I'm obsessed with manifestos. Artifacts in time. Imagination and ideology and intention caught in amber.
We all make them with ourselves everyday. These days everyone is either committing to eating nothing but meat or no meat at all with all the ideological depth of reasoning an armchair expert needs to gain a following online. So it goes.
Some people are afraid of manifestos. I imagine most crony capitalists fear the written words of dreamers but, then again, some of them aim to surprise. If you have a bad boss, they fear pamphlets and brochures. Any coal-mine owner or newspaper businessman in the late 19th century would find ways to burn, banish, and beat down the intentions of writer.
That's because all these people are afraid of things changing. They wish the status quo to remain and know certain documents have the power to make change. This is the power of words.
Personal manifestos create opportunities through structure and communal ones build revolutions and reinventions of current paradigms. This is why we can't subjectively value them. They are bound by time, culture, and the identities in which they are wrapped up.
All they are is directors of intention. Their efficacy is determined by the validity of their direction. The farther they go, the greater the truth they contain. There's purity in that. Merit in the make of the thing itself.
Intention requires a container. To live a vision continuously requires a vow. Creeds, robust mission statements, long, drawn out declarations of intent and ideology. These are examples of containers. Essential for the founding of nations, establishing of religions, and changing of minds. To choose a container to hold your intention is to establish the distance you're able to go...