In about an hour I have to hand over a cheque for over $20,000 to cover the remainder of the printing bill for the ModCon book. Sales are going well though, so I'm not worried about breaking even. Now I have to raise around $8000 to publish the second book…
I've been writing a manifesto… It's mostly just for myself, to help me think through why I do the things I do. It actually started as a “modified manifesto” but it moved away from that… Anyway, I was thinking — as I often do — about what a person's responsibilities are in life, a question akin to “what is the meaning of life?”
On the subject of responsibilityA living human's first responsibility is to themselves, to sustain the essentials of life. Their second responsibility is to ensure the health and continuity of life on this planet. All other responsibilities are illusionary lies.
Sustaining the essentials of one's own life means the pursuit of nourishment (food and drink), shelter, and Love (family and friends). Pursuing these things is a right, and achieving them is permitted by any means necessary as long as no harm is done to other living people.
Ensuring the health and continuity of life on this planet is achieved by working to ensure that those around us are able to also sustain the essentials of their own life. This is done by helping them to reach their goals, and together building an environment where it is possible for all people to live in freedom and liberty, not by selling them their lives, or forcing our lives upon them.
These are simple ideas with simple solutions, resulting in a beautiful truth.
On the subject of the cost of life
Sustaining life is not expensive — we need only food and shelter, and both of these things cost no more than a small amount of our time if we are willing to build them for ourselves. The notion that we are required to purchase them at a huge markup from a pyramid of faceless corporations is a symptom of humans becoming food for finance. It is the feeding of life to sustain non-life, and is the greatest evil the world knows.
One of the greatest challenges in the modern world is extracting oneself from this hideous cycle. The climb out of its abyss can be terrifying, but the path is safe and the rewards are boundless.
Functional arguments against leading the modified life hinge around the notion that money has value. Money can not be eaten. Money can not shelter you from the cold. Yes, money can to some extent be traded for these things, but only at such a staggering loss to make the purchase ludicrous on any objective level.
We the modified, as people who strive to see truth and speak truth, pledge to never confuse quality of life with a number on a piece of paper.
I'm just a kid without the experience needed to write any of that. It seems true to me, and I hope it continues to as I grow older and hopefully wiser. Well, now I've got to help my sister with some entries to a photography contest (I'm printing her photos on my printer). I bought some paper at Staples for it, here is the exchange:
Her: “Did you find everything you need, sir?”
Me: “Yeah.”
Her: “Business or pleasure, sir?”
Me: “Business.”
Her: “How many people in your business, sir?”
Me: “About fifteen thousand.”
Her: “I'm sorry, sir, the computer won't let me enter that many people. Do you mind if I put one thousand five hundred instead?”
Me: “Whatever.”
How was that even relevant? I hate these “scripts” they force tellers through, with all the “did you find everything you want” and “would you like to buy a butt plug, we have them on special for $5.99″ annoyances. I'm not an idiot. I understand that it is my job to find the things I need, take them to the check-out, pay for them, and leave. I don't need special help on it!
