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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Some things never change… Comrades! We must abolish the cult of the individual decisively, once and for all
– Nikita Khrushchev
The main plank in the National Socialist program is to abolish the liberalistic concept of the individual
– Adolf Hitler
At a time when our entire country is banding together and facing down individualism, the Patriots set a wonderful example, showing us all what is possible when we work together, believe in each other, and sacrifice for the greater good
– Ted Kennedy, 2002
There is the great, silent, continuous struggle: the struggle between the State and the Individual
– Benito Mussolini
We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society
– Hillary Clinton, 1993
All our lives we fought against exalting the individual, against the elevation of the single person
– Vladimir Lenin
Thanks to James Knowles for compiling these quotes
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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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You are correct.
Whenever people say they are favour of “more than individual liberty” or even “not just individual liberty” – they just mean that they are against individual liberty.
Fancy terms like “class freedom” or “race freedom” or “new freedom” or “new liberty” all just mean slavery.
Paul Marks.
All the people quoted had a great deal of individual liberty. Strange.
Interestingly, there seems to be a dearth of collections of anti-individualist quotes on the web (as found in a couple of Google searches I’ve run), but pro-individual collections abound.
Libertarianism continues as the dominant culture of the web.
You probably missunderstood Nikita Khrushchov’s quote: “We must abolish the cult of the individual”.
The cult of the individual he wanted to abolish was the cult of Joseph Stalin. The term “cult of the individual” is a code phrase that he used to dethrone Joseph Stalin which was worshiped as some deity. The phrase means: we must stop to worship this particular individual (Joseph Stalin).
It is not that Khrushchov was a friend of individualism, it is just that this quote means something else.
Fair point, Jacob.
Just one more from Benito:
“We were the first to assert that the more complicated the forms assumed by civilization, the more restricted the freedom of the individual must become.”
Benito Mussolini– quoted in The Road to Serfdom, chapter 4.
It’s funny that people like Hillary Clinton want to do away with individualism, considering that she enjoys the same personal freedoms that everyone else in this country enjoys. I wonder, if individualism was taken away from her if she would still stand by her quote up there?