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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Samizdata quote of the day Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal well meaning but without understanding.
– Louis D Brandeis
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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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This is probably the most significant notion I’ve seen on Samizdata. I hope the apparent lack of interest in it thus far is not due to the fact that most people of a libertarian mindset are also at least moderate conspiracy theorists. I can be at times, but for the most part I really believe freedom is destroyed by well-meaning people trying to inflict their convictions on the rest of the world.
A classic example of this is the religious establishment here in the United States trying to have the federal government define marriage as between a man and a woman. Personally, I believe homosexuality is wrong, but I am absolutely, positively AGAINST permitting the federal government to dictate anything about marriage, let alone right and wrong.
Reagan had a line like this about the scariest words in the English language being, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”
For years I have often said that I have no tolerance for zealots of any stripe, but several days ago I heard a statement that made me rethink that position.
“Extremism in support of Liberty is no vice.”
I heard it from radio talk show host Michael Savage but I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t get it from one of America’s Founding Fathers.
Oops…That last line ought to read “I wouldn’t be surprised if he got it from…”
“Extremism in support of Liberty is no vice,” is a quote by Barry Goldwater, said during his acceptance speech at the 1964 Republican convention.