If we want to build the country, maintain our dignity and solve economic problems, we need the culture of martyrdom.
– President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran replies to his critics (also quoted by Mick Hartley)
|
|||||
|
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
Arts, Tech & CultureCivil LibertiesCommentary
EconomicsSamizdatistas |
Samizdata quote of the dayApril 27th, 2008 |
 24 comments to Samizdata quote of the day |
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   |
|||
All content on this website (including text, photographs, audio files, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License. |
|||||
Wonder how that would deal with 25% inflation, and that in one of the world’s largest oil exporters?
What Mr Ahmadinejad needs is an Ed Balls to be able to spin that what he really said was ‘barterdom’.
Not much different from the rhetoric in most socialist countries – “to make the system work people must be self-sacrificing,” Etc. You will find a lot of British people believe this, albeit they state it in softer language.
I notice Mr Armanidinnerjacket hasn’t sacrificed himself yet. He should lead by example.
I’m alright, Jack. Enjoy your poverty.
How about “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.” — Thomas Jefferson.
“If we want to destroy the country, lose our dignity and create economic problems, we need the culture of…….”
Look around, guys!
(Just a thought on a nice sunny Sunday afternoon.)
If he’s so big on martyrdom, why doesn’t he slit his own throat and make himself one? Oh, sorry, I forgot: other people are supposed to die to make him richer and more powerful, and we’re all supposed to be impressed by the dignity with which the fanatics who fall for his propaganda scramble to do so.
And this is the man we’re supposed to chat politely with while he stalls us so he can get nuclear weapons? Perhaps those foolish enough to believe that will deserve what they get, but I’d be a little calmer about that thought if they weren’t holding the rest of us hostage to their own stupidity.
One rarely sees the statist requirement enunciated so clearly and unambiguously—success in statist aspirations requires human sacrifice as a fundamental underpinning of the enterprise.
Usually this is dressed up in all sorts of pious claptrap so as to disguise the essential barbarity of the social order making the demand—Aztecs cutting out human hearts, but only behind the screen, out of sight, and “explained” by all the correct phrases about “essential needs” and “common good” and “public interest” etc. etc.
The candor is refreshing, and way too revealing…
The concept of self-generated martyrdom is baffling. How can one create one’s own martyrdom – as a true martyrdom?
Is that self-generated form the “Culture of Martyrdom” needed to support the totalitarian theocracy?
Is not all this hype just a mask of egotism to “be or become somebody” by reason of the nature of death chosen for one’s self?
So, the culture of martyrdom is the culture of extreme egotism.
Yep, one thing the guy cannot ever be accused of is lack of candor.
The President of Iran has a long record.
A leader of the people who attacked the American embassy in 1979 – a clear act of war not dealt with by that waste-of-skin James Earl Carter.
The Iranian gentleman also spent the Iraq-Iran war handing out “keys to heaven” to little boys (way under age) who he then used in human wave suicide attacks over mine fields.
As pointed out by others above it is odd that he has never gone on a suicide mission himself.
I assume he would argue that he is making a great sacrifice by staying here on Earth whereas he could have gone to paradise.
No doubt the Supreme Leader and the Council of Guardians (who also all want to either kill or enslave us all – but do not talk about it so much) would make the same argument.
Maybe he did? Maybe he put on his Dupont boxers, went to some preschool, and pushed the button, and then Allah the Most Longwinded and Flowery was so pleased that He stitched Ahmadenejad back together?
Why not? The guy is such a freaking loon that I’m sure he’d try to claim it sooner or later.
Wouldn’t it be great if the whole country blew itself up? I know I’d think more highly of the country if it weren’t there! So long as they don’t take any other country with them, of course…
Er, Nick, you are aware that there are people who actually live there?
People?!?!?! I thought they were MUSLIMS! Who let people into the country?
I suppose, technically, they classify as people, BUT, aside from the odd Persian Rug, what have they contributed to world civilisation? We can get oil from plenty of countries, and shale oil might soon become economically feasible (be nice to Canadians now, and get cheap oil later!), so if the country had a civil war, or Allah sent a plague to wipe them out, how would that inconvenience our world?
If the muslims admitted that Israelis are people, we’d be halfway to a peace settlement! I’ll let them make the first move!
Not cool.
My opinion of their religion isn’t exactly favorable. I’m still a partisan of my own, even if Arch. Rowan isn’t exactly. And some of their cultural practices are, well, barbaric.
But it’s a long way from “They seem to have more shitbirds than the average country” to “Slay them all: God will know his own.” Fine, so Ahmadenejad is a raving moonbat of the first order and has plenty of backers who should have been swallowed rather than conceived. Not arguing with you there. But writing off a few million other people just because they also bang their foreheads into the pavement 5x daily and speak Farsi is just another goofy form of collectivism.
Well, I have to be honest here: I though Nick was talking about NK, but still, what Sunfish said.
And, of course, maybe he didn’t mean it? He’s a politician, and he courts local popularity, so these may just be the equivalent of campaign promises, or as fatuous as ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!’
In which case he should be snubbed for being a typical politician. But, if, like Hitler, he means what he says, and we go on ignoring his plain speech, and his electorate endorses what he says….?
His electorate? Don’t be silly.
Mind you, I am not saying that I am against your proposition under any circumstances, it’s just that you seem to be taking it a bit too lightly.
Someone must have voted for him, and liked what he was saying, even though Iran is not a total Democracy- the mullahs also have a strong influence.
Alisa, if you think my views are either too light, or too dark, what do you think we should do about these people? (They’re not people, they’re muslims!!!) Do we do nothing, and hope for the best?
Nick, your assertion that “They’re not people, they’re muslims” makes it difficult for me to take you seriously.
Alisa, it’s not an assertion, it’s just a thought that keeps running through the back of my mind.
I understand that. I guess you’d have to give it some more conscious thought, until you reach a conclusion that you will feel comfortable calling (not necessarily publicly) an ‘assertion’.
I’m shocked, simply shocked, at the idea that he might be a grandstanding asshat.
That’s where a mysterious helicopter crash or a .338 Lapua cerebral hemmhorage would be an excellent idea. I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t even have a problem with military action. I do have a problem with writing off an entire country and all of the people in it because an elected leader, an unelected council what’s really in charge, and some undefined portion of the population are asshats.
Nobody said to do nothing, aside from that goof who shows up here once a month to whine about ‘neocons.’ But doing something doesn’t necessarily mean doing something stupid and wrong, just for the sake of doing something.
As for the remark in parentheses…that happens. We have some frequent fliers, we call them, that lead me to think that aerial bombardment of certain neighborhoods is a perfectly-valid alternative to policing. Thinking that way is not one of the things I like about myself, not to get all new-agey about it or anything.