I don’t quite know why George Galloway went on Big Brother, but presumably it isn’t working out as he intended. I saw the programme last night, and he was decribed by one housemate as “shifty and crafty” and another as “two-faced”. These are people who have been spending a lot of time in close personal contact with him. Another housemate, Preston, said that he had “lost a lot of respect” for George. Preston also sarcastically remarked, “A cheating politician, who’d have thought it?”

This last quote was being repeatedly played as a sound-bite by Chris Moyles on the radio this morning. Someone else on that radio show pointed out that Galloway claimed to want to protect people who were being victimised, and yet did not intervene when one housemate on the show was victimising another. It was suggested that this made him look like a hypocrite.

Last night I saw him say something similar: “When people are damaged I instinctively want to help them.” Such comments come across as deliberate, calculated and fake.

One thing that I find fascinating about Big Brother is that while everyone knows it is a game, they act as if it is real. An argument broke out about Galloway having broken the Big Brother rules by discussing eviction nominations. Instead of laughing the incident off as a breach of made up rules by a production company making a silly game show, Galloway became angry at Preston, the chap who grassed him up, and as a result looked like a bit of an idiot. He also made a big deal about a transcript Preston was given by the production company. It contained a quote to the effect of, “I would have nominated Preston.” Galloway vehemently insisted that he said “could” and not “would”.

Why did he care so much? Perhaps it is because as a socialist, Galloway is authoritarian, and he cannot allow himself to be seen as defying authority, even when it is a made up pretend TV show authority.

To punish George for breaking the rules, the production company made the housemates vote on whether they would allow him to make nominations in the next round of evictions. The message that was read out announcing these arrangements hilariously concluded, “Big Brother salutes your courage, your strength and your indefatigability.”

It seems that far from proving himself to be an honest, up front, down-to-earth and likeable hero of the people, far from being hip and getting down with the kids, Galloway is helping the kids reach the conclusion that politicians are not entirely to be trusted. This can only be a Good Thing(tm). I say well done to the makers of Big Brother, who no doubt know exactly what they’re doing with their tricks and their editing, for showing up George Galloway in this way.

Related link: Scott Burgess has been covering George Galloway’s exploits on Big Brother.

Posted by Rob Fisher as News at 12:36 PM EST

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Here’s my personal philosophy:

There is one, and only one right: the right to your own life. This means you own your body and your time, which means you own the products of your labour. From this we can derive property rights, and the right to self defense. You can’t initiate violence because violence against others violates their right to their own life. That’s it.

Things like freedom of speech and freedom of association are just freedoms from other people initiating violence against you. (The only way to restrict speech is to use violence.)

Most things governments do violate the right to your own life. Since you own your body, drug laws are out. So are any laws against things that consenting adults get up to on their own property. That means things like smoking bans are out. Tax is out because it’s theft and can only be collected by initiating violence.

Most of the “rights” governments purport to give you are bogus. Governments make up “rights” (such as the right to free healthcare) and then use violence against you to enforce them (by taxing you). Similarly, people claim other non-existent rights, such as the right to breathe smoke-free air on someone else’s property, or the right to not have a tower block built next door. If you don’t want a tower block built next door, the way to ensure this is to buy the land, or pay the owner of the land to sign a contract agreeing not to build one. Planning laws are governments using force to stop people doing what they want with their land.

Edit: There was a paragraph about morals and ethics here, but it wasn’t very well thought through so I removed it.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Introspection at 1:37 AM EST

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Occasionally you hear someone say that something is wrong because it is against the law. Presumably they make two assumptions: that the people decide the law through the democratic process, and that this is the best way of deciding right from wrong.

Here’s reason 8,243 why this is stupid: (from Wikipedia)

In 1952, Turing was convicted of acts of gross indecency after admitting to a sexual relationship with a man in Manchester. He was placed on probation and required to undergo hormone therapy.

Turing died in 1954. The inquest found that he had committed suicide by eating an apple laced with cyanide.

The law has nothing to say about right and wrong. It’s no more than a definition of when and how the state will use force against you.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Civil Liberties, Introspection at 9:40 PM EST

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George Galloway is on Big Brother. Samizdata have an article with some interesting comments, Scott Burgess is taking the mickey, and there’s a petition to get him back doing his proper job. I think we’re all better off with him where he is. In fact I think it would be a great idea to stick the whole bloody lot of ‘em in the Big Brother House and throw away the key.

The government has spent a million quid on some frivolous web site project. No surprises there. Vote for your favourite British icon. Woot. Mark votes for “interfering busybodies in pointless non-jobs, wasting taxpayers’ money”. Crosbie points out that Wikipedia is run for the same amount of money, and that’s about a million times more useful, which proves that governments are a million times less efficient than everyone else (except when it come to killing people).

Perry de Havilland has this to say about democracy:

I have never been more certain that my conviction is correct that liberty, individuality and several rights can only be fought for outside the democratic political process.

I agree. Until you can vote the government away there’s not much point in voting. What with David Cameron wanting to re-introduce slavery, and tell us what to eat to boot, the chances of getting less government are slimmer than ever.

Mr. de Havilland says a lot of other things I agree with, like this:

I would say even if it was true that allofmp3 is paying ‘protection’ to the Russian Mafia and/or using their political influence to shield their business model, the Russian Mafia fulfils certain roles that in other countries are filled by governments and lobbyists to much the same effect, thus I am not sure it makes a company like allofmp3 any different to a company (say Sony) using the force of the state to enforce its business model.

There is really not that much difference and if you do not believe me, I suggest you try telling the state you no longer wish to follow their regulations and wish to make your own arrangements for ‘protection’ and therefore intend to withhold a portion of your taxes… and then see what happens to you.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Links, News at 1:05 AM EST

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Edward Lud is fed up…

…with being surrounded by eight million brainwashed townies all of whom think Michael Moore is a paragon of sincerity and veracity (see davekopel.com), that socialism is a moral cause and that its antitheses are automatically tawdry and evil. Ned feels these attitudes are all around, subtly pervasive sometimes, overtly dominant on other occasions.

But what really niggles, burrows under the skin as it were, is that this bloated legion of same-thinkers all imagine they are being terribly original and free-thinking. In fact not only are they of course the Establishment, but they mostly react to challenges to their thought with outright Blimpishness. To disagree is to be a deviant. Surely every civilised person knows what to think about fox-hunting/the free market/human rights/Kyoto etc.?

Which is how I feel most of the time. His article, If you’re not a capitalist when you’re poor, you’ve got no mind is a poignant rant about a man’s quest to renovate his kitchen against the tyranny of regulation.

And the reality of private property? In some measure it still exists, a hybrid: you can buy a home and call it yours, but if it has certain features, then a salaried clipboard-wielder has the legal power to tell you what to do with it, even if the cost bankrupts you and leaves the building abandoned to the elements; you can buy a DVD player, but it’ll conform to endless regulations about wattage and power efficiency and terms of sale, all of which subsist throughout one’s ownership; and you can buy a kitchen, to which no one else has legal title … but don’t think that means you can decide what to do with it.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Authorised Theft, Civil Liberties at 12:43 AM EST

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