to some far off land will make both sides question their motives for war. Blair will be appointed upon his retirement from Downing Street, UN “Meddler in Chief.”
No doubt the blind-man of justice, Blunkett is even now thinking of ways to ever erode Britons personal liberties. Is it me or is not odd that the Sheffield socialist now has more in common with a fundamentalist Christian mid-westerner than he does with his former socialist comrades.
One wonders if Blunkett and Ashcroft are in constant email contact regarding tactics on how to put their authoritarian plans in place. The only thing that is no mentioned is the punishment that dare not speak its name: the death penalty.
We live in a situation in the west, where to question the laws brought into help stop terrorism is to be seen as an appeaser. At the same time the sainted left in the media are allowed to be actual apologists for the terrorists. These people claim that the attacks on the 11th and since then are self-inflicted and deserved. The real apologists are allowed to operate, quite rightly, under the banner of a free press, yet free speech is being curtailed under awash of legislation.
2002 will no doubt see virtual countries coming into their fore, not for financial purpose,s but in order to protect one from prosecution. Data havens will become information havens where those who do not wish to follow the party line will be able to express their opinions freely outside the realms of persecution. Of course Europe and the UK now have the addition of Euro wide “arrest warrants” meaning that one can offend a Greek and be arrested in the UK, and sent there for trial. In case the Greek government wished to re-assure us, they spent the later part of 2001 harassing a bunch of airplane-spotting nerds. These spies would be some of the most incompetent in existence, sticking out like a black man at a Klan rally. If they are spies they could only be CIA, for no other intelligence service is that gormless.
It will be interesting to see if the EU uses these laws to start to shut down criticism of their utopian experiment Europe wide. No doubt this is more likely if the Euro has the wings of a turkey. Under the guise of “a threat to the economy of Europe” anti-Euro campaigners will be threatened with being dragged to Brussels for prosecution in Belgium’s notoriously speedy judicial system.
But I have gone off message. With all this going round in the world, what is the role of the libertarian activist? Are we to return to our sitting, chat and smoking rooms to ponder more theory? Are we to return to the underground and ponder when next to show our faces in normal political circles? Or do we have a role in attempting to hold back the authoritarian urges of both the traditional right and left? The socialists are seemingly impotent, more concerned with defending the “misunderstood” Islamists than defending their own liberties. In the extreme, Jack Straw has been heard boasting that his son has become a convert to Islam, a religion they both claim to be “inclusive” despite both Koranic verse and recent events.
I leave with this thought dear friends. What exactly are we the libertarian activists of the world to do in the coming days and months? What is our role in the post 9/11 world?
Of course in my case 9/11 is irrelevant, I carry on hammering on about classical liberalism until I die or Cthulhu rises from his slumber in R’Leth.
Andrew Ian Dodge
“What Sucks? Statism Sucks!“
Streuth! Take your eyes off Adil Farooq over at muslimpundit for a few days and he goes bananas! There is been a big update of all sorts of good stuff and in particular a lengthy piece regarding ‘Our friends, The Saudis’. Adil administers them a severe public blogging with a cat-o-nine-tails!
Check it out.
Sic Semper Tyrannis!
– attributed to various, including John Wilkes Booth and the assassins of Roman tyrant Julius Caesar
The latest blog added to our sidebar listing is Emmanual Goldstein‘s Airstrip One. Whilst an impeccably libertarian blog, it would be fair to say Emmanual and us Samizdata folks tend to take some diametrically opposed positions on many issues.
We found it rather touching when Emmanuel described us here as ‘anarcho-militarists’ due to our loud cheering every time a B-52 flew over Afghanistan. However it has never been our policy to only link to libertarian (or other) sites that sing in perfect harmony with us… hell, we don’t sing in perfect harmony with us.
Also please note that we have a new contact e-mail address, reply@libertarian-samizdata.net. Yup, our plutocratic capitalist benefactors have finally diverted some of those sinister and shadowy illuminati funds our way and bought us a domain. Having got the sniff of money, we are now lobbying hard for a Libertarian Samizdata Jacuzzi large enough for the entire Samizdata Team to fit into (and special guests of course).
Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
– Decimus Junius Juvenalis
As the valiant members of the Samizdata Air Service deploy across the globe, spreading the good news about liberty and confounding it’s enemies, expect the rate at which articles get posted to slow significently as, one by one, we end up passed out under tables, asleep in strange beds or the centre of large steaming alcohol induced craters somewhere, mumbling incoherently about several property, Ludwig von Mises and some chick with short blonde hair and long sheer stockinged legs.
New Years greetings from this most global blog. Wassail and Cheers from:
Britain (Perry de Havilland, David Carr and Tom Burroughes in London; Natalie Solent in the Home Counties)
Northern Ireland (Dale Amon in Belfast)
Austria (Natalija Radic in Vienna)
United States (Walter Uhlman in New Jersey and Christopher Pellerito in Michigan)
Rlyeh (‘Samizdata Illuminatus’, somewhere under the South Pacific, we think)
Samizdata has seen a debate of recent on the procurement of a harlot for a dying underage boy. This has been a great source of consternation for those who call themselves Conservatives and/or Christian. There have been hysterical letters to the Telegraph pondering the fate of the boy’s soul. In my not so humble opinion I think it was a stellar idea to give the kid his dying wish. Surely getting laid is a hell of a lot more healthy than be taken to a park owned by the arch-evil, Disney or meeting some knuckle-dragging sports hero barely capable of joined up words? At least one is natural.
The debate over the fate of this poor boy does ape the debate over cannabis, both medical and otherwise. For some, mostly the same people listed above, the fact that cannabis has a medicinal effect for me and many others is irrelevant. It is an “evil” drug that leads to other evils, full stop.
I digress, this row has reminded me of a stink that has raised the hackles of many in the US, and more specifically Maine. A Republican Representative in the Maine State Legislature proposed a law to make adultery a crime. She proposed jailing adulterers as if they were murderers, fraud-sters or child molesters. The Representative wished to enshrine her religious beliefs in law and then use it to pummel “fornicators.” Above I have listed the discussions surrounding the bill and its merits. It should be noted that neither she nor her supporters had done much contemplation about how the bill was to be enforced.
This is yet another case of the Conservative right in both the US and the UK being as statist as their socialist opponents. Both sides wish to use the state to enforce their particular form of morality.
What bothers me more is that this Representative is making a complete arse out of her party and those of us on the right. (In Maine right of centre whether it be libertarian or authoritarian, are tarred with the same brush). Worse yet, this idiot is providing a staging area for every religious loon going to come out of the wood-work they were confined to in order that Bush might get elected. They seem to be keen to tear up the uneasy truce that saw those of us of my ilk siding with those of an authoritarian nature to rid the US of the vile Clinton/Gore axis. Many of these types are rather perturbed that Mr Bush is not as hard-right as he was portrayed by the left-wing media.
I would like to point out to some of you on this list that a few years ago this hysterical happy-clappy element in Maine “outed” me as a Satanist and follower of “dark path” as a result of a satirical site (about me) which I linked to for a laugh. Puritanism is alive and well in the New England and the South of the US even in the 21st century.
It does pain me to see this sort of hysterical superstitious idiocy still existing in a so-called civilised country in the beginning of the 21st century. Do anyone believe that the US will ever outgrow this lunacy or is it a permanent feature of the country ready to rear itself given the slightest opportunity to do so?
Can US libertarians take the right-of-centre ground away from these people? WIll the actual founding beliefs of the country ever actually have a chance to take hold or will the US continue to piss away it’s founding beliefs and freedom? At the rate its going I doubt the US will make its next b-day and it certainly won’t make 400 years old. I should not be too shocked, after all the US has an Attorney General who thinks dancing is a mortal sin.
Andrew Ian Dodge
[Editor’s note: Andrew is the author is the excellent book Statism Sucks!, which is about, well, take a wild guess]
…It’s the RIGHTS, stupid…
[Editors note: The ubiquitous Mommabear has written in and decided to stick one of her fragrant paws into the BlogWarstm maelstrom]
Everyone seems to forget that, in the beginning, middle, and end, it boils down to:
The Constitution of The United States of America starts out and continues to enumerate the Rights of The People that are The Given in a set of constructed rules. It does NOT say that these Rights are something that the formation of a government created. Instead, it says that they exist and must be acknowledged before anything else can proceed. Most people argue about them from a backward direction, thereby inducing fatal errors into their arguments.
MommaBear
Government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem
– Ronald Reagan
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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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