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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Like Dale Amon, I lose my co-blogging virginity today, indeed at this moment. That’s like not with for any tabloid journalists reading this. If any are, keep reading. You might learn something for a change.
Many hear will have heard me gushing on about (a) blogs and (b) being paid for them as the Wave of the Future etc. The “being paid” bit strikes me as important because only money can transform the provision of decentralised, unmediated news from a hobby of the intelligentsia to a major former of opinion. We need a system where you can, without effort, pay a tiny sum to read a web page.
But it’s not all good news. An obvious problem is that of preaching only to the converted. If the “team” list under the toilet sign at the top of the screen all contribute, this blog looks likely to become the Real Libertarian Alliance Forum. I find this somewhat worrying, and not only because it’ll make Mario Huet feel bad as his numbers go down through no fault of his own. We’ll all become – dare I invoke Banquo’s ghost? – atomised.
BTW I have set up my own blog at http://nataliesolent.blogspot.com. I don’t think my blogspot’s evolutionary niche lies in discussion. Rather I aim to just post comments about news stories and thoughts that interest me. So my dears, don’t be sad that I haven’t invited you, because I haven’t invited anyone. All I want in life really is to be a James Bond supervillain and have a cool wall of TV screens. My Birman cat already fits the part beautifully.
There is a first time for everything I suppose. This blog post is just the latest in a long line of first times stretching back to unremembered first steps and a very well remembered… well I won’t get into that. In any case, I feel the need to pre-apportion the blame before I unleash myself on the world. Basically it is all Glenn Reynolds fault. Firstly for writing such an interesting blog. His instapundit has become my first point of contact to global news throughout the day. Within days of first reading it (at Jim Bennett’s suggestion) Glenn had permanently weaned me from the whinging and whining trivia that CNN supplies as news. And secondly… he’s now so “famous” that I can’t get him on the phone or email any more.
Secondary blame goes to Rand Simberg and Jim Bennett for suggesting that I should get a blog, or when was I going do so. Thirdly, blame Perry de Havilland for threatening my manhood if I didn’t join this fray after getting him hooked on it by pointing him to the Great Satan Glenn’s site.
So world, here I am. Be afraid. Be very afraid…or at least hide your daughters; dig a foxhole if you’re of a socialist nature; make that a reinforced concrete underground bunker (shock mounts optional) if you are of the uncritical anti-technology ilk and in general keep your head down when I get in the mood for a good verbal dustup.
I’ve a lot of pent up thoughts from the last few weeks of post-history history, so… Let the fray begin!
If we can eventual get enough people posting to this blog, then we will be able to attract interest from outside our circle of heavily armed capitalist libertarian illuminati. Initially I expect we will be ‘preaching to the choir’ but if the Libertarian Alliance Forum is anything to go by, libertarian choirs tend to like singing out of key 
As for your tech oriented posts, Walter, I suspect you will find Dale Amon a kindred spirit. Hopefully we can induce him to post techie items as well for us techno-weenies to go ‘ohhhh…ahhhh’ over.
Blog away, me heartie!
Blogging!
Great concept. Great name. Looking forward to blogging it out.
I didn’t recognize some of the names on the invite list, but you mentioned they are all of similiar mindset. While that is a rather scary though vaguely comforting thought, I was wondering if we will be just preaching to the choir or if some of the others have a different enough perspective to keep things interesting.
Also, are you looking for mainly political oriented input or can we just sling in anything? As you know, I usually approach things from a technological viewpoint and am more interested in how the exploding technology shapes our lives and futures in ways we often don’t realize until greatly after the fact.
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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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