So this comes from a place of love. The world has brought us to a place where to be sincere is to look foolish. Self-image has become so tangled with creation that the end result suffers and serves only to reinforce the unnerving feeling that nothing is really real anymore.
Anyone who creates in this way should be executed.
1. The New Violence believe that the destruction of the ego within art is nearly always appropriate. Ants do not build anthills to look more ant. They build them because they can, and must.
2. Make what you want, how you want, when you want. Don’t try to make it accessible, don’t aim to make people laugh or cry. Just make it.
3. Be critical. Don’t make excuses for people. If someone is being inauthentic in your eyes then tell them, and why. Niceties are for the weak.
4. Embrace aggression – it is an indicator of passion. As long as it is directed right it is perfectly acceptable. Walk aggressively, eat aggressively and sleep aggressively. Do everything with intention, even nothing.
5. ‘Networking’ is the lowest form of human communication.
6. Humanity is not all that but it would be far better if hierarchy was not looked upon as ‘civilised’. Let’s be honest- elitism is for the apes.
7. Become your own society.
8. Fashion is part of the old violence. Ignore it at all costs.
9. Be honest. Most poetry, for example, is very boring. An awful lot of art and music is also boring. Acknowledge that perhaps 70% of anything you produce is probably very dull to anyone else but you. That’s ok too, art doesn’t have to be for other people.
10. Dancing is the main tenet of the new violence. Even if you ignore all the other principles you will still be participating in our cause every time you indulge in the medium of dance.
11. Never rely on other people to make you happy. They won’t. People are generally terrible. If you truly accept this about yourself and others then you will be set free.
Manifestos are always only the tip of an enormous sexy iceberg. update the list and pass it on. A tame person is a dead one.
Vive la violence!
Emma Hammond is a poet and writer. She blogs at unicorn hoax and betweenplantandghost. This manifesto has been re-published with her permission. Her new pamphlet, Sleeveless Errand, is available to download for free from Lulu.
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