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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We get feedback! “You guys have given me a bit more confidence to hold my [libertarian] views and have been a real tonic. It is good to be reminded that there are likeminded souls out there.”
A remark about this blog that was addressed to me by one of the attendees at an Adam Smith Institute event last night. Comments like that help to make this gig worthwhile.
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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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Absolutely,
I thought I was one of the few on the planet until I stumbled accross the Libertarian Bookshop in the early 80’s.
I still had little contact with like minded people until I found Samizdata in, I guess, about 2001.
There are still a lot of people out there who see nothing but the statist propaganda churned out by broadcast media and newspapers. Where can bright people who aren’t Internet savvy get an alternative message?
I don’t think you have to be savvy to use the ‘net these days. It’s like bread and air.
But Counting Cats has a point. I was a Libertarian before I knew it. Well, sort of – I learned a lot on SI – but I had a tendancy if you know what I mean.
I am ‘net savvy but if you don’t know what you are then you don’t know what to Google. I mean I knew that I was socially liberal (gay marriage didn’t represent the End of Days to me) and fiscally conservative (there was something rotten in a state that consumes nearly 50% of GDP) and I also knew nobody in politics was rooting for me.
Of course I now much better what I am and don’t think in those crude terms but I struggled and I remember some of my early Sami comments being things I’m vaguely ashamed of. Perry, JP, Mid and Mr Marks et al put me onto the right track.
They didn’t tell me what to think, they gave me the language to think with. And that’s my point, really. I’m a fairly bright chap but I didn’t have that language because Libertarianism is outside the scope of normal UK political discourse so it takes a while to really “get it”.
That’s our problem. It’s communicating our message that’s tricky because it’s radical and it’s very difficult to get over the hump of “So you want to see the poor starving in the streets”.
What Nick said.
I was a libertarian (pretty much) before I knew what it meant. The futility of most state action just seemed obvious to me even without a philosophical framework.
It is good to know I’m not in a minority of one.
Just to turn the tables around… comments like the one quoted also give us a boost. We don’t do this for income and most of us are not living on incomes that are large. For myself, I am an eternally optimistic entrepreneur who has near to lost his shirt too many times to mention and am so often skating the edge of the financial abyss that I should declare it a new extreme sport. I post and do some of my background editorial duties because I think it a worthwhile use of what time I can spare. Feedback gives us that little bit of hope that we are not just wild eyed prophets roaming the wilderness and lecturing at the storm from some craggy mountain top.
It matters to matter. One needs hope to give hope.
For me, coming to Libertarianlsm properly in 1977, when I met Chris Tame in the NAFF (later freedom Association) offices, was like suddenly finding the ability to jump over that unbridgeable ravine in the “Raiders of the lost etc” film.
It was not quite the moment of St Paul on the Damascus Road, more a clearing of vision into the order inside what I already thought.
Chris gave me the language to think with (someone else’s phrase up there) so I could suddenly leap over those “what about the poor” obstacles, and I could formulate better my views of the world’s problems and the solutions.
My experience is almost identical to Nick M’s. I was libertarian before I’d ever heard of the word, and learnt from anarcho-capitalist and hacker Eric Raymond. *Then* I knew what to Google, and up popped Samizdata, and sure enough, I wasn’t the only one.
Where would the UK libertarian movement be without the Internet?
I picked up the late Harry Browne’s “How I found Freedom in an Unfree World” in 1974. It stands in my bookshelf today & remains my ‘bible’ to which I often refer.
It told me much of what I already knew to be true & gave me the ‘Libertarian’ label of which I was then unaware.
There is little new in the book…it reminds one, mostly, of logical things one should have remembered…but had forgotten because they were too ‘simple’.
The title isn’t the best & the style of writing is wanting but the message is abundantly clear. e.g:
Unfortunately (in my opinion), he forgot that which he had preached & went into politics, was Presidential candidate of The Libertarian Party in 2000…& 2006, the year in which he died.
He wrote, I think, more than a dozen books…but “Freedom” stands out & is, especially today, a ‘must read’.
“so I could suddenly leap over those ‘what about the poor’ obstacles”
“it’s very difficult to get over the hump of ‘So you want to see the poor starving in the streets'”
Perhaps we could have a thread about this?
as for the ‘what about the poor?’ issue, there is a good article by Richard Garner (http://richardgarner.blogspot.com/) in the latest issue of the Society for Individual Freedom’s magazine (http://www.individualist.org.uk/pdf/2008aprilindiv.pdf)
Eeriliy close to one of those religious meetings where we all get to ‘witness’ our conversions.
I’m *still* in that uncomfortable place where I was brought up in a profoundly socialist-leaning family, veered over to realizing that Thatcherite Conservatism had some redeeming characteristics, and oversteered into what seemed to me, in the early 80’s, a dangerous, lonely place Of Which One Must Not Speak For Fear Of Social Ostracism.
That oversteer, especially in the mid- to late 80’s was inchoate and poorly reasoned, and thus, philosopghically fragile. Nobody was going to accuse me of Minarchistic tendencies because the lousy British educational system and the BBC never heard of the word.
I was just getting a handle on, and some consistency to my world view (largely in isolation), when I got the opportunity to move to the US, and to some degree, I had to realign my beliefs with my observations. I’m still the economic Friedmanite I always was, but I’ve come to despise statism even more than I had in the UK.
What has Samizdata done for me? As a lurker since about 2002, it’s pointed out where to look, and forced me to confront what turned out to be inconsistencies in my views. It’s also (I think) taught me that at least in the US, big-L-libertarianism is doomed to being at best an influential bloc that will sometimes help shape policy – and the US is the most fertile soil for libertarianism. I know that’s not an optimistic assessment, but I really have no confidence in seeing a Harry Browne in the White House, Senate, or even as a Town Selectman.
What else has Samizdata given me? Contact to some searing hot minds who seem prepared to leaven their opinions with humor. The level of discourse is often way above my head, but I usually emerge better educated by the time I hit the “Post a comment” markup.
Keep it up guys. I’m sure it seems like you’re whistlin’ in the wind sometimes, but the concept of libertarianism is alive and well, even if many ‘barely political’ observers pick and choose ideas from the table like a smorgasborg. Do you ever do weblog anaylses of geographical location or where you’re linked from. I suspect that you have worldwide readership (where permitted 🙂 ) and that readership is trending up. I’m constantly surprised by who I get emails from that mention Samizdata en passant.
Just a quick note to say how much i enjoyed the event at ASI last night.
I suppose my experience is closest to NickM’s. I was right there with the Thatcher “revolution” in the ’80s (despite still being at school, I instinctively knew that it was on the right track) but felt betrayed by its under-achievement by the end. I don’t mean to denigrate what was achieved, but it should have been so much more, and it was obvious to me by the early ’90s that what constrained it was the very method by which it was attempted: politics itself. We need less of that, I thought.
In a world of what I would now call – thanks to Samizdata – a statist meta-context, though, this felt a very personal realization. Discovering PJ O’Rourke helped, but it’s hard to argue a case when your only backup is a humourist. A very smart, well-researched humourist, but a gag-man nonetheless.
Discovering Samizdata in around 2001-2002 showed me that I’m not alone, and that in fact what felt like radical, almost dangerous, ideas are shared by many; indeed, I can probably count myself among the milder commenters here. It has – as it appears it has for others – helped me create a structure for my views: an understanding of why they’re right, rather than just that instinctive “feel”. It hasn’t done this alone, of course: I’d heard of Rand, Hayek, et al., but it was Samizdata that gave me the incentive to actually go and read what they wrote. Again, I found that my opinions aren’t as radical as some.
I completely understand Bod’s comment about the level of discourse sometimes being over the heads of some of us, but it’s better to have something to reach for than to wallow in the lowest-common-denominator mud of the mainstream media. There are some smart people who, when you talk to them, can make you feel incredibly stupid, but there are others who make you feel like you’ve learned something and become just that little bit smarter yourself. Samizdata is fortunate in having more than its fair share of the latter – especially since the blogosphere as a whole tends to attract the former like flies.
Samizdatistas are sharp, knowledgable, and logical; they provide intellectual heft for thousands of liberty warriors worldwide and inject fresh ideas into the minds of millions of passive observers the world over. They do it with clarity and class.
Samizdata is a haven that uplifts the hopeful spirits of individuals who believe in the liberating power and inherent value of liberty.
While Samizdatistas realize that in the real world the pen is not mightier than the sword, they give us hope that the mightiest sword of tomorrow will be forged by the rational and honest thinkers of today for the defense and advancement of liberty.
Thank you. I hope you all continue blogging well into the future.
Good question. Before the net, in the back end of the 80s and 90s, it was based on small gatherings in friends houses, pamphlets produced by the likes of Brian Micklethwait (there were hundreds written by the LA membership), outreach to groups like the Federation of Conservative Students, other student groups, and so on.
There was also the Alternative Bookshop in Convent Garden, run by Chris T. and others. It is amazing, really, how people still talk about it 20 years or more after it closed down. I walked down that street the other day to go to a meeting and it is now full of flash fashion goods. I almost felt a lump in the throat.
I credit this blog as the sole reason why I transformed from being an old-fashioned conservative to a libertarian. I immediately took a liking to the concept that people should be left alone and allowed to make their own choices. Were that my childhood had been like that!
I couldn’t agree more. Although I’ve always been a hard-core libertarian, finding this blog has been great.
Are there going to be more events like the Adam Smith Instritute thingy? It’s good to put faces to bloggers and I need to challenge Thaddeus to a duel for flirting outrageously with my wife! Enchanté indeed!! 🙂
Mark, get onto the ASI’s mailing list. They host regular events. I also suggest you do the same for the Institute of Economic Affairs.
I have many associates that espouse libertarianism, but the more I analyze their words and read about the ideal, I find myself thinking that it cannot possibly work in the real world, for in order to work it requires that every individual in society take full responsibility for their own actions, something that sadly does not seem to be the norm or even the practice of a majority. It then also requires man to accept in a near fatalistic manner, the end result of his decisions and actions without assigning blame to external forces, again something most rare in human societies. Thus I come back to the founding documents of this great nation and say that were we all to pursue enlightened self interest, pursue education for personal growth and by concious effort and wherever possible, limit the powers granted by the people to the government (especially the Judiciary), we will all be better off and more prosperous. Policies to encourage full employment in the private sector lead to wealth and personal satisfaction of a majority. There will always be perhaps 5% that will not succeed or may need charity, but the other 95% will carry that load. What we cannot continue is down a path leading to 50% non producers riding on the back of the other 50%, and that day is ever coming closer. I am not an isolationist nor am I anti free markets, but those free markets should come about through the private sector and not by fiat of the government. To complete the picture, any nation that fails to control it’s borders in such a manner that those invited to immigrate are able to assimilate and gain productive employment, ceases to be a nation, here again we are going down the wrong path. Hayek was correct in his assesment regarding the road to serfdom riding on good intentions, especially when those espousing said intentions come from the non-productive sector.
Terrapod:
That’s exactly why.
Too many people are unable to take responsibility for themselves.
And you want to give them power over others???
“Where would the UK libertarian movement be without the Internet?”
Even more like where the UK government would like the UK libertarian movement to be.