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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“My song is a hymn for individualism and against collectivism. I am also for balls and against circles, for corners and against edges, for trees and against the forest. In my performance it is not so much the song that counts but the moral attitude behind it. Whoever votes for me is against being standardized and cemented in by ‘European Banality’.”
Alf Poier, Austrian entrant to the European Song Contest.
(Via Michael Jennings.)
(In the end, Mr Poier got a respectable 94 points. It seems Britain got no points at all. Politically, this is all to the good.)
A referendum on joining the Euro will cause “all-out internal civil war”
– Dennis McShane, Minister for Europe
I never referred to… [civil war] in the Labour Party. Calling for a referendum… would launch a long civil war in the UK with everyone fighting everyone.
– Dennis McShane, Minister for Europe, subsequent clarification.
[Source: BBC News at Ten, BBC online]
Oh well, that’s all right then.
British academic communists suffer from ideology, which is a brain virus. It takes every natural, logical and honest thought and turns it into a version of itself. So everything becomes political. A person is either good (communist) or bad (capitalist), poor and trodden-upon (good), white and privileged (bad) and so on. American communists, however, live in an intellectual and informational vacuum. So they make it up as they go, creating the most marvelous conspiracy theories as they go along.
– An insightful observation by a friend of Gabriel Syme…
“This week it cost me 2,750 dollars to airmail a letter to Britain containing three A4 sheets of paper.”
– Jan Raath in yesterday’s Times reporting from what remains of Zimbabwe
I don’t know if I’m more impressed by these people’s tenacity in defending their position even as it circles the drain, or horrified that they’re willing to grab up weapons like these in order to avoid having to admit they were wrong.
– Brian Tiemann commenting over on Cold Fury regarding comments on Gabriel Syme’s recent post.
I have to pay 40% tax and everything. Which I don’t agree with. I can’t vote, why should I pay to a government I don’t necessarily agree with?
– Charlotte Church, chairing BBC2’s Have I got News for You. Out of the mouths of babes and children
Government departments are named after whatever it is they are trying to put a stop to, hence ‘Department of Education’
– David Carr
In the short term, foundation hospitals will worsen inequalities, as they would have easier access to capital than other hospitals, enabling investment in better facilities and more advanced services.
– Labour MP David Taylor explains “Why I’ll defy party line over reforms” and vote against foundation hospitals, in today’s Evening Standard (print edition only)
“To exist without enemies is to be a miserable jellyfish that stands for nothing.”
– Carter Laren, Capitalism Magazine
The chaps who dismiss Bush as a moron forget that what counts is what a guy does when he’s not talking.
– Mark Steyn
Respecting the sovereignty of Iraq was nothing more than respecting the sovereignty of Saddam Hussein, at the expense of the people who would have been tortured and killed for not voting for him!
– Alice Bachini
Classical conservatives publicly despair of progress, but in their hearts they secretly believe in it. The Left seemingly talks of nothing else but progress, but will go to nearly any lengths rather than believe in it.
– Joe Katzman at windsofchange.net today
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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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