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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] Authors
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Just another hard working day at Samizdata.net HQ…June 4th, 2006 |
 25 comments to Just another hard working day at Samizdata.net HQ… |
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. CategoriesArchivesFeed This PageLink Icons   |
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In case readers wondered why I was the only poster recently… now you know.
damn. 🙂
Alrighty, what’s the deal with Arkham? There is no such city in Massachusetts! According to wikipedia, it’s a creation of H.P. Lovecraft, a fiction writer. So is there some meaning of this city, some theme it exemplifies in his writings that Libertarians just love?
And then there’s “illuminatus”. I wikipediad that as well and, after clicking on “disambiguation” (Samizdata isn’t pedestrian for readers to uncover legendary mysteries without at least a bit of work), I noticed one meaning of the term is “secret society”. Hmm…
So this mystery town, the creation of a profoundly crazy writer (alas, infuenced by E.A. Poe), is the meeting place of a secret society?
Oh, come on and spill the beans please! Your readers are begging to know! (well, at least one of ’em) 😛 hehe
Troy:
Many libertarians, for some reason, love obscure science fiction writers, and seem bent on impressing each other with ever more obscure writers that they read. I personally don’t get it. (Of course, I don’t get why so many people go gaga over the Bored of the Rings trilogy, either.)
As for my comment, the Samizdatistas drink even more than William Powell and Myrna Loy in “The Thin Man”. eek! 🙂
We drink because we can. But it’s a matter of quality, not quantity. Although the number of the bottles defy that point. But it was good stuff we were drinking that night. 🙂
Everything you need to know can be found at Miskatonic University.
A well-stocked bar. How excellent.
Troy:
Oh, come on and spill the beans please!
I’m not an editor, so this is not ex cathedra, but my assumption has always been that the allusions are to Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminatus books, which themselves recycle elements of and names from Poe and Lovecraft in the general mishmash. So you took the wrong disambiguating fork, which is both very Wikipedian and very Wilsonian.
The guiding philosophy of this site, including its resistance to anything approaching a party line or doctrine, is pretty close to the ‘Discordianism’ led by Wilson’s character Hagbard Celine* (note that the Wikipedia entry on Discordianism is entirely disinformation – an elaboration of the joke). It may be obscure now, but was well-known in the 70s.
See also here.
…………
* Though for reasons which remain obscure contributors and commentators very frequently ignore Celine’s First Law: “National Security is the chief
cause of national insecurity.”
S.A.T. was too crummy and Miskatonic University turned you down? Damn. In that case everything you need to know can be found here!
Becherovka?? Great! Do they sell it also out of Czech or Slovak Republic??
Good herbal drink
Ooh, attractive, intelligent men drinking and letting their guards down. Anyone single? Can I come over next time?
(Would I have to wear a see thru top and a visible black bra? I don’t have trashy clothes like that, I’d have to go shopping.) LOL
Peter, I purchased it in Prague.
Trashy? Not at all, just very big city London. But what I want to know is what do I have do to get invited to these parties? THAT is what I call serious party politics 🙂
I really need to get down to the Big Smoke more often.
Meow?
KentuckyLiz,
As long as you fill the “trashy see-through blouse and bra” as well as the Samizdatian ladies do…
How can the men be intelligent? They persist in thinking that libertarianism would actually work.
Drop us a line… you never know!
And that would be because the current alternatives on offer work so well? In any case, what makes you think the only people who party with us are libertarians? I think of myself as a classical liberal.
…and Adriana’s outfit was not ‘trashy’ at all!
Guy:
Thanks for the info. I appreciate it.
Perry:
What are the differences between a libertarian and a classical liberal? I’ve heard this distinction made before but only to suggest that Libertarianism is one branch of the classical liberal tree, if you will.
I believe kentuckyliz is referring to http://www.samizdata.net/blog/photos1_archives/001584.html and http://www.samizdata.net/blog/photos1_archives/001585.html .
Samizdata Illuminatus:
Miskatonic University is apparently in Arkham, Massachusetts. Based on 30 seconds research at wiki, this comes from the Miskatonic river from Lovecraft’s story – also fake. But hey, the website devoted to MU gives no such impression.
Except its website design hails from a decade ago. No self respecting Western uni would maintain such a dated looking site today.
“I think of myself as a classical liberal.”
Perry,
If there were a picture of John Locke or Albert Jay Nock on the masthead instead of a paean to Karl Popper, I might believe you.
😉
Oh, and I still burn with shame when I recall that we never made contact with you Samizdatians the last time we were in London… even you are a Randian bunch. (Did I get that adjective right?)
Popper himself was no libertarian. I admire his method for understanding reality, the conjectural objective epistimology and all that other good happy horseshit but the man’s personal political views were… confused 🙂
And we are a varied bunch but not many of us are really Randroids per se (the Popper thang is a dead give away).
And we really need to triple check all communications next time to make sure you do not miss any future parties on this side of the puddle!
As I recall he missed the last one throw in his honour but what the hell, who needs a reason to throw a bloggerbash?
Julian,
Perry and I had a simple comm problem: I told him that he HAD to get me the details (address, time etc) BEFORE we left to go overseas: the first part of our trip was in the Algarve, and I wasn’t going to be checking my email at all anyway (I’m strange about that kind of thing).
So we missed each other that night, and the regret rankles with me still.
My invitation to the Samizdatians still stands: if any of you ever get to Texas: the first 500 rounds (of ammo) are on me.
Looks like a great party… Hail Discordia and all that stuff.
Heard Robert Shea on a panel at the Chicago Worldcon in 92…with Timothy Leary…amazing stuff…conspiracy theories flew.