36 Comments
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Fukitol's avatar

Agree with all of that *but* - it's not just the cities that need revitalization. The countryside is a withered husk of ghost towns, drug abuse, petty crime and suicide. The brain cannot be healthy when the body is sick, and the body has been poisoned and hollowed out by big brain ideas from people who only think about cities. So don't be that person. This downward spiral feedback loop of dysfunctional cities ignoring the needs of rural areas -> collapse of rural areas driving further dysfunction in cities -> repeat ad nauseam is how we got here.

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Rachel Haywire's avatar

I will take this advice to heart and appreciate it.

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The Mighty Humanzee's avatar

Love the Art Deco style.

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Mo_Diggs's avatar

Liked just because it is a manifesto

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Rachel Haywire's avatar

Sure.

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Mo_Diggs's avatar

Can't be the only one writing manifestos here.

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petethepolymath's avatar

This is a lively hope pill. How to make this hope reality? Will to power? Crush all opposition? Make it so? So many questions about how to give up the blackpill.

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Rachel Haywire's avatar

Let’s start here.

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petethepolymath's avatar

Starting is a good start. I recently wrote a black pill manifesto. Perhaps you can hope pill me.

https://islandofignorance.substack.com/p/manifesto-for-the-underground

I'm looking forward to the journey to the journey towards hope...

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Rachel Haywire's avatar

Join The Cultural Futurist and you can attend my salons. There's a discount in this post. You'll love them. Full of hope, wild optimism, and extreme creativity.

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Alien Fox's avatar

Don’t give up!

Snort the white pill!

Blue pill- you are asleep in the matrix

Red pill- you wake up to the matrix but are still contributing to it

Black pill- you take the red pill and are disabled by fear and negativity- give up

White pill- take the red pill and are hopeful and are contributing to dismantling the matrix

We are information outlaws in the 2020s information wars of the digital age.

The deep state is suppressing some ideas out of pop culture and into the dark while propagating other ideas into the spot light essentially creating an artificial pop cultural zeitgeist, or in other words the matrix.

We need to get the forbidden knowledge held by the elites and return it to the people!

We need you!

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The Stern Golum's avatar

Good work Rachel!

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Mike Knittel's avatar

I like many of these ideas. And I like your manifesto because it's sane and short. Most are unhinged, narcissistic rants and are more about the tortured soul of its writer than anything else. A manifesto should be optimistic, and this one fits the bill.

Someone beat me to the punch on the art deco observation, though I will confess here to not really knowing what art deco means. I'm slightly wary of the transhumanist mood of the art, but at the same time I do like all the silver and the kind of Jetsons vibe it has going for it. In short, I have no fucking clue what I'm talking about.

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Mike Knittel's avatar

I'll join so long as I get to sit in party headquarters and tell everyone else what to do.

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Rachel Haywire's avatar

Not a chance, but if you prove yourself you'll be able to sit in the outer room.

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jabster's avatar

From Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead:

[DEAN] “Do you mean to tell me that you’re thinking seriously of building that way, when and if you are an architect?

[ROARK] “Yes.”

[DEAN] “My dear fellow, who will let you?”

[ROARK] “That’s not the point. The point is, who will stop me?”

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jabster's avatar

Have you subscribed to the "Faster, Please!" Substack?

https://substack.com/@fasterplease

Oh, and this, if you haven't seen it. https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/

The first team that puts together a vision of the future and a plan to get there wins.

LFG!

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JS.Hardy's avatar

Interesting choice to have women in every poster

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Rachel Haywire's avatar

I love women.

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Kurtis's avatar

Brilliant.

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Lirpa Strike's avatar

I'm really looking forward to seeing more! Glad to have joined.

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Rachel Haywire's avatar

Thank you. Glad to have you! Have always enjoyed your posts and comments.

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Joseph Arnold's avatar

Hell, yeah Rachel! I consider myself already a part of this movement. Looking forward to hearing more from you about your vision!

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Rachel Haywire's avatar

Welcome and thank you! I happened to see Alexander Technique in your profile. Do you teach it? Had one session and have been craving to learn more.

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Joseph Arnold's avatar

Hi Rachel - I'm only seeing your reply now. Yes, I teach AT and would gladly give you a free Zoom lesson sometime. Please reach out at joseph@soulforcearts.com if you're interested!

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Paul Rhoads's avatar

Back to the Futurism... you do realize that it fizzled pretty badly

when they tried it before?

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Fra Juan Klees's avatar

I have an alternative plan that will turn things around, but it won't be easy. Here is a letter I wrote to the conservative political operatives at their meeting in Spartanburg, SC. I got no reply.

Dear Ms McLaughlin:

I am not offended with your ad hominem. Politics can be a nasty business, and politicians-- even genteel ones. I don't consider myself one. I want to be known as a religious painter, and a Christian. The Christians were very wise about political matters. Jesus could not be duped or mislead. HE told us to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. You misunderstand me if you think I am doing nothing by refusing to join your ranks. I'm here to offer an alternative.

I have a three-point platform, corresponding to three institutions which have nullified all others. The first is pets. Stop keeping animals, and take care of your children. Stop sleeping with, and smelling like, animals. Stop acting like animals. Rev Billy Graham lost his place in heaven because he did not speak the truth about this matter, and hundreds of animals and other trash washed down the rivers in WNC recently--where I lived for 20 years.

The second is sports. Sports is a scourge on the people. Teaching tit-for-tat at a young age, it has helped destroy the family. If you are a mother, and let your 16yr old boy get broken ribs, two concussions, and have a broken jaw reset playing football at Dorman, you need your head examined. Especially, if you wear the school colors as you tell the story of the boy's misery. If you are a mother and you let your child dress up like a gladiator in Woodruff middle school, GOD will punish you.

How about corrupt churches? If your church became an office of the HHS, selling vaccines, torturing children with masks, and you think you are a good person, I have news for you. Some of us are praying for GOD to punish ya'all. It is in GOD's hands. Not mine. I help people, not hurt them. That is the difference between us, Ms McLaughlin.

Why don't you give up the nonsense? Be a mother. Have a heart. Don't hang around with those losers

JK

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Alex Cooper's avatar

The battleground of the future is infinity. As a species, we have no fucking idea how to deal with it. We come up with metaphors to make things seem like we can control them. But humans are overloaded with more information than we can process. We look for shortcuts all around us. The shortcuts are comforting and give us a false sense of control. But control in the big sense is impossible. We are trying to make sense of complexity by adding more complexity. Maybe there is a Copernicus like moment when we realize that maybe we are centering our belief systems on the wrong things. I have no idea where the new focus should be, but I know that rehashing the past is not the way to the future. I don't if this manifesto is the right path, but at least it is asking much better questions and that in of itself is a great thing. All I can say is keep going and have some coffee on me.

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