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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Spin doctors in the internet age Douglas Carswell, who is still merrily blogging away despite the happy intrusion of fatherhood, wonders whether the days of the spin doctor might be starting to fade. He says the internet is seriously starting to cut into the middleman of the spin doctor. I am not so sure about that – presumably, spinners will use the internet to try and prolong their role. But there is no doubt that spin doctors, rather like old fashioned advertisers, are seeing their roles changed, and in often uncomfortable ways, by the Internet. Look at how the traditional “gate keepers” of the media castle have been sidelined by outlets such as YouTube, for instance.
Talking of advertising, I just love the series, Mad Men.
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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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I notice that Carswell uses the phrase “cut out the middle man”, a phrase I am always suspicious of.
Yes the internet, blogging, etc. will render a generation of a particular sort of middle men obsolete, but it will also create new middle men, in fact it already has. What else are medium traffic bloggers read by high traffic bloggers, or all those more anonymous people who feed the high traffic bloggers with tips and suggestions by email?
In other words, I rather suspect, Carswell himself is a middle man. Funny how middle men often don’t realise this.
Note that there’s anything wrong with middle men. At least potentially, it’s a very honourable trade.
One of the things I found cool about the first season of Mad Men was, not the presence of references to Ayn Rand, but the specific symbolic function of references to Ayn Rand: As I watched successive episodes, I realized that her name was serving as a metonym of good business ethics, which I thought was a very fitting significance to give her.
Two years ago I asked Alastair Campbell, how he saw the influence of the internet and bloggers affecting his ability to control the news agenda. He believed that it would remain incidental detail and would play not great part. I thought he was wrong then, more so now.
Two years ago I asked Alastair Campbell, how he saw the influence of the internet and bloggers affecting his ability to control the news agenda. He believed that it would remain an incidental detail and would not play a great part. I thought he was wrong then, more so now.