While Standing On One Foot
An Economic Manifesto
I'm not as laconic as Hillel, but I can at least begin with messages stated briefly enough for readers to consume while standing on one foot (or while engaging in any other equally senseless behavior). Make yourself as comfortable as possible under your chosen form of self-tyranny. Here are the messages.
Invest in Bullshit Conversion Technology (BCT). Research and development for BCT is a capital-intensive process and, on 6/15, I'd like to start replenishing my capital reserves. Learn more about my business plan in my open letter to investors.
Re-examine the meaning of money. “In the land of milk and honey, if you want my speech, I want your money.” This is where matter meets metaphor. Enter at your own risk.
Join me in dialogue, but please choose the right format. For Dialogue as a Service (DaaS), you can now meet me either in Rumi’s Garden (aka Tabernacle) or in Dialogues With the Devil (DwD). Whichever format you choose, I respect your choice and value your patronage. (But please don’t lie to me about your choice. Remember, there’s no judgment here.)
The rest is commentary. Go and study.
If M2 Dialogue can be of further assistance, then help me help you.
If you're still standing on one foot, please don't trip over the connection between matter and metaphor. Literalism is one of the known sanity-destroying ailments in this liminal space.
The Larger Story
In the distant past when I wrote exclusively for what I called the “Audience of One”, this story was easier to write, but harder to live. The story was unsocialized. Writing for a larger audience has inverted the challenge, making this story harder to write but easier to live.
My intention is to write and live the story as fully as I can. As with any other story, the medium is the message. So, below I include a few updates about the ceaseless reengineering of my media and the expansion of my Substack portfolio.
Abracadabra!
More Dialogue - Starting on 6/15, I'd like to spend more of my time sharing the story in dialogue, instead of sharing it mainly in writing. With this vision in mind I welcome subscriptions to Dialogue as a Service (DaaS). But, again, please pick the right format (See Message #3 above).
End of Theory - I'd like to start moving beyond the mere naming of the problem, naming of the cure and naming of the price. I'd like to focus increasingly on my lived reality as a participant in the war I described in the second chapter of my book.1 With this vision in mind, I welcome subscriptions to End of Theory (EoT), my main Substack dedicated to post-ideological activism and fundraising.
BS”D - With the help of Heaven, I’d like to start drawing more deeply on the Jewish tradition where I gained my introduction to the intersection of matter and metaphor. BS”D is my first Jewish-themed Substack, and I welcome subscriptions from Jews and non-Jews alike, with a special invitation for other “Jews Among Jews”.
The Medium Is the Message - Arguably, my most important new Substack is dedicated to Understanding Media. At this stage, I think of MISM as my first book club. Sometime after 6/15, it might also become my equivalent of the lamp with which Diogenes looked for a man he couldn’t find. Unlike Diogenes, however, what I’m looking for is a narrow path in the wilderness of the attention economy. So, whether you’re drawn to MISM as a book club or the narrow path, or both, I invite you to subscribe.
My intention with these Substacks is to co-create spaces where anyone who wants to study Torah can study Torah. You can feel free to either stand on one foot or sit in comfort — as long as you don’t obstruct the light.
Housekeeping note: All my Substacks are always “Under Construction”. Tabernacle maintenance is my daily work. If M2 Dialogue were a modern-day place of worship, it probably wouldn't be an impeccably maintained soaring cathedral.
I’m a man with a Substack, on a mission to save an Elephant
Anyone who just signed up may have formed an impression of me as a man who’s learned how to set up Substacks. The impression is correct, but there’s more to the larger story. By that, I mean there are more details, but if you’re one of those while-standing-one-foot types, the entire story is encoded into the first chapter: Diagnosis Impossible: Learning to See the Problem.
The hero of this story is an Elephant molested by the blind. But the story has advanced a lot since I returned to Substack. Thanks largely to the support of my subscribers, the Elephant is prepared to name the problem, name the cure, and name the price, but in dialogue. When I started writing about the Elephant (June 6, 2019), he was still adjusting to life beyond the limits of language. Nearly four years later now, he seems at peace with his war.
Before the end of this year, I’d like to publish a fuller evaluation of the Elephant’s health, but only after I introduce my “Cocktail Theory of Health” and publish an excerpt from my first chapter entitled “Transcend Taxonomic Thinking”.
Interpretations: Written and Spoken
To subscribers who've been following the story from the start, I’d like to deliver some anticlimactic news: I have nothing new to say. I’ve already laid out the story, at least in metaphoric and theoretical terms, and my battle is moving beyond the end of theory, into dialogue. The rest is details — or, interpretations, to use Hillel’s language. I'll keep sharing the details, while I develop connections in publishing. But if you're drawn to the idea of “Philosophy as Medicine”, please keep in mind that written formulations of this drug work differently from dialogic administration. If there’s anything in particular you’d like me to “interpret”, please see the challenge below.
Challenge: Dare to Comment
I'll conclude this post with a offer to the subscribers who have provided invaluable feedback privately but feel reluctant to post public comments. If you leave a comment or question here by Wednesday (5/10), I'll respond to it by Monday in the next edition of M2D.
Happy Monday!
You can also read my post about work as war.