SHAZZBARBARIC

LET ME ASK YOU A QUESTION…

What is a question?

The statement “a phrase to elicit information” seems safe.

But then what is to elicit?

What is information?

What is what?

We’ve just become self-referential.

God bless modern art.

Let’s approach this as one would the de-realization of a psychedelic experience.

what’s a de-realization?

Quiet you.

Who am I?

Where am I?

What’s going on?

I’m SHAZZBARBARIC, a name and persona I’ve chosen for myself.

I’m sitting at the kitchen table in my parents’ house in Southern California.

They still call me David because they’re stubborn.

This trait seems to run in the family.

Now that we have the who and where, what’s going on?

I’m running for president of the United States.

what’s a president?

I told you once…

A presidential candidacy is a difficult task even for the most qualified.

By objective metrics I likely don’t fit such a description.

In fact, this goal might approach the impossible.

Attempting the impossible makes a good story.

My editor told me as much, before asking for more words.

SHAZZBARBARIC is a writer.

As such, he/I hunt ideas and their narratives.

So new ideas and good stories should be cause enough to undertake such a journey, at least on a personal and professional level.

But the impossible is uninspiring without at least some glimmer of hope.

What is my glimmer, my hint of possibility?

How could this actually work out?

What is a question?

The world seems awash in contradictory information.

It also appears to be decreasing in safety.

Perhaps this indicates that more questions should be asked.

Is curiosity and stubbornness alone – with the possibility of a resultant narrative to monetize – cause enough to run for president?

more words he says…

always more words

Let’s imagine that the questions I ask provide information which provides more safety.

Let’s imagine further that this dialogue of who where what, perhaps even more questions, is inherent to the human condition.

Take as the first assumption that our species is by nature inquisitive, curiosity the first tool to create individual and shared realities.

I believe now I’ve begun to construct the kernel of a noble cause; assistance in the creation of individual identities and shared realities.

what is reality?

Ok, that one we can tackle.

Reality would appear to be the sum total of the answers to the questions we ask.

Take all this information, I guess you could call it data, put it together into a cohesive narrative so that it can be efficiently processed, and then adjust as needed when new data comes in.

The effectiveness of this narrative in explaining the past as well as predicting the future places one’s conception of reality on the spectrum between delusion and verified objective truth.

So reality is the bigger story then.

And de-realization, it follows, is the confusion of this story, whether purposeful as in someone taking mind altering substances, or malicious, as in someone corrupting either 1) the data, 2) the larger narrative or 3) a mixture of both.

Questions, then, provide information, data, used to construct more accurate stories of who we are.

If not completely noble, hopefully the above at least approaches a higher virtue.

Let’s call this higher virtue intellectual curiosity, or truth-seeking.

So the cause is good, or at least appears to be headed in that direction.

The glimmer has been sighted, however slight, among the impossible.

Now we can proceed with the path toward the presidency, whatever that turns out to be.

what is what?

It appears as though you have a lot of questions.

And by you of course I mean myself.

And by myself of course I am us.

Let us start from the general and walk to the specific, shall we?

Then we can discuss what is the presidency, and the plan to get from here to there.

thank you

You’re welcome.

Rabbits win races.

Failure wins wisdom.

Snails win the earth as their home.

Sounds like a decent spread to me.

check’s in the mail

Thank you.

S.B. Baric
NOV 2018
Ontario, California

you’re welcome