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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ID card fig leaf I’ve no time (but someone here should definitely try to make the time) for a longer response to this article by Stephen Robinson in the Telegraph.
Its title – “Identity cards won’t stop the terrorists: they’re only a fig leaf ” – will do for starters.
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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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My response is – I agree 100 per cent.
I’ve just received a response from my MP. Given his record of rebellion from the back benches and his subtle hints “I do appreciate your concerns about ID cards and share some of them” I believe he may come out against. At the moment, though, he is firmly on the fence.
The article makes the usual points – and it seems to me that the for and against arguments are as deeply entrenched as ever. The “fors” stick firmly to their belief that civil libertarians are something to be derided, forgetting conveniently that the liberties we enjoy and take for granted were hard won, fragile and once lost will be gone forever. Then is not the time to bemoan the loss of liberty for it will be too late.
Am I concerned about intrusive snooping by the state? Not overly – they lack the systematic mechanism and resourses to do so. More importantly, a good conspiracy requires competence – what government agency is able to demonstrate that? It is the incompetence more than anything the worries me, along with the lack of protection from the abuses by bullying officials who overstep their remit and future administrations who may see this as a golden opportunity.