A Manifesto on Manifestos #2

“The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club.” Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

Light between the trees / 2022

The first rule to writing a manifesto is: there are no rules.

You get to decide how you want to write it – and you’re the only one who decides.

You can write a page, a few pages, or an entire book.

There are no should and should nots.

Write your own manifesto, and own what you write.

(See: A Manifesto on Manifestos, and read the list of manifestos on page one to see how varied the form is.)

For the purpose of creating your manifesto – use every part of your being – mind, body, emotions, spirit – and throw out any rule book anyone even tries to put in front of you.

Your manifesto is your creation. You shape it until it becomes a manifesto only you could’ve written.

There are zero authorities on how you should write your manifesto.

Writing a manifesto is all about picking up a pen and creating something based on your own truth, and putting it on the page. Assert who you are, why you are, and what’s been on your mind.

There are no high-minded, low-rent, or made-up in their mind self-proclaimed authorities who can jump in and say, hey, you’re doing it wrong because you didn’t mention X,Y, or Z.

Feel the release and relief in knowing that’s deeply incorrect garbage, and then proceed.

Also, nit-pickers aren’t allowed. Especially nonsensical pickers of nit.

Ask yourself the questions that regularly come back to you and inform your writing. Those returning questions that’ll arrive and connect with you on a gut level. In dreams, imaginings, and daydreams.

Say this to yourself: This is my manifesto. My view of what’s happening in this joyful and destructive world of war and peace.

This is your view of the world, in this world of daily victories and betrayals.

This world of creation and destruction.

This world of wonder and horrors.

This world of kindness and chaos.

This world of makers and destroyers.

This world of creative flow and lost souls.

Within this world we all live in, and grow and transform within.

Get the first draft down any way you choose. It can be written on paper, or digital format, or talking into your phone while walking on a busy downtown street.

Start, begin, revise, revise, revise.

Carve a manifesto out of words, like you’re carving a sculpture out of stone or wood.

Writing a manifesto, like all writing that comes from the subterranean cave-mind within you – comes from a full-mind-body flow state.

You get to decide what you’ll include.

Step into the center of your heart-mind, and write down your own personal/universal perspective.

No one has the right to say you’re wrong.

The wrongheaded ones don’t get to block the flow of your ideas.

If they think they do, they just drank a hot cup of delusions.

You can pre-empt the boring-as-hell already scheduled closed-minds who might try.

We now return to a program where you’re living life on your terms, saying no to any type of meaningless authority, especially when they are tragically misguided humans stuck in an imaginary past.

Maybe your manifesto starts with accepting, and maybe your manifesto starts with rejecting. Either one is more than perfect, valid, essential.

Essentially, you’re making your own path forward. Slicing through time, space, ideas, this moment, breathing from your chest, philosophy, the wild mind, mythology, deepest layers of your primal mind, and your subterranean subconscious mind.

Sometimes, it takes half a lifetime to understand how unlearning is just as essential as learning. In the same way, non-listening is just as important as listening. Either being in a quiet space, or finding the quite space within.

Pick your topic or let it pick you. Either one leads to new places only you can find.

If we can read between the lines, we can erase the lines.

The current world we live in is set to overwhelm. Which can be pretty damned overwhelming.

Taking a step back to rest, reset, recover, daydream — is the best way you can deal with the overwhelmingness.

Your mind is a wonder. But, unless you let it rest from time to time by wondering and wandering, breathing and daydreaming – it gets clogged-up and stuck in place.

Maybe putting your manifesto on the page, and then releasing it out into the world will open your mind and countless other ones.

The miracle of moving a pen across paper is one thing we can count on.

Maybe you’re using your voice to speak a loud no, and knowing enough of us have to say no as well. No to circumstances, the culture around us, the way things have always been done. Social change, cultural change, begins in hearts and mind, conversations in coffee shops and bars, in libraries, and on walks in the woods.

Maybe even George Orwell’s ghost is freaking out by witnessing this horrific authoritarian historical moment.

Maybe we’re all ready for a gray alien invasion, the one we’ve been promised in TV shows and movies, forever.

It’s entirely possible today’s the day you start writing your manifesto.

Maybe the world is going to welcome your manifesto with open arms.

It’s possible you’ll tell yourself this form of written expression resonates with you.

Maybe you’re writing a manifesto that’s going to be a wake-up call.

It’s possible you’ll create a manifesto made to last for centuries.

It’s possible you’re wired, inspired, and ready to roll.

Maybe you already have a pen in hand.