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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Whatsoever, for any cause,
Seeketh to take or give
Power above or beyond the Laws,
Suffer it not to live!
Holy State or Holy King –
Or Holy People’s Will –
Have no truck with the senseless thing.
Order the guns and kill!
– Rudyard Kipling, extract from “MacDonough’s Song”
Sent in by a certain fellow Illuminatus with the following excellent remarks:
Doubtless a lot of you at the Samizdata gang know Kipling and perhaps particularly “MacDonough’s Song”, a sort of ancient libertarian cyberpunk chant from the dawn of the 20th century. If not I’ve attached the entire text, which is entirely consistent with our philosophy.
Quite! Back in Samizdata’s paleolithic era, there was a run of Kipling quotes both here and on Natalie Solent‘s blog.
Great Moments in Capitalist History: on this day in 1824 J. W. Goodrich introduced rubber galoshes to the public.
Ever heard the secret to boiling a frog? Throw the frog in a pot of boiling water, and he jumps right out. But, put him in cooler water, and slowly heat it up, and he’ll stay in until he’s cooked. People, we are almost well done!
– Unknown
[Yes, we know it is an urban legend but it is still a great slogan! A tip of the kevlar battlebowler to Rajat Datta. Ribbit.]
To robbery, butchery, and rapine, they give the lying name of government; they create a desolation and call it peace.
– Tacitus quoting the Celtic chieftan Calgacus
Whenever you’re tempted to believe that those who are responsible for all of the world’s problems are involved in some vast conspiracy, consider the far likelier possibility that they’re just stupid.
– from “Hope” by Aaron Zelman and L. Neil Smith
Great Moments in Capitalist History: on this day in 1990 McDonalds opened its first restaurant in Moscow.
I must have liberty Withal,
as large a charter as the wind,
To blow on whom I please.
– William Shakespeare, “As You Like It” act II scene VII line 47
Great Moments in Capitalist History: on this day in 1924 the first ice cream cone rolling machine was patented by Carl Taylor of Cleveland Ohio.
An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.
– Voltaire
Pat Buchanan is making a stir again. In his new book he claims homosexuality is addictive – apparently, so are intolerance and stupidity.
– Jay Leno
The captured Taliban that are now in Cuba are getting one bath towel, they are getting shampoo and toothpaste. The people there are seeing this and asking Castro, “Can we get this stuff?”
– David Letterman
Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburgers
-Abbie Hoffman
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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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