Humanity isn’t powerless. Humanity isn’t ineffectual. The problem at issue is that our disorganized masses so often miss the mark in terms of what they assess as being the radical cause of our problems and will devote themselves to ineffectual protests without properly considering the efficacy of such efforts. Yet that which is being targeted via our tantrums is not itself the cause, but the cumulative effects of a grand and singular cause that remains buried beneath the soil and protected by millennia of self-justificatory ignorance (and the inadvertent dehumanization which is a direct and natural outcome of our failure to take responsibility for our action and inaction alike).

Healing transpires at the root or not at all; and until the problem is dealt with at its root it will continue to crop up again and again and again until the destruction is truly irreparable. Now and again we’ll be given our false positives and it will allow us to stand around thinking that we’ve made a difference—when it is rather the case that some businessmen, somewhere, recognized that all of our protesting was not so good for their public image. The people are then given what they want in only the most superficial way possible, though I would warn against calling it a victory, since all that has occurred is the exchange of threats and concessions. This isn’t healing; this is a business strategy. The ignorant and dissociated minds which have unleashed this corruption upon our public have still yet to learn, repent and transcend their basest selves. And none of this is helped by the eagerness with which a damaged public wishes to accept every plastic apology as earnest, if because we are dependent upon our hope for a better tomorrow… even when it calls for the suspension and denial of our discernment so invaluable.


When looking around it can surely seem that our sphere is lacking in kind, empathetic and self-aware individuals. I don’t believe that to be the case at all; although even if the reality is not so hopeless, it is surely complex. You must consider that there exists a positive correlation between those who are caring, empathetic and self-aware and those who are agreeable (or meek) in attitude; and it is natural that those who are sensitive and knowledgeable to the plights of mankind would prefer to avoid bringing more harm to a population that has already hurt itself so severely. This correlation sadly works against us for the reason that those who are best equipped to lead and protect are prone to losing against the unmatured and willfully ignorant who will stoop to any means necessary in order to acquire the security that they are after.

This demographic of self-aware individuals has also been known to avoid the realms of politics, business and similarly greedy industries with certain adamance and for obvious reasons, gravitating, instead, toward the arts and humanities. To expect otherwise of them is like expecting survivors of a fire to re-enter a burning building once they’ve managed to escape. Many who escape are simply satisfied to be alive and wish to make it as far away from the destruction as possible, accepting that all they once relied upon is lost and that they must start again for themselves on a more vulnerable foundation with a new set of expectations.

For me, it has never been enough to escape, knowing that the fire rages on and that the underlying problem has yet to be dealt with, leaving billions to suffer. And sure, I understand that not everyone will be up to the task—mentally, emotionally, physically. For some, it’s all that they can do to escape with their lives and I do not want to leave them feeling guilty if they’ve got their plates full in simply trying to recover their own spirit. Yet for those who do manage to reclaim their sense of self, their clarity and their autonomy from a society that abused them, they owe it to the rest to return—if so able—to the wreckage and see to it that that which devastated them in life will devastate no other. It is on this principle that Comprachicos, as a collective, was founded, believing that the understanding held by such individuals has left them better equipped to assist others and wishing to see them all gathered together neath a singular banner.

Then let us not go on thinking that we suffer from an absence of decent individuals, when the problem relates more so to passivity and disorganization in the population. The empathetic demographic is innately discouraged from taking part in the activities and positions that are most likely to amount to a strong and stable change. And when the corrupt are willing to employ any means necessary to fill their mouths we must know that we will require more than a large novelty foam-hand to uphold the health of our sphere. Truly, if we are to triumph, as a species, over our collective dis-ease, us sensitive artists, cynical outsiders and mad philosophers will have to take up the call, abandon our comfort zones and uphold the honor that our leaders and occupational soldiers could not.


In the modern age there exists multiple collectives, anonymous and not, which are fulfilling an invaluable role within our society in their fight for our basic liberties and integrity, though we do not have any such collectives or organizations which are committed to guiding and protecting the mental, emotional and developmental potential of humanity. We fight for our rights and our wills, yet we allow our awareness to be sold to the highest bidder. I would wish to see others fighting for consciousness as an innate human capability and allowance with the self-same fervor and commitment (especially in the absence of ties to science and religion, which we have come to view as supplying all purpose and worth to humanity, whereas I support the notion that existence and humanity are more than capable of speaking for themselves). That is not to neglect how we as a species hold to various ideas on what constitutes objective growth, though definitions aren’t so varied among us as to not contain some common denominators going beyond personal spiritual, political and material associations, and it is those on which this text is focused: a purely humanistic ideal of growth—which isn’t to say that we oppose any of that other stuff; but let us first assemble the skeleton before moving on to what we are wearing).

Comprachicos has been imagined as a global collective formed from and drawing upon outlier demographics known to avoid involving themselves in the battles of society—despite the tendency of many such demographics to be highly opinionated and oriented toward change. After all, not everyone who feels strongly about social change is warm to the standard models of activism. I, myself, fall into that category (the only petition I’ve ever signed in my life was to have the statue of former New York governor George Clinton replaced with a statue of funk musician George Clinton). I could stand and deliver impassioned lectures at conferences and conventions across the world, but beyond that... I’m more of the type to silently shift the furniture, millimeter by millimeter, over a long stretch of time, as it were. I’m an ontologist; a psychologist. I’m not really an activist type by nature; or maybe I simply don’t see the sense in the methods espoused by the majority under the banner of protest and activism, which are standardly reliant on publicity and disturbance more than... something sensible and efficacious. Any change brought about by these means is liable to be superficial at best, dependent foremostly upon the degree to which we are able to elicit shame in our opponents. Comprachicos, on the other hand, is about going beneath the surface and effecting legitimate, rudimentary changes and this requires a more methodical approach overall so as to ensure that our work will hold up in the long term and under all probable conditions.