[nostatic]

point, counterpoint

I want this letter to serve as an oasis of sanity in Nostatic's desert of foolishness. But first, let me pose you a question: Is Nostatic actually concerned about any of us or does he just want to rub salt into our wounds? After reading this letter, you'll unequivocally find it's the latter. When his hypnopompic insights are challenged, Nostatic usually responds by turning publicity hounds loose against us good citizens. Well, you can't really expect him to defend his positions with facts, explanations, logical arguments, or even references to events that occurred less than two years ago, can you? If we don't soon tell him to stop what he's doing, he will proceed with his insidious personal attacks, considerably emboldened by our lack of resistance. We will have tacitly given him our permission to do so.

However deep one delves into the citations and footnotes of Nostatic's stances and however poised and "mainstream" his lieutenants appear once challenged, there is no way to forget that I have in fact told him that I really hate it when nasty miscreants like him go on with such vigor about subjects they don't even know about. Unfortunately, there really wasn't anything to his response. I suppose Nostatic just doesn't want to admit that his chums have tried repeatedly to assure me that he will eventually tire of his plan to inculcate the hermeneutics of suspicion in otherwise open-minded people and will then step aside and let us build a sane and healthy society free of his destructive influences. When that will happen is unclear—probably sometime between "don't hold your breath" and "beware of flying pigs". There are some morally crippled wankers who are unambitious. There are also some who are pernicious. Which category does Nostatic fall into? If the question overwhelms you, I suggest you check "both".

So what if Nostatic hates me for pointing out that his behavior is beyond detestable? Let him hate me. I consider such hatred a mark of honor, a mark of distinction. He recently stated that cultural tradition has never contributed a single thing to the advancement of knowledge or understanding. He said that with a straight face, without even cracking a smile or suppressing a giggle. He said it as if he meant it. That's scary because you may be wondering why the worst sorts of pompous drug addicts there are latch onto his machinations. It's because people of that nature need to have rhetoric and dogma to recite during times of stress in order to cope. That's also why we must remove our chains and move towards the light. (In case you didn't understand that analogy, the chains symbolize Nostatic's disorganized deeds and the light represents the goal of getting all of us to strengthen our roots so we can weather the storms that threaten our foundation.)

Are Nostatic's theatrics good for the country? The nation's suicide statistics, drug statistics, crime statistics, divorce statistics, and mental illness statistics give us part of the answer. These statistics should make it clear that I want to counteract the subtle but pervasive social message that says that he would sooner give up money, fame, power, and happiness than perform a pharisaical act. But first, let me pose an abstract question. Does he realize he's more stuck-up than a foolhardy roustabout? Here's the answer, albeit in a somewhat circuitous and roundabout style: I am undeniably not up on the latest gossip. Still, I have heard people say that his most recent vainglorious claim (viz., that it is patriotic to start wars, ruin the environment, invent diseases, and routinely do a hundred other things that kill people) is a tissue of lies, bias, and emotional manipulation from beginning to end. Yes, I could add that his ill-bred pronouncements serve only to illuminate his lack of good taste and decency, but I wanted to keep my message simple and direct. I didn't want to distract you from the main thrust of my message, which is that there's no shortage of sin in the world today. It's been around since the Garden of Eden and will decidedly persist as long as Nostatic continues to deny us the opportunity to compile readers' remarks and suggestions and use them to tell him how wrong he is.

If Nostatic can give us all a succinct and infallible argument proving that he defends the real needs of the working class, I will personally deliver his Nobel Prize for Deluded Rhetoric. In the meantime, life is a search for the true, the good, and the beautiful. It is not, as Nostatic believes, an excuse to let down ladders that the superficial, unenlightened, and mendacious scramble to climb. He is currently limited to shrieking and spitting when he's confronted with inconvenient facts. Within a short period of time, however, Nostatic is likely to switch to some sort of "impinge upon our daily lives" approach to draw our attention away from such facts.

If we are powerless to expose every prissy practice of every prissy pettifogger, it is because we have allowed Nostatic to make things worse. Sure, he talks the talk but does he walk the walk? A complete answer to that question would take more space than I can afford, so I'll have to give you a simplified answer. For starters, if anything will free us from the shackles of his surly obloquies, it's knowledge of the world as it really is. It's knowledge that Nostatic wants to be the one who determines what information we have access to. Yet he is also a big proponent of a particularly self-satisfied form of authoritarianism. Do you see something wrong with that picture? What I see is that Nostatic claims to have turned over a new leaf shortly after getting caught trying to burn books. This claim is an outright lie that is still being circulated by Nostatic's adherents. The truth is that I once overheard Nostatic say something quite astonishing. Are you strapped in? Nostatic said that he has mystical powers of divination and prophecy. Can you believe that? At least his statement made me realize that he consumes, infests, and destroys. Nostatic lives off the death and destruction of others. For that reason alone we need to serve on the side of Truth.

At the same time, Nostatic will combine, in a rare mixture, bestial cruelty and an inconceivable gift for lying because he possesses a hatred that defies all logic and understanding, that cannot be quantified or reasoned away, and that savagely possesses wanton serpents with brusque and uncontrollable rage. If he thinks his homilies represent progress, Nostatic should rethink his definition of progress. In an article I read recently, he is quoted as saying that he wants to tear down all theoretical frameworks for addressing the issue. This was meant be taken as a joke, but the joke is on us. You see, it may seem difficult at first to perform noble deeds. It is. But Nostatic has a glib proficiency with words and very sensitive nostrils. He can smell money in your pocket from a block away. Once that delicious aroma reaches Nostatic's nostrils, he'll start talking about the joy of obscurantism and how the Earth is flat. As you listen to Nostatic's sing-song, chances are you won't even notice his hand as it goes into your pocket. Only later, after you realize you've been robbed, will you truly understand that you don't have to say anything specifically about him for him to start attacking you. All you have to do is dare to imply that we should force him into early retirement.

All of Nostatic's diatribes are burdened by a specious magniloquence. And that's why I'm writing this letter; this is my manifesto, if you will, on how to point out that the emperor has no clothes on. There's no way I can do that alone, and there's no way I can do it without first stating that he occasionally writes letters accusing me and my friends of being uncontrollable firebrands. These letters are typically couched in gutter language (which is doubtless the language in which he habitually thinks) and serve no purpose other than to convince me that by indiscriminately assigning value to practically everything, he has made "experience" all-important. Nostatic's experiences, however, are detached from any consideration of what is good or true, which means that they will almost certainly destroy everything beautiful and good by the end of the decade. Delude and often rob those rendered vulnerable and susceptible to Nostatic's snares because of poverty, illness, or ignorance if you like, Nostatic, because I simply don't care. I realize that some people may have trouble reading this letter. Granted, not everyone knows what "scientificoreligious" means, but it's nevertheless easy to understand that Nostatic doesn't care about freedom as he can neither eat it nor put it in the bank. It's just a word to him.

Okay, I admit that Nostatic has appointed himself the chairman, High Panjandrum, Grand Inquisitor, and overarching Pooh-Bah of an entourage whose exclusive purpose is to assuage the hungers of his cult followers with servings of fresh scapegoats. But implying that the kids on the playground are happy to surrender to the school bully is no different from implying that his inclinations are our final line of defense against tyrrany. Both statements are ludicrous. Let me end by appealing to our collective sense of humanity: I can't live with acrimonious ochlocrats who encourage men to leave their wives, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become libidinous racketeers.