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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Tell #HackedOff to Blog Off! There is a very interesting article over on dropsafe about several people meeting with #HackedOff this evening regarding the Leveson Royal Charter… ie state regulation of the news in Britain.
To say Alec was not impressed would be a masterly understatement:
There’s a reason that I don’t like politics and prefer coding. Coding is clean. Politics at this level is not compromise, and it’s not about other peoples’ compromises either; it’s more like trying to waft the farts of other peoples’ compromises in a general direction which you hope will be least offensive to people you care about but who will definitely be impacted.
This will not end well.
The thingie below was kindly sent to me by Guido Fawkes.
Sign the petition and tell them to Blog Off!
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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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Done.
According the BBC (hardly a pro freedom organisation) the new death-to-freedom rules were agreed in the office of the leader of the Labour Party (Mr Miliband) by Mr Miliband and his fellow Progressive “Nick” Clegg and a Conservative party minister – meeting with FOUR REPRESENTATIVE OF HACKED OFF.
In short “Hacked Off” is making the law of the United Kingdom. Of course Comrade Roy Greenslade (a Guardianista and BBC type “Professor of Journalism – of course his objective is to make journalism a “profession” where only “qualified” people would write and they would write in the “correct” leftist way)thinks the death-to-freedom rules are wonderful (he wrote in praise of them in yeserday’s “Evening Standard” – one of many newspapers owned by the “ex” KGB man).
General rule of thumb – when evil people are pleased with something, it is likely to be a bad thing.
As for the other thing….
I will do it now.
Let us see which publications have the courage to tell the government to go to Hell.
Done
Signed with enthusiasm. I gather that the Spectator, which I occasionally buy from railway station bookstalls, is saying a resounding NO to Leveson, so I think I’ll show my sympathy by taking out a subscription.
Alec says: I don’t like politics and prefer coding
If you want to introduce someone to libertarian thinking, encourage them to try this experiment. Spend a few days reading nothing but technology news. Then spend a few days reading nothing but political news. For the first few days they’ll see an exciting world of innovation and creativity where everything is getting better all the time. In the second period they’ll see a miserable world of cynicism and treachery where everything is falling apart. Then ask them to explain the difference.
Done.
Max Mosley – with a surname like that you would think he might show a bit more caution.
Paging Alec/Perry: the document inside the iframe has changed shape, but the iframe has not
Done. Also, what Paul and Andrew Z. said.
Extended writeups:
http://dropsafe.crypticide.com/article/11238
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2013/meeting-hacked-off
Andrew: Wonderful thought experiment! I’ll definitely remember that. I suppose part of the explanation for the difference is that technology — especially the kind of thing in industries referred to as “high tech” — tends to be about “freedom to,” whereas politics tends to be about “freedom from.”
@ Tedd, 2:09 PM:
Try another thought experiment– John Rawls’ “original position/veil of ignorance” argument, as applied to distribution of political freedoms, and not necessarily access to goods and services. (The old trick about: You get to slice the pizza, but you will only be allowed to take the last remaining slice.) Or Thomas More: “The trees having all been lopped, where wouldst thou hide when the devil turn upon thee? I should give the devil the benefit of law, that I may have it too.” (In response to his son-in-law, who suggested that the law is a thicket where the devil is able to hide behind every tree, and that the only way to fight the devil would be to cut down the thicket.) Or Ayn Rand’s dictum (boo, hiss!) that when anyone advocates that the state should have any role in regulating anything, assume that they either already are, or desperately want to be, that person who will be doing the state’s controlling.
Is anyone actually going to demonstrate/protest about this, as distinct from signing a petition?
The thingie Guido sent me does seem to keep mysteriously changing shape! Go figure.
I am inclined to use Samizdata to do things to piss off certain people in ways that will dare them to come after me. My address is not hard to find. I suspect the same applies to Guido.
Jonathan Pierce,
I think you’ll find Max Moseley’s surname is more than a coincidental link – his dad is indeed the ex-Conservative MP, Labour Minister and Facist leader with the same name…
To Watchman, as I said at my place, little Max appears to be hearing the sound of his daddy’s jackboots in his head.
signed!
and I just noticed the mouseover text on the side bar links LOL