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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St Andrews and ethical investment A year ago, the student union at the University of St Andrews denounced the Royal Bank of Scotland, along with a plethora of other companies and products, for being unethical. The arguments were generally spurious. In the case of RBS, it involved the fact that they had invested in or given bank accounts – or something – to biotech companies, if I remember correctly. RBS was the most unethical banking choice students chould make, the union claimed.
At around the same time, the Left, led by the One World Society, ran a referendum campaign on whether the union should only invest ethically. The union had already decided to only follow the ideas of ethical investment, but they wanted the student body to vote on it in a referendum so that it would get more publicity. Over 90% of voting students were in favour.
A year later, the union has evaluated its financial position, and has decided to move its money into an “ethical fund”.
With the Royal Bank of Scotland.
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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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Two terms- schadenfraude and irony.
I remember when I was there, there was a huge “controversy” over some Walnut Whips being stocked for sale in the Union by accident. They are, of course, made by the evil Nestle. Looking back, I find it odd that so many students could so earnestly discuss the evils of companies that “invest money in killing people”, while smoking al least forty fags a day each. There was never any suggestion that the Union should stop selling cigarettes, for some reason.