Surrender is a choice, old chum. In the face of policies designed to cause fear & despair, refuse to be driven by fear & do not give in to despair. Even if that is the sum total one can contribute, do at least that.
– Perry de Havilland
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Samizdata quote of the dayJanuary 10th, 2021 |
 13 comments to Samizdata quote of the day |
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Never were truer words written.
Naval warfare has a concept, the ‘fleet in being’. It never leaves harbour, where its difficult to attack. But it could at any time. So the Admiral always has to consider it, tying up resources.
Like the US 2A….
Don’t believe everything the liars say, don’t panic, be ready.
Leave Harbour before you get Taranto’d…..
Fair enough.
But I want a realistic plan of reform – not wild “lashing act” as on January 6th.
I apologise for my defeatism and melancholia – but at least I am not guilty of betrayal.
Sadly some libertarians are guilty of betrayal – I have been astonished by their conduct.
The emergence of Fascism, the Corporate State, has been met with a wave of EXCUSES.
Well, to be fair, so it was in Italy and Germany.
FWIW what I have been thinking a lot about is American flags. I remember in the worst days of the various middle east conflicts there were riots in various places and people burning American flags, “down with the capitalist oppressors.” I always thought with, great admiration, about the little capitalist entrepreneurs who set up booths selling American flags. It was a great business, high demand, low costs, product is consumed so repeatable. That, seems to me, to be a good approach.
I am reminded of my rule of government: when a politician sees a problem a democrat proposes a new regulation, a republican proposes a tax break, a libertarian starts a new business. As we wave good bye to the American century and hello to the Chinese century I wonder what business opportunities that might bring.
I fear that this is the great delusion of many libertarians. We prognosticate that “Government is not the solution”, but get so busy arguing in the politician sphere that we forget that that is not our natural domain at all. To do so is to concede the high ground. Rather, we should be working in our own baliwick, of building and creating voluntary solutions, bringing people together out of self interest and charity, outside of the force and violence of government, and solving our problems that way.
I’m not saying that there is not role for politics in libertarianism — we do, after all, believe in self defense. But somehow it seems to me that we sometimes get bottled up there, trapped in the hubris of the political class, a realm that we will never succeed in, rather than doing what we do best.
That could be SQOTD, except that perhaps it is too wordy..
In my arrogance, i dare to summarize it in fewer words as follows:
We should not (only) argue about limiting government; each one of us should take action to limit government power over ourselves, in as far as possible.
Perry’s preceding post provides a model.
(Of course, i might have misunderstood Fraser.)
It might be of interest to remember the instructions that Henri Guisan broadcast to the Swiss in their darkest hour (making sure that the Germans got the message):
I am sorry that i do not remember where i got this.
You can’t just abdicate one side of a mutual relationship. If you ignore the political bad, and they become more empowered because of that, they won’t forget you, and they won’t leave you alone, and they will come for whatever you build and use it for their own purposes.
Yes, definitely, build. But don’t retreat from the other in disgust. Absent a fight, it’ll just get worse.
@bobby b
Yes, definitely, build. But don’t retreat from the other in disgust. Absent a fight, it’ll just get worse.
I think I did say that there is a role for libertarians in politics — basically self defense. But right now we have very few tools available to us. So I certainly am not retreating in disgust, it is more that there isn’t much I can do, in that realm anyway. These morons who invaded the capitol have set back the cause of liberty five or ten years in my opinion, and I think that any call for liberty will be batted off by reference to that.
With the senate converted to a majoritarian body (which will surely happen when they get the casting vote of Harris), two new states, thirty million new democrat voters (starting with DACA then illegal aliens), and, as a consequence of that, the ability to turn the USSC around, I don’t think that the cause of liberty, or even conservatism has any power at all to stop this, especially when the state apparatus is aligned with them in a way it never was with Trump. Moreover, I think something not widely recognized is that the states are prostrate too. Since congress has the power of the purse they can absolutely drag the states into line with whatever they want. Trump even exercised this idea but, not having congress, could never execute it. I think the courts are the last place there is any non liberal power left, and I imagine we will quickly see that changed at the top, and possibly pushed down lower over the next ten years. Compound that with the fact that channels of communication are being shut down quickly and very, very effectively, I am not sure exactly what we can do. (I read today that Parler was dropped by their legal representation, and is having a very hard time to find someone to represent them — something that should disturb us all very much — that the legal community are such cowards. Though perhaps it is easy to condemn a coward when you yourself are not under fire from a viscous fusillade.) And the one thing we had going for us — “our protesters don’t burn down buildings” is now destroyed, and in fact turned entirely against us by a bunch of dangerous, thuggish morons.
BTW, something worth pondering with regards to the “two new states”. The republicans have had an advantage in the electoral college for a long time. On average in republican states each senator represents about 3 million voters, and in democrat states each represents about 3.5 million voters. Adding DC and PR the democrat senators would represents 3.3 million voters, so, in a sense, there is some justice in this, from a post 17th amendment view of what a “Senator” is.
AFAIK, we are going to be stuck in the current regime for at least the next ten years until some realignment takes place. But before that we will have moved on to “The Chinese Century”.
However, you live in a different world than me, the world of the law. So perhaps you have some constructive avenues open to you to do something. I would love to hear them, and would happily participate. I work in the world of building software, so I’m going to do that and try to find some way to take advantage of this new world order we are entering. Perhaps I should start a web site to teach people how to speak Mandarin?
Yes it was indeed Sorri – a wave of excuses in both Italy and Germany, and now America (becoming a Corporate State before our eyes).
bobby b could point to some success even in Minnesota – at least it is less INDEBTED than many other Democrat States. That is due to “self defence” in politics.
There is more success over the border in South Dakota – although being an “contrarian old J..” I could find things to argue with my own side even there. The people voted to legalise smoking pot – they may have been WRONG, but that is what thye decided (remember “Under God The People Rule” – that is supposed to be the motto of the South Dakota) – so stop trying to punish people for doing something (smoking pot) that did not use to be illegal (when my father was born it was legal over most of the Western World) and the people have just voted for it to be legal once again.
The people who voted to legalise what used to be legal thought they were acting in self defence – again they may have been WRONG, but that is what the people decided on this POLICY. And if “Under God The People Rule” is to have any meaning – you have to get out of their way.
By the way I think smoking pot is an utterly vile habit – but then a lot of other people think that walking around “maskless” is utterly vile.
If South Dakota has the right to reject Mr Biden’s “mask mandate” (and I believe they do) the people must be allowed to have their way in the other matter.
Smoking pot should be legal.
But people should be told the truth about pot.
And from what i understand, they aren’t.
(As for myself, i tried space cakes in the Netherlands, and as a result i decided to stick to small amounts of caffeine and large amounts of alcohol. But i’ll try to cut down on the alcohol.)
Oh yes Snorri – it is poison and people who use it are taking a sledgehammer to their long term health, but there we are.
By the way I will say something more in defence of Minnesota – I quite like the Torrens Land Registration system (Colonel Torrens was a good man – and so was his son, after which the system is named).
Minnesota adopted the system from Australia – and it seems a quick and easy way of finding out who owns what (saving a lot of court battles).
Now specialists in the subject will write in saying I have got it all wrong…..