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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Buying ‘Carbon Offsets’ is the 21st-century equivalent of buying Papal Indulgences – a salve to the consciences of the deluded for having committed an entirely fictitious sin dreamed up – rather conveniently – by the indulgence-peddlers themselves. A ‘Sin of Emission’, one could say…
– Commenter Tanuki
I have been following the Al Gore “carbon offset” controversy with great interest, and if I can get my eight bosses off my neck will try to put up a post on it. However, it just occurred to me that, based on the Gore methodology of buying carbon offsets, my carbon footprint is probably about to go negative.
The reason being, I should be acquiring a parcel of land in North Texas within the next few weeks. Said parcel consists of some meadows, but mostly of youngish post oaks and miscellaneous brush. Heaven, to this country boy, but it seems to me that, if Al Gore can get carbon credit for paying someone else to plant some trees, why shouldn’t I get carbon credit for actually owning well over a hundred acres of growing trees, each of them busily sequestrating carbon?
I should soon be in the rather unusual position of being able to (a) express my contempt for a certain quasi-religious crusade while (b) meeting and exceeding its requirements to be one of the Elect.
And all while driving my SUV back and forth across the Texas landscape! Is this a great planet, or what?
The green fanatics have been running the debate for decades now so perhaps it is time to hear some scientific basis for their intrusive and reactionary measures.
Claude Allegre, one of France’s leading socialists and among her most celebrated scientists, was among the first to sound the alarm about the dangers of global warming. To his surprise, the many climate models and studies failed dismally in establishing a man-made cause of catastrophic global warming. Meanwhile, increasing evidence indicates that most of the warming comes of natural phenomena.
Dr. Allegre now sees global warming as over-hyped and an environmental concern of second rank.
Dr. Allegre is perhaps best known for his research on the structural and geochemical evolution of the Earth’s crust and the creation of its mountains, explaining both the title of his article in l’ Express and his revulsion at the nihilistic nature of the climate research debate.
The nihilistic nature of the climate research debate – spot on! What frightens me about the environmentalists is that they recommend restricting ourselves back to stone age. Instead of harnessing innovation and searching for alternatives, the doomsday scenarios is what it is all about. Coupled with the urge to dictate what the rest of us should do, we have a long-term restriction on the very things that drives innovation – clear understanding of the problem, redundancy and waste (yes, that too is necessary for change), experimentation and focus on the demand, not just on restricting the supply.
In June, I will be attending the Apeldoorn conference in the Hague. This year the focus is on sustainability – the conference title is Facing up to Reality: Choices for a Sustainable World. Well, you can guess what my contribution is going to be… I am looking forward to making the point for redundancy and playful experimentation by the markets. Otherwise, sustainability is nothing but another word for rationing progress.
cross posted from Media Influencer.
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
The world is full of belligerent numbskulls; frequently, the more ignorant, the more belligerent.
It is a soppy, and dangerous, progressive cliché that lack of self-esteem among the indigent and the criminal is a cause of poor social integration. There’s actually no evidence that the indigent and the criminal do have low self-esteem. On the contrary in fact, they tend to have rather too much of it.
Yeats got that. Polly Toynbee gets it too. Charles Darwin wrote, “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”
While this is distressing for the world’s more sentimental do-gooders, and seems to have had no impact at all on the growing self-esteem industry, it is an important observation, having great explanatory power, and not just for the history of idea. It is, I submit, at the core of such diverse social phenomena as gangstas, bling, Islamism, dangerous driving, the bullying petty official, the modern media health scare, the conspiracy theorist, and large chunks of the content of the web. Combined with the tendency for the assertive and persistent to get their own way, because others can’t bear endless futile arguments, it is much more than a marginal nastiness. Which is distressing even to the unsentimental.
What is more, there is a rational explanation. Dunning and Kruger, the Cornell psychologists who often get the credit for establishing that the least competent are most likely to overestimate their own competence – and hence (I paraphrase broadly) that idiots contribute most to the fundamental fuckedupness of the world – note that “the skills that engender competence in a particular domain are often the very same skills necessary to evaluate competence in that domain—one’s own or anyone else’s.” (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1999, Vol. 77, No. 6 – no link because the copy I read online was probably infringing.) They assert that the syndrome can be cured by education. But I suspect that’s just liberal optimism speaking. Those convinced of their own superiority are the least likely to accept tutoring. (My esteemed co-professional “Dr Hibbert” has it right, for all practical purposes, below.)
Which is all by way of introduction to one of the most farcical correspondences of my professional lives. The writer proclaimed he was going to expose it to the tabloids, so can hardly object to its reproduction here. Enjoy.
From: “kyriacos kyprou”
To: [many of the world’s better known literary agents]
Subject: Kyriacos Kyprou – Greatest Mind Ever
Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2007 22:31:06 +0000
…below is the email I sent out to the recipients that this email also went out to.
…and there is nothing, at all, delusional with the claims I make, in that email, which implies those claims can well, be supported. And the points I make are totally valid points.
…following my email below are some of the replies I received, in this high democracy you all preach.
…two points – firstly the ruthless attack on my sanity and intelligence by an idiot calling himself julius.hibbert@hotmail.com (an pseudo email account, using a psychologist cartoon character from ‘The Simpsons’) are totally unfounded, but more notably, completely unprovoked.
…secondly they are replies that completely intrude my democratic rights – which implies are the claims I make exempt from the freedom of expression that democracy preaches? But more notably I do not take too well to the ruthless comments made about my intelligence and sanity. I am more than likely the greatest mind ever on this planet and I will make that claim if I choose to make it (especially when it is a claim that I can well support). And you can all stick your modesty. As if you all have something to teach about modesty. What you all refer to as the third world will tell you all about it. And if there is a third world then what does that make all of you – first, second or premier league? There is no third world – there is only the neglect billions endure.
…I also make the point that the house policy rules of the publishing world cannot also apply for a book like mine, because this is a book that needs to published. But the publishing world wants to play ‘we rule’ and ‘untouchable’ games with me.
…but also wants to throw a few humiliating tactics and insults my way – and it seems they are at total liberty to let themselves go, with any form of expression, it takes their fancy.
…and it seems I am supposed to accept that attitude, insults and humiliation.
…maybe I don’t want to accept it.
→ Continue reading: Doctor Bickle, I presume
I never begin to be amazed by David Cameron. Surely this man is the most visionary and inspirational rhetorical and philosophical figure of our age:
David Cameron will pledge tomorrow to work with like-minded politicians to create a new European Union..
Wow! We have never heard that before. Radical or what?
The speech will be a clear signal that Mr Cameron will not take his party out of Europe and also a message to supporters who are considering deserting to UKIP that he will try to change the EU.
And I, for one, absolutely believe him. This Cameron fellow is like a breath of fresh air and good old-fashioned, down-to-earth common sense. Well, not quite down-to-earth perhaps.
“A visitor from Mars, witnessing the signing of the declaration, would take a close look of the inner workings of the EU and…”
Blast the whole thing to smithereens with a giant death-ray?
“…observe earnest discussions about reviving constitutions, transfers of competence, relative voting weights and other distractions.”
Ah, yes. Those Martians are so nuanced and sophisticated.
“But the intelligent Martian would say the EU should be focusing on the economic challenges of globalisation and the urgent need to reform European economies so that it could maintain its prosperity. It should also concentrate on the challenge of climate change and the need for swift action at all levels to slow the rate of global warming. And it should be absorbed by the moral and security challenge of global poverty.”
He is definitely onto something here. After all, the policy-making imperatives of the European Union are the hot topic of conversation on the Martian dinner-party circuit.
David Cameron – a Carefully Understated Natural Tory.
Chris Lightfoot, occasional commentator here, well-known blogger, and technical wizard, is dead. It has been a confidential matter for a couple of weeks, but can now become public.
I didn’t know him very well, but will miss his awesome intelligence. NO2ID will miss his capacity just to fix things while lesser techies were squabbling among themselves about how to do it.
Other people, here, and here, for example, knew him better and have more valuable things to say.
The trouble is that once you haven’t won, the sense that you are gatecrashing somebody else’s party is overwhelming, and it hits you hard that the ‘somebody else’ is much more glamorous than you.
– Dan Mazer, the writer of Borat on being nominated for an Oscar. More or less how I feel about life in general, really.
Last night was a magical one, and not just because I danced to some great music at the wedding of a sailing friend of mine. I also was able to stand outside and, glass of rather fine Armagnac in hand, watch the lunar eclipse in a crystal clear night sky. I have dabbled a bit in astronomy over the years, but this sort of thing might make me part with a few pounds and buy a proper telescope. Think of it: for a short while, the remains of the Apollo landing craft were bathed in orange.
When commenting on the recent Chinese stockmarket meltdown, Glenn Reynolds wondered if a prediction posted on Samizdata some time ago could be coming to pass. Whilst exposure for Samizdata on Instapundit is nice, I think Mr Reynolds is wrong if he perceives this stockmarket wobble to be a potential opening salvo of the economic holocaust presaged on these pages early last year. Far from heralding the collapse, it will delay the inevitable.
In spite of a widespread belief in China’s embrace of free-market capitalism, enormous economic distortions characterise modern China’s economy. For example, why is it that, relative to China’s economic footprint, the Chinese stock market is rather pathetically stunted – especially in light of the vast savings pool the Chinese people have accumulated? As mentioned in the above article, the Chinese are great savers and they tend to deposit these savings into bank accounts because alternative investment opportunities are limited compared to those offered to a Western investor. Consider the following:
Why does the Chinese investor not sink his surplus funds into foreign commodities? Because he is restricted from doing so.
Why does he not invest in Chinese stocks? Because he (probably correctly) views the Chinese stock market as being distinctly ropey.
In light of these state-imposed distortive realities, what does one do with one’s savings? One puts them in the bank, of course. Predictably, the banks are awash with deposits. Under these circumstances, the principles of fractional reserve banking have been taken to the extreme in China, allowing the central government to durably zombify huge segments of the otherwise bankrupt state-owned industrial sector by forcing the “big four” state-owned banks to continuously loan depositors’ money to these failed state enterprises, in the full knowledge that these loans will never be repaid.
This fiscal expedience allows the central government to postpone the nasty (and potentially regime-threatening) hangover that inevitably follows a sustained attempt at central economic planning like that witnessed during the Mao era. Unfortunately, it cannot continue indefinitely. Firstly, it provides no market incentive – the only incentive that works – for the wayward state-owned enterprises to reform. If they do not reform into conventional free-market actors, they will always require such charity. Secondly, this charity can only continue if Chinese bank account holders continue to top up (or at the very least maintain) their balances.
Of course, the central government knows the above only too well. If China Inc. in its current incarnation is to survive, it is critically important that the Chinese do not withdraw too much of their savings from the state-owned banks to invest in other pursuits, as this will cause the banking system – and “socialism with Chinese characteristics” – to collapse. The central government probably engineered the recent stockmarket fluctuation to buttress the perception of insecurity that shrouds potential investment targets like Chinese stocks, and are no doubt well pleased with the message that was subsequently delivered to the average Chinese investor. This does not mean that the current Chinese economic model is now secure – it will unravel at some point in the future. However, that point has been postponed with a ‘hair of the dog’-type solution, which will make the eventual hangover even more severe.
The central government has merely bought some time.
Last Sunday I came across a gem of a job advertisement for HM Customs and Revenue and we discovered that as taxpayers, we are in fact “customers”, and the job of directing this happy enterprise went with a six-figure salary and no doubt, a final-salary pension. Ever since I have been tracking job ads in the public sector, and this weekend, I have another little cracker for you via the Sunday Times:
“A new era for adult social care services.”
A new era. Hold on to your wallets folks.
Director of adult services.
What, is this a porn company?
Up to 110,000 pounds.
Yowza!
Newcastle, recently designated a “science city” by the government, is a great city which in recent years has been transformed into one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the country”.
True. No longer famed for shipbuilding, Newcastle has been through a terrible economic time, but it has some top-class firms, like Sage, the accounting software business. The beer is good and cheap, and the local boys and girls amaze by their ability to go out on a wintry Friday night wearing hardly any clothes. Oh, and it has Newcastle FC, which last won a trophy back in the early Jurassic period.
Our population is ageing and changing – we need to plan for this now. It is critical that organisations across the city work together to better plan for and provide for these changing needs.
No. What the state needs to do is to withdraw from many activities and let people increasingly take control of their own lives and save up money to deal with rising longevity. This process was made rather harder by the present Labour government’s endless fiddling with the tax system, and most of all, its 5 billion-pound-a-year tax raid on corporate pension funds.
In other words, the job spec. here is for some head honcho to “co-ordinate” various efforts to confront the “problems” of a greying population. It seems to me that all this co-ordination will do will cost a lot of money for jobs like this one. People are living for longer – which is hardly a problem from many points of view. As people live longer and healthier lives, then job patterns would, in a free and unfettered market, adjust to deal with that.
£110,000 (US $214,000) is a very nice payout for a lot of bureaucratic hot air. If one multiplies such jobs, you can see why the increase in public sector jobs of more than 800,000 since 1997 has had no noticeable impact on the quality of public services in this country, and arguably, made them far worse.
And while we are on the subject of the Antichrist, is there not something very sign-of-the-apocalypse about this?
CHILDREN aged 11 to 16 are to have their fingerprints taken and stored on a secret database, internal Whitehall documents reveal.
The leaked Home Office plans show that the mass fingerprinting will start in 2010, with a batch of 295,000 youngsters who apply for passports.
‘Leaked’, my balls! This is being floated in order to measure public reaction. A muted response and all the right boxes will be ticked. A mass cry of protest and the plans will be shuffled off to another in-tray to await re-floating later in the year or early next year (preferably under cover of some news-consuming natural disaster or terrorist attack). These people believe that time is on their side and maybe it is.
Our masters are not only deeply and irredeemably malignant but they are also intoxicated with the heady fumes of power and verging on the insane. The question is, what do we do about it?
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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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