Goatonapole is the philosophy of being that holds that there is a Goat and a Pole and that the Goat is on the Pole. In the relation of Goat and Pole we Goatonapolists find an eternal thread of unfathomable cosmic significance, a point of reference in which all opposites dissolve into a unity of infinite breadth, a universal truth underlying the very fabric of existence. Upon contemplation of the Goat, the Pole, and their relative positions, one cannot help but realize that we've always been talking about Goatonapole. Whether we accept, reject, or live in ignorance of Goatonapole, we are all Goatonapolists.

We are deluded by the machinations of abstraction and modern thought into thinking that the world of concepts is reality itself. Almost without knowing it we have wandered far down a path of self-delusion that has split us away from the foundations of our existence. Our casual dabbling in unquestioned abstractions, foremost the notion of the self as rational faculty, has spawned the many neuroses so inextricable from the modern condition.

The photographic work of Farooq Naem has shown us a new path. It is time for a return to a truth that appeals to the whole being and not merely the intellect, one more elegant and resounding than the self-righteous scraps that secularism has brought us.

The Institute for the Study of The Goat, The Pole, and Their Relative Positions has been founded to compile and disseminate what we Goatonapolists have found in the course of our contemplation of the Goat, the Pole, and their relative positions, that the ignorant might be enlightened and adherents might be aided in their journey as Goatonapolists.

It is our hope that we all may someday be like the Goat on the Pole, serene and beautiful, in a state of absolute balance.