Agora Cadre

As a writer of fiction, there comes a point when chunks of new, relevant, meaningful content tend to grow too long to fit in a respectably-sized blog post. This has been my discovery. There seem to be only a few options:

1. Delve into excessive novelty and detached fantasy (yak!)
2. Resort to esoteric, impressionistic expression—poetry (boring! not accessible enough)
3. Explore an visual medium (already doing to the limits of my monetary capacity)
4. Write a novel/novella (I don't really even read novels, what?)
5. Live my writing more aggressively. Well, obviously.
   

4 is in the works (that's all I'll say about that), but 5 has been underway for some time. I have come to accept the most authentic embodiment of my writing would certainly result in either permanent residence in a mental institution, or, with perfect success, a swift and uncomfortable death. The problem is knowing the true nature of things and being able to predict the future reliably. If I could do these things, I could pretty much ensure the latter. But, assessing my actual capabilities and will is itself a factor to consider. Even that is an unknown.

Therefore, I must accept that simply breathing contradicts with my own principles, and therefore align myself, if you like, with the straightest expressway to hell.

The thing is, hell, by the contemporary secular definition, is pretty much my utopia. (I won't grace the brimstone interpretation with more than passing dismissal). Basically, it embraces an extreme degree of tolerance for individual choices, no matter how self-destructive and naive—so long as they do not afflict others.

Here's the problem: It means we must observe our loved ones destroy themselves slowly and painfully using the methods of today's charlatan promises (today's 'heaven'). Example: my vitamin-D deficient, malnourished, overweight mother with low bone density just secretly doled out thousands of dollars for a dangerous Lap Band® procedure. If you believe that statement brands me a paranoid, tin-foil-hat-social-deviant, I suggest you stop reading now and resume an aggressive method of engaging yourself sexually.

This makes me want to find a vein at the Easter dinner table and shoot-up a few CCs of Mad Dog® heroine. But, I can't do that without delving into one of those contradictions I mentioned earlier.

It comes down to respect for human dignity. I accept my mother has the right to abuse herself willfully. It is her chosen modus operandi, and I will respect and honor her decisions, knowing I cannot embrace this behavior as acceptable for myself. This is difficult, because my parents have been the most influential figures in my short life. Because of the value of their influence, I have grown to respect them, and am now somehow intellectually forced to assume self-mutilation has some sort of merit I have thus far been unable to identify.

Or, she simply irrational and thinks all that glitters is gold.

The point is, we (they/our esteemed governing officials) station soldiers in some remote desert trying to convince savage camel jockeys with bombs on their chests that democracy works, and meanwhile I can't even convince my own mother to stop abusing herself for the sake of Mr. David EI Pyott's money bin (the CEO of Allergan, Incorporated—manufacturers of the Lap Band® device).

There is no text sufficient to demonstrate my disgust. But, I do learn from the mistakes of others in order to improve my own life. This is what I advocate for all others in my position. All others, in fact, especially those who can learn from my own egregious mistakes (which are sufficiently severe). Knowing that reason is an immutable force to those with their eyes open, why don't I believe in it enough to do more than write about it? That is where #5 comes in. Reason is worthless without action, and any action according to sensible reason is worth 10 times more than the other kind...

Agora Cadre is a group of individuals who understand the value in helping those closest to us rather than our remote masters who mistake us for a mere number or statistic. It is a local community of people in the Twin Cities area who believe that there is nothing wrong with sharing skills, talents, and abilities with one another in mutually beneficial trade and barter relationships. There is really no need to exchange money. People free from the incessant inequities of our current economy comprehend value naturally among friends and acquaintances, and simply benefit more from enduring the inequities that result from errors in individual value judgments among friends than submitting to the plundering of our prosperity from well-heeled plutocrats. This is not done out of spite, but common sense.

If I must go to jail for advocating free and friendly exchange of skills between mutually benefiting partners, than there is all-the-more proof that our society is in need of dramatic economic reassessment. So, with that, I encourage any and all with an interest in this concept to contact me for more information and where to meet-up with like minded folks.