Chautauqua

chautauqua
– noun
an educational meeting, originating in Lake Chautauqua, New York, in 1874

Chautauqua was created by Mark O’Brien, a mild-mannered writer, who fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and some semblance of sanity in a world in which resources are diminishing, political promises are increasing, and everyone feels entitled to everything all the time.

There is a temptation to interpret this chautauqua as philosophical in nature. It is not. It is, in fact, arithmetical. There simply isn’t enough of everything for everyone to have everything they want, all the time, at no cost.

Everything of value has a price. The price must cover the cost. That’s a simple truth. Everything else is a promise. Every promise has the purpose of manipulation. If you don’t do the math, you’ll be manipulated.

Please feel free to contribute to this chautauqua. We’ll make room for the factual, the absurd, and the satiric. Perhaps it will make us better at allocating scarce resources. Perhaps it will help us take more responsibility for the world’s numbers. Perhaps it will help us comprehend the fact that mathematical equations yield only numbers.

Equations are not promises. The numbers they yield don’t care about political promise or public popularity. And they don’t lie.

Do the math.