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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Political swooning Granted, these days the United States of America has saddled itself with a big ol’ government fat enough to set the Founding Fathers spinning in their graves. However, the USA’s genesis was so well-considered – such a precise ideological crystal – that it gave rise to the mightiest of nations; enormously prosperous even in the face of the myriad bureaucratic hindrances witnessed today. I love to reacquaint myself with aspects of such a universal, timeless and (in my opinion) optimal design of a nation – the Minutemen inspired this post. Such history is criminally superseded by modern reality, but it nevertheless provides something to work towards.
There is so much in the USA’s formative years that is inspirational.
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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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However, the USA’s genesis was so well-considered – such a precise ideological crystal
I forget which British historian it was (Lord Acton, maybe?), but I’ll always remember them saying that there were two times in history when an extremely complex political problem was solved almost perfectly: The devolution of the republic/creation of the empire under Augustus and the founding of the United States.
Somehow I think when that was said George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were spinning in their graves.
Nicely put, James. The Wiki writeup is informative. Let’s hope that schoolkids learn about this.
I think one of the many terrible things said by the execrable Michael Moore was in likening the head-hacking Jihadis in Iraq to the Minutemen. At that point I realised that there was no shred of decency, or possibly sanity, in that bloated buffoon, and I think quite a few thoughtful leftists realised the same thing.
Funnily enough, we have not heard much since about the left’s favourite Giant Cheeseburger.