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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Samizdata quote for the day “We have paid dearly for idealizing the state. There is no virtue in denying the law of gravity, and there should be no virtue in denying the limitations of government. Good intentions are no excuse for perpetual failure and growing oppression. The more we glorify government, the more liberties we will lose. Freedom is largely a choice between allowing people to follow their own interests or forcing them to follow the interests of politicians, bureaucrats, politicians and campaign contributors.”
James Bovard, “Lost Rights”, cataloguing the destruction of liberties in the USA during the Clinton years. The message applies everywhere and at any time, of course.
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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 am not a believer in conspiracies of the grandiose political/economic type that so captivate various groups of people from time to time.
After all, aside from the “van Danneken” style of proof offered in these paranoid nightmares, there’s the very simple fact that the level of brilliance and psychic foresight required for these complex plots to operate is not found anywhere else in the human record.
I do find, rather, that there is no limit to the venality and irrational bloodlust that some are able to generate and justify in their desparate attempt to avoid the idea that their problems are mostly of their own making.
It is, however, a strange and bewildering cultural undercurrent of the 20th century that the state, which by any honest appraisal was directly resposible for the murder by war and political repression of hundreds of millions of people across the globe, should be hailed as the savior and protector of the weak, and compassionate provider of “social justice”.
These fundamental assertions by the apologists for collectivism and ever increasing statism must be the result of millions of instinctive acts of ideological blindness, similar to the hysterical blindness of the severely traumatized.
When confronted by graphic evidence that everything they have believed, held sacred, and devoted their lives to is not only a lie, but actually a demonic force of destruction in direct contradiction of every fundamental principle they thought they were advancing, the psychic shock is so severe that only complete denial of reality can suffice to insulate the true believer from the awful facts they dare not confront or admit.
The flailing spasms of multi-cultural nonsense and statist mythology can only survive if the mentality of the “blank-out” is allowed to operate unchallenged.
It is up to those who value individual freedom and human liberty above all else to provide an unending challenge to any and all who would pretend that the souls of millions do not cry out from their graves for the truth to be told. It is up to us.
Who will be the Speaker for the Dead?
veryretired: I cannot seem to recall you writing anything here other than excellent ‘stone-tablet’ mini speeches that either equal or surpass the quality of the original article or ‘quote of the day’ posted on the blog. You must have one hell of a competetive streak…
So far as James Bovard’s quote is concerned, specifically “The more we glorify government, the more liberties we will lose.”, I really think there are comparatively few people who consciously ‘glorify’ government. The vast majority of people go along with the creeping loss of liberty because of the mythological status of ‘democracy’ and the notion of ‘legitimacy’ conferred by something being decided by democratic majority vote.
It is not the ‘glorification’ of the State that needs to be attacked, but rather the glorification of the mechanism by which it grows and grows – unfettered democracy. It is the democracy meme that needs to be attacked for the Total Politics view of the world it nurtures among otherwise decent people.
Never mind the Klintoon years, how about the era of the PATRIOT Act and ‘Homeland Security’? That was ushered in by the guy who flew round or went to ground in a panic for hours after 9/11, but who won’t upset his corporate patrons by fortifying the Mexican border, and who derides vigilantes who monitor illegal incursions voluntarily?
Matt Drudge, no Bush foe, here gives the lowdown on how over a year back King George created a government body for the oversight of civil liberties (insert break for ten seconds of scornful laughter) which hasn’t actually, y’know, *met* yet:
http://www.drudge.com/news/78644/bushs-civil-liberties-board-never-meets
Obviously Americans have no cause to worry about the loss of their historic freedoms. Hell, Washington DC ain’t worried!
I agree with Mr. Blovard’s statements. In fact, I go further and discuss how some people are conferring godhood on government. Read throught this post to the last section.
Millard, Bovard has a newer book, “Attention Deficit Democracy,” whch includes Bush.