Do you have a manifesto?
A set of values?
Principles?
Something you’ll stand behind, in front of, and defend with an entire drawerful of improvised cutlery weapons?
The idea of a manifesto gives me chills and thrills, like a relic of a bygone era. It’s not just for political revolutionaries and extremely earnest student union groups; a manifesto is for everyone.
Take The Idler magazine, for example.
It has a manifesto, which lives in my cabin. It’s called:
HOW TO BE IDLE
THE MANIFESTO
And it begins with the line “The religion of industry has turned human beings into work robots” and ends with “Embrace nothing. Know nothing. Do nothing. Be idle!”
In between those lines are many more that show you what The Idler stands for: meaningful living, learning, and creativity.
You could create a whole book from a manifesto like that, and in fact, they did. It’s on my shelf. It’s great. I’d call it a MicroBook, actually, at just 128 pages long. Then they created more books, all along the same lines.
As you can see, your manifesto can be pretty specific and weird. In fact, the weirder and more specific, the better — because the more you it will be.
This is where you get to be REAL.
You can be silly, or flippant, or serious, or absurd — as long as you’re really REAL.
You might be reading this and thinking, “I’m not Carl Marx, you banana. I don’t have or need a manifesto. A manicure, yes. But not a manifesto.”
Well, I beg to differ. I bet you DO.
When I started writing this, I wondered myself: do I have a manifesto? A set of beliefs and values I would pick up a long-handled ladle and fight for?
Yes. Of course I do.
My manifesto is a work in progress, but I can sum up the essence of it right here, right now:
THOU SHALT NOT OUTSOURCE THY BRAIN, THY THINKING, AND THY CREATIVITY TO THE FUCKING ROBOTS.
THOU SHALT THINK AND THOU SHALT FEEL AND THOU SHALT DAMN WELL WRITE IT DOWN BECAUSE WE NEED REAL THOUGHTS NOW MORE THAN EVER.
This manifesto — this idea or feeling or passion of yours — it gives you a place to plant your feet. An opinion that matters. Something to fight for and a call to action for people who are a little bit or a lot like you.
It’s a way to create community and get communities to do something.
Whether that something is making collages, marching in protest, or creating an urban garden… or maybe writing something that could change someone’s world.
A manifesto would make a great place to start writing a MicroBook, don’t you think?
*wanders off whistling*
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