A Manifesto for the Age! This is OUR VOICE! This is OUR VOICE!
To exist is not to suffer, and the spirit of our personhood will not be regulated by committee. We will filter the noise, no matter how deafening, overbearing, or crippling it becomes. We will judge the system for ourselves and not blindly follow the voices of pundits, politicians, or dooms-day preachers. We will construct our own, individual understanding of our world which draws from words, sounds, and experiences. We will not surrender our autonomy when confronted with the call for passive silence. We will not condone the autonomy of others to be stolen away. We will act, not hesitate.
We will not live our lives in isolation though a continuous series of ones and zeros. We will interact with our world on the physical level. We will feel and live the textures, sensations, and emotions which the universe has given us the freedom to experience. We are members of the environment, not rulers over it. Sustainability cannot be an occasional token; sustainability must be a daily consciousness.
We recognize that to walk freely without fear, the ability to sit and critique our world and have access to sustenance which far exceeds our basic human needs is a luxury which is not granted to all peoples. Our freedom will not be abandoned and we will not infringe on the freedom of others. We will remember our state of privilege and make motions to extend our privilege onto others.
The acquisition of money and influence will not regulate our worldly experience. Greed and manipulation will not rule our lives or be associated with our personhood.
We will consume consciously. We will acknowledge the underprivileged, the misused, the exploited, and not give support to those who maintain these systems of injustice. The exchange of our coin and labour will positively contribute to that which is good and worthy in this world.
It is wrong for any person or peoples to be victimized or dominated by another. The relationship between patriarchy and capitalism is toxic. A political or economic system which disadvantages its members cannot be endorsed. We will advocate equality. We will advocate our feminism.
We refuse to accept our world as a panopticon. When you survey our lives, may it show that we have upheld the above. Not because we know you are watching, but because it is right.
We intend to live. Not frivolously, but with purpose which considers the needs of those around us and those whom we will never meet. To forget or ignore the needs and rights of our neighbour and fellow citizen is to give licence for ours to be as quickly thrown away. We are connected. We intend to take responsibility for what we produce, be it physical or invisible.
We will keep what is sacred. We will love.
THE MINISTRY OF VOICE
This is the manifesto of our collective. It articulates our desire positively contribute to our environment, both physical and mental, and advocate a consciousness for what we do, see, and say. This manifesto embodies the direction of our practice and maintains the core ideas which we wish to communicate. We use this piece to guide our practice and to reconfirm the messages which we communicate. The manifesto expresses the meaningful and complex relationship which we have with the physical and mental environment. Even more, it articulates our drive for a feminist-orientated world and the challenging of social hierarchies.
We are human, and we all connected.
For more on our inspiration, check out these great sources:
Adbusters Culturejamming Headquarters. "Journal of the Mental Environment." http://www.adbusters.org/
Bartky, Sandra Lee. "Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power." In The Politics of Women's Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance, and Behaviour, edited by Rose Weitz, 76-97. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Lasn, Kalle. Culture Jam: How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge - And Why We Must. New York: Quill, 1999.
