Autobiography

[trolls' bane]

[This work is untitled at this time.]

By Brendan C. Helliwell

My hope is to introduce myself to you in as little space as possible with minimal loss of information. Though not the most space-efficient writer, I hope that my writing produces enough entertainment to make the unwieldieness of this manuscript worth the effort. I think it will.


I am generally very busy almost all of the time--of my own accord, though, and not at anyone else’s suggestions. I feel bored if I’m not doing something productive, which is why I almost never pick up video games and rarely watch television (except for Star Trek: Voyager). Among my many “productive” activities, I am working on a book and run a small but growing political party (more on those later), I'm an amateur radio operator, and I’m an (even more) amateur photographer. As a photographer I like to deal mainly with nature of various sorts, and landscapes, but I’ve recently delved into more meaningful or useful images. Architecture is a particular favorite of mine. You will also frequently hear me describe myself as an armchair astronomer or an armchair revolutionary, as I do almost everything regarding that from the modern equivalent of an armchair: the desk chair.


But setting all of that aside, my most prominent and consuming activities involve the Brendonianist Party. The Brendonianist Party was my completely accidental creation. One day, I got the notion that I should run for "the highest office in the Great State of Entmoot," President. (Entmoot is a message board I joined in 2003 and have frequented ever since.) Now, any self-respecting President must belong to or represent a political party (however small), I reasoned, and so, I created the Brendonianist Party of Entmoot. The original Party is now but a ghost of its former extent; after the rejection of its proposed "Constitution and Commandments for the Free Land of Entmoot," it all but faded away. (It should be noted that, because of my unfair bitterness at the rejection of the constitution, I unofficially dropped out of the election. That is irrelevant; Tabby/Elanor's Angel 2010 will go much better.)


Anyway, the original Party was not meant to ever be anything more than a name of a radical party of eccentric, unpredictable tendencies and never quite clear political beliefs or intentions, just like its leaders at the time. These were myself (trolls’ bane -- notice the correctly placed apostrophe implying multiple trolls; the opposing Grammar Nazi party nevertheless still loves me for this) and my campaign manager, Rohirrim TR (presumably, “TR” stands for “Texas Ranger,” although the validity of this claim remains to be seen). And, for the first half of 2007, that’s all it was. Somewhere along the way, though, I began to develop the beliefs and ideas that I hold today. I briefly experimented with communism and the CPUSA (Communist Party of the United States of America, whose website later played an integral role in organizing my own constitution), but its principle of Leninism (Soviet communism) instead of pure Marxism did not sit well with me so I decided not to join their youth branch at the last minute. And so, by July, I had created the contemporary Brendonianist Party, complete with The First Declaration of Principle and Constitution of the Brendonianist Party. The surrounding ideas that differed greatly from other philosophical houses (Marxism, for instance), and so I aptly named it Brendonianism after my own beliefs.


Ever since I released the Third Declaration of Principle and Constitution of the Brendonianist Party, I have been surprised by the number of people who agree with it, and who have flocked to sign up. In less than two months "membership" rose from only me, to five members across two states. Recently, a few members have signed up online in several different countries.


Perhaps the most important achievement I have made as the current Chairman of the Brendonianist Party is my latest project: a book that will lay the framework for the Brendonianist ambit. It shall be, drawing from certain obvious historical sources, I might add, titled The Manifesto of the Brendonianist Party. The title perhaps obscures its true purposes. It is not a declaration of principle (we already have three of those!), but rather an information book on current and future technology and philosophy as it applies to Brendonianism. It delves heavily into the future of space colonization and its possible impact on mankind. It also covers basic ecological economics concepts, such as natural capital and eco-socialism. The use of specialized architecture, and the technologies aforementioned, it suggests, are the key to sustainable development and anthropogenesis to humanity's successor, who has yet to be named but whose traits and abilities are on the drawing board and soon to be included in the notes.


With that being said, I'm a recent convert to transhumanism, and so transhumanism beginning to appear in a subtle undertone in the notes for the book. It will not, however, be covered in much depth, and it is not hard to see why: transhumanism is a rather controversial and scarcely defined subject, and including it would only alienate potential members of a more "bio-conservative" or religious nature.


The program for social change revolves around the creation of a political party, with a gargantuan member-owned cooperative alliance, probably given the very clear name of Brendonianist Cooperatives, as the primary sponsoring organization. The use of the Brendonianist Cooperative would be to buy out (or merely compete with) traditional capitalistic transnational corporations, dissolving them into localized branches, and giving them an equitable cooperative structure. Another use would be to help other cooperatives, even and especially non-Brendonianist ones, to get on their feet. The most important use for the funds generated would be to form a series of higher educational centers known as Brendonianist Praxeums (from praxis, in this case meaning the practical application of Brendonianist learning) to educate Party/co-op members on their various functions and abilities, and the ideology as a whole.


It should be said that there are difficulties with this program. The biggest problem with the Party now, as it stands, is that it bears my name. Usually, philosophers (even emerging self-proclaimed ones like myself) do not name their philosophies, even if they usually come to bear their surname (or perhaps, as in my possible case, their nickname). It got its name from the aforementioned joke, and if some more suitable name comes along, I would be more than happy to change to it. Furthermore, though Brendonianism was my idea to begin with, and is infested with my ideas, its constituent ideology belongs to many people, from philosophers like Nietzsche, to engineers like Buckminster Fuller, to physicists like Paul Birch, to science fiction authors like Kim Stanley Robinson, even to friends of mine from school. The point of Brendonianism is not to make something new from scratch, but rather to make something new from the best of existing ideology and culture.


In summation, the ultimate goal of the Brendonianist movement is to bring about a lasting era of sustainable development and accelerating anthropogenesis built around a framework of economic cooperation and participation, political equality and inclusion, and social progression and expression. The colloquialism of "Brendonianism" aside, we could therefore be defined as democratic free-market eco-socialists.


Since we are talking about ideology, I should mention that I am a Christian Unitarian Universalist.

As a final note on my interests and hobbies, I should like to point out that I like mostly classical music and jazz. In terms of the range of classical music, I like it all, particularly modern and avant-garde composers like Jerry Goldsmith, Douglas Lilburn, and George Crumb. When it comes to my own music (I’m trying to teach myself how to read, write and play music), I’m all for the Jerry Goldsmith technique of using unconventional instruments in my few primitive compositions. However, as the conductor Thomas Beecham would put it, they sound like I’m playing a birdcage with a toasting fork. So apt a description of what little work I have.


At school, I am somewhat similar. I get decent grades, and try to be interested in a bit at everything. This year, my intention is to further my understanding of physics so that I might be able to further draw up architectural plans (with the proper higher education, of course) for structures held together by tensegrity and dynamic compression members for the future of "Dymaxion" engineering (to steal the term from Bucky Fuller). At the moment, I am not a member of any clubs, but I plan to rejoin with the Environmental Club to promulgate Brendonianist teachings (it is a pity I am a very poor public speaker; this will have to be done through online interaction and in literature). I have been honored throughout my school years with a Senate-signed certificate for a reading program I was in some years ago, and membership in the National Society of High School Scholars.


In the strict sense of the word I do not work yet. I am a long-time volunteer at The Living Desert, and spend almost every weekend there in some shape or form. Throughout the year, I help on weekends interpreting carts. Toward the spring, my hours there shift up dramatically to 36 hours per weekend, albeit most of them are spent sleeping: it is during this time that I help out with every single one of the Starry Safari overnight programs, in addition to my regular volunteer hours and meetings. I also help with the summer Zoo Camp, sometimes offering my services in interpretation, but mostly just to supervise the Zoo Camper children. This summer, I spent three weeks helping out with Zoo Camp. Thanks mostly to Zoo Camp and Starry Safari in general, I now have over 1,200 hours amassed over two and a half years. Aside from that, I am also a disaster service worker for the CERT (Community Emergency Response Team), in the City of La Quinta. So far I have not had much of an opportunity to put in hours; and let us hope it remains that way. However, I took the time to take my CERT training class, as well as seven or eight online courses through FEMA, the most interesting ones being "Radiological Emergency Management and Response" and a series of communications/psychology courses. Being that I am a ham radio operator (call sign KI6PFA), I'm also part of La Quinta's RACES program. I must admit, however, that in spite of all this, I've been lessening my work load somewhat to enjoy my weekends a bit more. Eventually, when I move up to the Bay area to go to Berkeley, I hope to help form a small worker-owned food cooperative called the Quantum Cafe and a directly affiliated housing cooperative. This would be the first of many cooperative alliances that will eventually form the Brendonianist Cooperative.


All of that said, it is only fair to credit my friends for most of it. If it were not for their drive behind me, the motivation they give me, etcetera, most of this would never have happened. As you can probably guess by my nature, every single one of my friends is hopelessly eccentric. My best friend Michelle is of like humor to me (we both posess a sort of unusual Dionysian complex), although perhaps opposite (but by no means contrary) political views. She is perhaps the least eccentric. My other friend, Cody, is a very strange person. Though multiphobic and socially inept, he makes for an excellent actor, and an even better voice mimic. I call him "the Coyote." Andrew--well, perhaps it is best not to even talk about Andrew. And lastly, my Scottish friend Michael (or, you guessed it, "Scotty"), whom I know from outside of school, who speaks with a Scottish accent with the added ambiguity of a slight speech impediment. Perhaps the most insight into his character can be drawn from anecdote: "accidentally" setting off a dry chemical fire extinguisher in the doorway of the Living Desert's Discovery Room was one of his lesser attention-drawing feats. All other things aside, my friends provide a constant stream of entertainment, and my various conversations, walks and other adventures with them provide much-needed respite from the toil of everyday life.


I hope the description I have given you is not too boring, or for that matter, to lengthy. This is perhaps the most in-depth description of myself that I have ever given.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Why don't you just join the existing co-operative movement?

[trolls' bane]

Originally Posted by sisterandcousinandaunt

Why don't you just join the existing co-operative movement?

Frankly, I can't do either at the moment.
Although, in a sense, I already have.