Xarker Manifesto: Introduction

Being an evolving and incomplete statement of fundamental principles, an outraged and amused shout to the cold cosmos, a painful stumbling about in a darkened room filled with strange furniture, a flag raised on a chaotic field so that like-minded members of the same tribe may rally, rest, explore and form their new ranks...

1. There are no unrelated topics.
2. Life is more complex than the simplistic this-or-that filters we typically apply in writing and thinking about it.
3. Rather than continue the important discussions in traditional frames that have proven to be less than effective, xarkers go look for new frames. Sometimes the best new frames just come up in casual conversation.
4. Xarkers will try practically anything. Once. Most of us have the scars to prove it.
5. Xarkers do not do unsuccessful things over and over whilst complaining that the outcome never changes.
6. Xarkers enjoy studying and examining traditions, but they are not bound by anyone's traditions, including their own.
7. Xarkers are more interested in understanding subjects in useful ways than they are in stockpiling rhetorical ammunition for future arguments.
8. Xark! transcends political and spiritual orthodoxy. It is neither liberal nor conservative, Christian or non-Christian, quantum nor relativistic.
9. Nothing is more boring than grasping a subject via hard work and study but being forced to re-state its most basic concepts on demand as new people enter the conversation. Consequently,  xarkers avoid excessive entanglements with true believers, fundamentalists and other buzz-kills.
10. Xarking rejects boredom and redundancy. Xarkers shun any argument that supports itself via the contention that more boredom will lead to something valuable.

To understand the principles that lie beneath this line of thinking, read on...

Editor's Note: The original Xarker Manifesto was published on this site on June 29, 2005. Subsequent changes and additions appear with a date attached.

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Being an evolving and incomplete statement of fundamental principles, an outraged and amused shout to the cold cosmos, a painful stumbling about in a darkened room filled with strange furniture, a flag raised on a chaotic field so that like-minded members of the same tribe may rally, rest, explore and form their new ranks...

1. There are no unrelated topics.
2. Life is more complex than the simplistic this-or-that filters we typically apply in writing and thinking about it.
3. Rather than continue the important discussions in traditional frames that have proven to be less than effective, xarkers go look for new frames. Sometimes the best new frames just come up in casual conversation.
4. Xarkers will try practically anything. Once. Most of us have the scars to prove it.
5. Xarkers do not do unsuccessful things over and over whilst complaining that the outcome never changes.
6. Xarkers enjoy studying and examining traditions, but they are not bound by anyone's traditions, including their own.
7. Xarkers are more interested in understanding subjects in useful ways than they are in stockpiling rhetorical ammunition for future arguments.
8. Xark! transcends political and spiritual orthodoxy. It is neither liberal nor conservative, Christian or non-Christian, quantum nor relativistic.
9. Nothing is more boring than grasping a subject via hard work and study but being forced to re-state its most basic concepts on demand as new people enter the conversation. Consequently,  xarkers avoid excessive entanglements with true believers, fundamentalists and other buzz-kills.
10. Xarking rejects boredom and redundancy. Xarkers shun any argument that supports itself via the contention that more boredom will lead to something valuable.

To understand the principles that lie beneath this line of thinking, read on...