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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With the round of tax increases announced in the last budget, HM Government reached the top of the Laffer Curve i.e. the Chancellor has now looted as much money as he viably can from the British taxpayer. If he wants more, he will have to get himself a drill and start going after their gold fillings.
According to a depressingly large number of people, we in Blighty should all now be happier, healthier, better educated, more cultivated and, above all, kinder and more caring.
But we’re not. Certainly those who work in the public sector are not because I detect that the first shot in a ‘War of the Spoils’ has been fired by Local Government unions who have announced a series of nationwide strikes to commence later this month.
“If the stoppage goes ahead on 17 July it will be the first national council workers’ strike since the 1979 Winter of Discontent.
If this is the start of a massive, bitter and chaotic bun-fight for booty in the public sector, then I give all our readers fair warning that they can expect lots of nauseatingly smug we-told-you-so type postings (mostly from me).
In the United States, property forfeiture laws effectively make the ‘protection’ of their vaunted constitution meaningless against seizure of pretty much anything, as various arms of the state can help themselves to property without the owner having ever been convicted of a crime and often without even being charged with one.
Alas this tyrannous state of affairs can now be found in Britain as well, at least when it comes to HM Customs and Excise. The fact that just on the opinion of a customs inspector that you have too much alcohol or tobacco for personal use, the presumption of innocence can be swept away, reversed in fact, and your property stolen by the state without you ever being convicted of smuggling. Without so much as setting foot in a court of law, if the representative of the state says you are a criminal smuggler, then you must prove otherwise on the spot or not only will he take the goods you are trying to bring into the country but he will also appropriate the vehicle in which you are transporting them, i.e. your car or van. You are guilty unless you can prove otherwise.
There are many things to admire in the USA that Britain should seek to emulate… however its legal system that allows convictionless theft by the state just on the say-so of state functionaries is not one of those things.
Old habits die hard – the Russian Culture Ministry is considering banning a new Ukrainian film ‘Pray for Mazepa’. The film is about the controversial 18th century Cossack leader, Ivan Mazepa, who joined forces with the Swedish King Charles XII against Peter The Great. It portrays the Cossack leader as a strong advocate of Ukrainian independence and an opponent of Peter’s the Great’s tyranny – in contrast with the Soviet depiction of him as a traitor to Slavic brotherhood.
The Russian culture minister, Mikhail Shvydkoi, said the film distorted the truth and could damage relations between Russia and Ukraine. Just as well the US film industry honours the facts and often demonstrates its firm grasp of ‘history’ in films like U-571, The Battle of the Bulge, In the name of the Father, The Patriot, Braveheart, Titanic, Pearl Harbour, just to mention a few. The ‘special relationship’ between the United Kingdom and the United State need not be strained further. I am sure Tony Blair is especially relieved… 
With a strange feeling of sadness I read in The Sun newspaper today that British pop musician and idiotarian George Michael has decided not to release his America-bashing single ‘Shoot the Dog’ in the U.S. He fears, so the Sun says, it could kill his career. A columnist in the Sun writes this:
“I don’t want a man who stuffed shuttlecocks down his shorts and sang about a Club Tropicana preaching about the War on Terror”.
The natural inclination of a libertarian nut like me, is I suppose, to gloat at the obvious demise of this clown, but maybe it is a fragment of decency within which makes this difficult. George Michael is a pretty talented musician and has a great soul voice it has to be said, but like all too many of his type, he looks at the world through some drearily predictible lenses. What is so sad about the man is that his lame effort to bash the U.S. and attack Britain for following America’s lead in the war on terror is entirely lacking in originality. How about writing a protest song attacking the ‘America is always in the wrong’ school of thought? Now that would be daring, and genuinely different. This is the problem with our self-styled ‘cool’ musicians of today. Many of even the more talented ones haven’t done anything genuinely challenging for years. And poor old George Michael looks like he is headed for a period of oblivion.
[Ed: and what is a high-brow like Tom doing reading ‘The Sun’ I wonder?]
Security is the one area minarchist libertarians like me are willing to countenance at least some role for the state… but yet again private security measures, whilst not infallible given that no work of mere man is foolproof, prove no less effective than those heavy handed defenders of order on governments payroll.
Egyptian Hesham Mohamed Hadayet shot two people dead at the El Al desk in LAX yesterday before being shot dead by a private security man. The airport had armed US soldiers wandering around and yet on July 4th, the EL AL desk was defended by private security. 
Is it any wonder the Israeli airline takes responsibility for its own security whenever possible rather than leave it up to the local buffoons to protect them?
Spotted in the Daily Telegraph report of the air disaster in southern Germany on Monday night, caused by the air collision of a cargo plane and a charter jet carrying Russian youths on a cultural exchange visit:
Khalyaf Ishmuratov, the Bashkirian deputy prime minister, said: “We lost wonderful children who could have become artists, scientists, entrepreneurs. Their disappearance is a huge loss.”
Would any Western leader have mentioned “entrepreneurs” in this context? In England the answer is probably “Never”. Mr Ishmuratov sounds like Ayn Rand’s idea of a statesman.
A problem for the UK: the Swiss air traffic control is a private contractor, so we can expect this tragedy to be exploited by opponents of the British government’s scheme to privatise air traffic control over here.
Had I been present at the creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe.
– Alfonso X, Spanish king, cca 13th century
4th of July
Happy Birthday to you…….
Happy Birthday to you……..
Happy Birthday, dear America…..
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuu…….
In a recent e-mail newsletter Harry Browne made an interesting historical point about the US Pledge of Allegiance:
“Returning to the Pledge of Allegiance, it was composed in 1892 by Francis Bellamy (link requires registration) a socialist, specifically to help young children become good little citizens of the Fatherland.
The idea that our children should be pledging allegiance to government smacks of Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union — the very antitheses of what America was meant to be.”
I grew up reciting the Pledge every single morning of my life for thirteen years… and until this day never knew its’ history. You just assumed you were taking part in a tradition that went back to the founding of the Republic. You pictured young Abe and his school mates reverently reciting it in their one room red school house.
At the time when the Pledge was written the American social elite were having a love affair with all things Prussian. The efficiency of German State planning was all the rage before the turn of the previous century.
I somehow don’t think this is quite the message those of the conservative quadrant wish upon their children.
The British government’s maniacal desire to transform this island into a Police State grows by the day. Our dear old friend, the State ID card, made another appearance on Wednesday, the pet scheme of Home Secretary (interior minister) David Blunkett. What is encouraging is that media coverage in the press and television has so far given full rein to objections to such a monstrous proposal from the likes of privacy campaigner Dr. Simon Davies of Privacy International and other civil liberties groups. In the press, even the relentlessly pro-corporatist ‘on-message’ Financial Times gives the ID card idea a skewering in its editorial pages, although it focusses as much on the practical arguments against as ones of principle.
Now I may be getting carried away here, but I cannot help thinking that the current wide coverage of hostile views to ID cards has something to do with the commendable work by libertarians to take a stand on this issue. The privacy meme is out there, and we helped achieve that. But we have to keep up the pressure and make a stink about this latest proposal. And it is worth noting that this is the kind of issue where libertarians, misleadingly bracketed as being on the political ‘right’, can linkup with sympathetic souls on the ‘left’, and maybe even sow some other libertarian seeds in the process.
When the state watches you,
dare to stare back
The war is inevitable — and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!
I know not what course others may take but as for me: give me liberty or give me death.
– Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775, Richmond Virginia
Paul Marks has also been following what Tory great white hope Oliver Letwin has been saying… and Paul sees that Letwin is still trapped within the statist meta-context that ultimately undermines even the best intentions.
Having read Antoine Clarke‘s recent Samizdata article If the Conservatives have a Future… (and read a review by Dr. Gabb) I wish I had been at the Oliver Letwin meeting. However, I have two concerns about Dr. Letwin.
Firstly in all the interviews I have heard Dr. Letwin give (and I have heard many interviews – the most recent only a couple of days ago) his devotion to the ‘public services’ shines through.
It is simply not true that local control will make such ‘public services’ as health and education work. For example, my fellow inhabitants of Kettering, Northamptonshire have no more influence over the work of Kettering Borough Council than they do over the work of Whitehall – nor will some administrative reorganization change this. The only way ‘local control’ is good is if it financed by local taxation – then people can ‘vote with their feet’ by going to the area with the lowest taxes (ditto regulations).
Nor will “getting civil society involved” help matters – as this tends to mean either Blair government style ‘public-private partnerships’ (i.e. sleaze – with the taxpayers being robbed even more than they are by the state acting alone), or George W. Bush style government subsidies for such things as churches and private charities (such ‘help’ can only corrupt the institutions of civil society).
If the state must exist (and human beings of good will can argue well on both sides of this question) then the ‘wall of separation’ between the state and civil society must be maintained – any mixing of the two leads inevitably to corruption. The ‘public services’ CAN NOT work – if Dr. Letwin feels he can not say that (because the voters demand that they work) then he should remain silent. I do not know what the voters will accept – but I do know that telling them pleasing stories is unwise (as when the promises can not be kept the voters will be angry).
My other concern about Dr. Letwin is that he does not seem to understand the true nature of the economy. The economy is not basically sound with a few nasty problems. No – the economy is basically unsound.
Firstly the economy is based on a fiat money credit bubble. Some people (such as Antoine Clarke) may well be very bored by me banging about this so I will keep things short. The basic economic structure of Britain and all the main Western nations is in a state similar to (if not worse than) 1929. It is true that at least we have less chance of beggar-thy-neighbour tariff wars today – but the credit-money bubble must burst (and the collapse will be very bad).
Secondly the Welfare State ‘entitlement programs’ of the Western World continue to grow. Even without a credit-money collapse these Welfare State programs would bankrupt all Western nations (including the United States). As it is the Welfare State will collapse when the credit-money bubble bursts.
Dr. Letwin and the rest of the ‘Front Bench’ of the Conservative and Unionist Party give no sign of understanding any of the above. Their policy concerns are roughly of the same order as being concerned with the lay out of the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Paul Marks
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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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