Manifesto, But Why?

BUT WHY?
Why are people the way
that they are
Why am I the way that I
am
“ For all it’s prosperity, the 50s had been a decade of almost Orwellian
conformity. Everyone seemed to be a character who had stepped out
of a Norman Rockwell painting, a vacancy behind their canned smiles
and scrubbed faces. The Emancipation Proclamation had long ago
been signed and people weren’t sold anymore, just rented or leased.
You had your happy carpenter, your happy policeman, your happy
teacher – all forty-hour slaves with weekends, vacations, and retirement
packages. Americans considered themselves the democratic leaders of
the “free” world, yet they were robots of social expectation, their
personal perceptions and experiences restricted by what was allowed
and what wasn’t. They lived their lives to the accompaniment of Bing
Crosby, The Beaver, and Bonanza.”
The Rock & Roll Book of the Dead, David Comfort
Deformer
Ed Templeton
Why is life and the world
the way that it is
Have doubt
Keep an idea open
Take risk with it
& eventually come back
What Our Art Means
Gilbert and George
“:::Art For All:::Progress Through Friendship:::Language For Meaning:::The Life Forces :::The Whole
ART FOR ALL
When a human-being gets
up in the morning and
decides what to do and
where to go [they are]
finding [their] reason or
excuse to continue living. We
as artists have only that to
do. We want to learn to
respect and honour ‘the
whole’. The content of
mankind is our subject and
our inspiration. We stand
each day for good traditions
and necessary changes. We
want to find and accept all
the good and bad in
ourselves. Civilization has
always depended for
advancement on the ‘giving
person’. We want to spill our
blood, brains and seed in our
life-search for new meanings
and purpose to give to life.”
Everything Was Fine Until
Whatever
Chelsea Martin
Dear Readers,
I want you to think I’m part of you somehow, or that we share something no one else
could possibly understand. I want this to make you a little nervous. I want you to think
I’m doing something no one else can do. I want you to think that no one else could do
what I do correctly. I want you to spend your money on me. Not all your money, and
not necessarily a large amount, but some sort of spending so I know I’m worth
something. Hopefully at least three dollars cos if you think about it, what can you get
for less than three dollars? I want you to think about me when I’m not around. I want
you to think of me, in a non-sexual way, when you’re in bed at night. I want you to cry
and then realize the absurdity in this emotional release. I want you to laugh through
tears and then realize the heartbreaking honesty audible in your laughter. I want your
heart to be so broken that all you can do is pathetically alter yourself in response to my
more accurate vision of you and, with unobstructed spirit and determination, love me. I
want this love for me to be your only talent, and I want you to eventually realize that it
isn’t even adequate, and that I really deserve better.
Love,
Chelsea
“Maybe I’m writing for myself when I was younger, I don’t want her to feel alienated.”
A Manifesto for Introverts
Susan Cain
• 
1. There’s a word for “people who are in their heads too much”: thinkers.
• 
2. Solitude is a catalyst for innovation.
• 
3. The next generation of quiet kids can and must be raised to know their own strengths.
• 
4. Sometimes it helps to be a pretend-extrovert. There’s always time to be quiet later.
• 
5. But in the long run, staying true to your temperament is the key to finding work you love and
work that matters.
• 
6. One genuine new relationship is worth a fistful of business cards.
• 
7. It’s ok to cross the street to avoid making small talk.
• 
8. “Quiet leadership” is not an oxymoron.
• 
9. Love is essential; gregariousness is optional.
• 
10. “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” –Mahatma Gandhi
A Manifesto for Introverts
Susan Cain
Manifesto
is validation necessary
is validation validating
what makes validation validating
how can I validate reality
what is reality and what is real
are memories real
are memories all we have
yes.
memories are all we have
memories are too fallible to be validating
but memories are all we have
memories are all we have to make us feel
we can only feel something we know
newness can be related to a memory
the feeling of something new
the feeling of something new is promising
a promise is not validation
tell me I am wrong so I can feel something
and make art from it
and prove you wrong
and maybe you will do the same & then maybe we can talk about it.