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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Samizdata quote of the day

· Slogans & Quotations

Inheritance taxes are of course loved by Jacobins of various hues, or by those well-meaning folk who imagine that we have to recreate an economic ‘level-playing field’ with each new generation. On that basis, it is more meritorious for a person to gamble away his millions than to give it to his children or friends. How perverse is that?
– Johnathan Pearce

August 22nd, 2006 | 54 comments - (Comments are closed)

Samizdata quote of the day

· Slogans & Quotations

Sartre said “Hell is other people”, and as usually he got it wrong. Hell is a foreign keyboard.
– Perry de Havilland

August 19th, 2006 | 24 comments - (Comments are closed)

Samizdata quote of the day

· Slogans & Quotations

The British National Party is selling wine on its website. Wine? Sounds more the kind of thing a French neo-nazi would drink. That’s lost my vote, I’m afraid. An English fascist should be drinking hogsheads of mead, or I’ll simply refuse to take him seriously. A nazi who drinks Chardonnay is not a nazi in whom one can have complete confidence.

–Harry Hutton

August 17th, 2006 | 12 comments - (Comments are closed)

Samizdata quote of the day

· Arts & Entertainment · Slogans & Quotations

I’m sorry to say that the latest on carrying hand-baggage on flights to/from Britain is that violins appear to be a no-no.

– Jessica Duchen writing today about the difficulties now being faced by itinerant classical musicians

August 15th, 2006 | 4 comments - (Comments are closed)

Why we write

· Slogans & Quotations

If you can’t annoy somebody, there’s little point in writing.

– Kingsley Amis.

August 14th, 2006 | 12 comments - (Comments are closed)

Samizdata quote of the day

· How very odd! · Slogans & Quotations

When poor countries catch up with rich countries, the actual absolute level of inequality between them can increase. Now that’s just wierd. My head hurts.

– Tony Stephenson responding to Brian Micklethwait

August 14th, 2006 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)

Puppets and liars and the myth of the non-existent camera

· Media & Journalism · Slogans & Quotations

There have already been a couple of Samizdata quotes of the day, the first officially labelled thus, and the second an SQOTD in all but title. Had there been no such copying and pasting postings so far today, then I would have put up a quote from this (“MSM sacrifices itself for Hezbollah”), such as, for instance, this:

The MSM usually claims that it is better than the blogosphere because it can filter and detect fraud. The Lebanon conflict shows that claim to be a flat out lie. The MSM may possibly speak truth to power but it seems keen to speak falsehood to the rest of us and to support the terrorists. I assume MSM support of the terrorists is based on the idea that idividual journalists may die or lose access to “scoops” unless they uncritically regurgitate terrorist propaganda, whereas they see no downside to criticising Israel or the USA becuase these countries have a tradition of press freedom. Unfortunately that analysis seems to be at the usual level of MSM strategic thought – poor. In the short term they are correct. In the long term they are as wrong as it is possible to be. Aside from state supported outlets such as the BBC the MSM depends on advertising revenue to survive and that revenue is roughly proportional to the audience size. If the MSM are shown to be puppets and liars then they will lose audience (which they are) and hence lose money. Eventually they will be out of a job. And even the BBC will feel the chill wind of financial cuts if it loses credibility – there is no reason to assume that the next UK government will not force the BBC to wean itself from the license fee and even less reason to assume that once weaned it will not see a drastic downsizing.

Meryl Yourish thinks this means that the terrorists are winning the propaganda war, to me it seems more likely that they are helping the MSM destroy itself. It really seems to me that Lebanon is going to be the place where the MSM collectively martyred itself, fighting for the cause of an Iranian backed terror group that seeks the utter destruction of Israel and the imposition of Sharia law and press censorship that would be antithetical to the MSM itself.

My thanks to Nigel Sedgwick (who urls himself as something to do with this) who flagged up this piece in a comment on this posting here yesterday. → Continue reading: Puppets and liars and the myth of the non-existent camera

August 11th, 2006 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)

Samizdata quote of the day

· Slogans & Quotations

“I have run into a certain amount of conflict with bodies like Oxfam and Christian Aid, who are very effective at presenting what looks like extremely professional, well-researched data which seems to prove that trade is bad for poor countries and bad for poor people in these countries. I do not know a great deal about the subjects that they deal with, but I know enough about trade policy to have doubts in my mind when I read this stuff. But my colleagues come to me with it and say that they have had a deputation, including the local vicar and all the party members and have been given this report from Oxfam’s public affairs department and it must be right! They ask ‘why are you being awkward and asking questions? Surely we should just sign’.”

– Vincent Cable, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor (via The GI)

August 11th, 2006 | 12 comments - (Comments are closed)

Samizdata quote of the day

· Slogans & Quotations

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

Alexis de Tocqueville.

August 9th, 2006 | 13 comments - (Comments are closed)

Samizdata quote of the day

· Slogans & Quotations

The report basically says no one gets fired for screwing up in the civil service and that there is no price for failure. It recommends some reforms that will not work because inherently governments have a coercive monopoly. Whereas in the private sector the profit motive works as an incentive because customers will stop buying crap services from businesses, hurting their profits. In the public sector if you stop paying your taxes the government will try and jail you. A mandarin hits it on the head in the report when he admits “Why is Whitehall poor at delivery? Because they’re aren’t any rewards or sanctions in place for civil service delivery.” Where is the incentive for better government?

– Guido Fawkes

August 8th, 2006 | 12 comments - (Comments are closed)

Jack Nicholson, self-taught man

· Slogans & Quotations

I can’t quit smoking – it’s the only thing I’ve taught myself to do.

– Jack Nicholson, actor.

August 3rd, 2006 | 9 comments - (Comments are closed)

Samizdata quote of the day

· Slogans & Quotations

My favorite conspiracy theory is the one that says the world is being run by a handful of ultra-rich capitalists, and that our elected governments are mere puppets. I sure hope it’s true… The only way I can get to sleep at night is by imagining a secret cabal of highly competent puppetmasters who are handling the important decisions… I know some of you will say that it’s obvious that corporate money influences the government. But that’s not enough to make me feel comfortable. I want to know there’s an actual meeting of the puppetmasters every Thursday at 3 pm…

– Scott Adams via Frank McGahon who got to it via Hit and Run

August 3rd, 2006 | 27 comments - (Comments are closed)
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