Manifesto

The point of any manifesto is to set one's self up as a righteous alternative, beyond the touch of the material world, and then betray every single on of your principles the second someone offers you enough money. It's, in a phrase from that old Cocteau flick, a "tale as old as time." But I have no principles beyond self-preservation. And in a sense, I betrayed that principle a long time ago.

This blog is an experiment, an attempt to cultivate some kind of freedom in a setting (both geographic & cyber) that feels less free every day. It's an attempt to enjoy myself while doing something that probably looks, to the outside eye, as something that isn't very fun at all. There's an old Bob Dylan quote somewhere about getting his kicks from people spitting on him or something.

I'm not looking to be covered in spit, or dollars, or gratitude, or (puke) social capital. Attention from others is only part of this experiment. For example, yesterday this blog has 24 page views, which is pretty good considering I've made a rule that it can only be promoted through this blog's tw**ter account, and said account only has (as of this moment) 6 followers. But how many of those views were real, how many were spambots, how many were something I don't even know or yet understand?

Ideally, this blog should function as graffiti on a train car that never leaves the station, skywriting from a plane that only sprays invisible ink, poison injected into the atmosphere that evaporates upon contact.

If it isn't even being alive in this world, in cultivating one's brand, then surely it must be easier to do the opposite.