The BWENEUM Manifesto, v 0.1

We live in a world of fools and, statistically speaking, you are probably one of them. The tragedy of this situation lies in the utter ignorance of most of the world to this fact. It is bad enough that we must live among idiots, but to live among idiots that think themselves to have a modicum of intelligence! Oh Socrates! Pity us born into this travesty of a world! Pity more those who make the world worse all the while not knowing that they are part of the problem—those who know not that they know nothing. But pity is not the appropriate response to those that will not pull their own weight! We need a secular Grand Inquisitor rather than a Socrates! The only question worth answering is not the question of whether we should kill ourselves, but rather should we not kill our neighbor!?

Religious fanatics haunt our world in the twenty-first century! Really! What a surprising twist of fate that the Enlightenment, that juggernaut of progress, has left us where it began only now we have atomic weaponry and rampant nationalisms at every corner to go with our primitive and shameful imaginings of beings in the sky that are on our side (for we could never be wrong). But we should not veer away in a sudden reaction against thought itself, a Derridian slip into stupidity, cowardice and charlatanism! No, the only thing that can save us from the partnership of evil that is the result of those who abuse knowledge while having none of it is a return to thought itself. Oh Voltaire, be our guide!

Yes, we must avoid nihilism at almost any cost! Almost any cost? Surely at any cost whatsoever! Primitive humans were no nihilists, but they were also stupid and savage. Think of only of the things they have spawned: religions, wars, racism! Give these people power, power that comes with the knowledge that the Enlightenment brought. What a world we have created! So should we avoid the pitfalls of nihilism at the cost of becoming animals as our ancestors (recent ancestors included) were and as most of humankind still is? What kind of “meaning” have we given our lives if our lives are nothing but the impotent cries of a savage to his god. We should want neither nihilism nor savagery. Rather, we should stand up and pursue that fabled golden mean!

For just this purpose BWENEUM has come into this world. There are some who must attempt to correct the world’s follies. Such is BWENEUM! BWENEUM shall rid this world of its self-inflicted wounds! BWENEUM stands for what is true and good. All hail BWENEUM!

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