Salons, Letters, and Manifestos - Quality of Life in the New Theater Scene
Throw a salon. Write a manifesto. The people who matter will find you.
Substack! I’m feeling bored! Entertain me! I crave social interaction, and social distancing feels like a Kafkaesque torture plot for an extrovert such as myself, or at least a torture scene from A Clockwork Orange in which Alex’s eyes are being forced open and he must stare at thousands of padded white torture rooms while that Grimes song REALiTi plays over and over again. Is torture back in style?
Yet let’s start with the happy stuff rather than take a dive into the abyss, as sexy as cthulhu-corsets may be. Elixir Salon, my first public online event, was a raving success. There is a demand for more to come, and my co-organizers and I am excited about what this means. Everybody from Robin Hanson to Alexander Bard to Nina Power to Zach Vorhies (the notorious Google whistleblower) to noise artist Kenji Siratori to burlesque dancer Heather Silcer participated. It was my pleasure bringing people together from all wakes of life whose ideas, art, music, videos, and personalities I appreciated. We shared 20% of our donations with MAPS to help fund clinical trials of MDMA in order to treat PTSD. Even when we got zoombomed and a bunch teenagers started posting anime porn and making deranged sex noises at us, it still felt like part of the show. We migrated rooms, yet what if one of the trolls had caught the Elixir Spirit?
What is life but a series of salons? What is life but a theater scene?
During The Pandemic Era, we shall bring forth a revival of the salon. This is what I am here for, at least! If you would like to be involved with Elixir Salon, get in touch and tell me more. Become a part of my new theater scene. I would also recommend Anna Gát’s Interintellect Salons and all of the events at The Stoa. Make sure to surround yourself with intelligent people when you are socializing online. There are so many idiots on Twitter, and it often seems like they are a growing swarm that should be assigned their own covid address. Stay away from COVID-17, everyone! You just know it isn’t safe. While populists are often necessary, you should make sure to insulate yourself from the volatile swarm. The people who matter will always find you anyway. We will always find each other.
Quality of life is more important than life extension. Pass it on.
I’ve been dealing with a lot of pain these two past weeks, so empaths may wish to leave the room. In truth, I’ve been dealing with chronic neck and back pain for many years now, and am finally beginning to recover from the back surgery I had several weeks ago. The surgical experience was actually quite transformative, yet needing to heal completely alone was hell on earth. I found myself getting angry at everything people were saying online as I sat in bed unable to move. A final straw for me was when Balaji Srinivasan claimed that the purpose of technology was to end morality in what I viewed as an immortality puff piece. Normally I’m on #TeamBaj, yet this is the generic stuff that I despise about Silicon Valley and much of the VC world. Also, I was feeling miserable in bed.
So, I voiced my opinion instead of exiting. I mentioned how quality of life was more important than life extension and refused to mince my words. I had become an activist. What if you have poor credit yet bring growth and knowledge to society? You should be able to live in a nice house. Your quality of life needs to improve. What if you live in a small town and are unable to get good medical care? The medical industry should be disrupted. Your quality of life needs to improve. It was Bonnie Kavoussi who recently said that “the first step to living longer is to make life worth living.”
Now here is my alternative solution. We should seek to build a new VC class in which there is a direct initiative to fund projects that are focused on quality of life. When life extension finally hits the mainstream, our quality of life will be the most important factor. You don’t need to chase the big guys who are all working on life extension now. You should not be chasing anyone at all. Never chase people. I’ll say this again: the people who matter will come to you. You will find like-minds who genuinely appreciate what you are about who can see your true value. You may not meet the big guy in the throne, but you could encounter the middle ladies having a party. Should we not cultivate a rising VC class? Is it not quality of life that we need to focus on here? We are only the architects of civilization, after all.
What is life but an explosion of manifestos? What is life but a series of cabarets?
Coming full circle, or perhaps bending backward to fold the center into itself, an omnidirectional/metapolitical landscape of possibility for only the most sophisticated of lunatics is about to take place. Get ready for the revival. We need more manifestos and we need them now. We need you to read them and we need you to write them. Start with a classic like The Futurist Manifesto or check out a modern gem like The Prometheist Manifesto by Jason Jorjani. Read The Philosopher Queen Manifesto by yours truly. In the musical Evita it is stated that “politics is the art of the possible.” I would, by extension, ask you to consider what this quote says about manifestos. Consider the role of the artist in this scenario.
Exiting the stage yet remaining in the theater…
This is where I begin to close. I’ll be making subscriber-only posts starting next week, so make sure to subscribe as an annual or monthly member in order for us to join forces. I also do video sessions with lucky founding members, which include chats about any topic imaginable. Perhaps you want to share a spicy take with me that you can’t tell others about, or get advice about a project from a new transgressive angle. Hit this button and begin your journey with me.
One last bit of advice. Don’t worry if Harper’s invites you to sign their little letters. Never get swept away unless you have direct involvement. Want to get swept away? Involve yourself directly. Involve yourself in The Cultural Futurist and become a member. We are a new theater scene. If anyone asks, make sure you deliver this message. We are a new theater scene, and we are building a better quality of life.