Lucas Helder's Manifesto

The Manifesto Exhibition Series (7)

Source

Unfortunately I have only been able to find Lucas Helder's manifesto on The Smoking Gun in image form, and therefore am unable to replicate the text.

I thought that I didn't have much to say about this one, other than rehash the bits about violence that I discussed regarding the SCUM Manifesto.

However, it seems that there is quite a lot to say. This document was sent to authorities as a warning before he committed his crimes. In addition to his stated intent to inform and educate regarding his views on the world, it seems that this document is a literal threat, whereas the SCUM Manifesto could be said to be unrelated to Ms. Solaras' violence.

If the words are a threat, they are at the same time a warning. The violence in the words and in the act are linked, and by publishing this manifesto (in this case, mailing it to authorities) it seems that the author was attempting to link actual violence to the metaphysical ideas he was describing, regardless of whether or not this is a tenable link. Does it diminish the violence to link it to words of peace? Does it make the words of peace and understanding violent to link them to bombs?

Often manifestos, while written in the harshest language the author can devise, are linked to actions that are very benign, if even any action occurs at all. Maybe in this way manifestos are safety valves, letting our brains blow off the aggression that develops under scrutinized rationality. But perhaps they can also be crucibles, forcing the author to re-visit those thoughts time and time again, until one day the author can write no more, and now must act, and write those violent ideas into action.

The author of this particular piece is now incarcerated in a federal hospital facility, and likely will not be released. What effect did this document have on that sentence? As he was sentenced by a judge, it is difficult to say. But it was certainly evidence. Is the document still violent, with its author incarcerated? Is it more violent?

A lot to think about.

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Here on Welcome to the Interdome, we're trying something new: a curated blog exhibition. There are many blogs that treat themselves as an ongoing exhibition of any number of topics. Welcome to the Interdome largely follows the interests of its author, wherever that may lead. But, for the next series of twenty-or-so posts (in hopefully quick succession) we're going to showcase some various manifestos found around the Internet. They are not comprehensive, not even representative of the full-breath of material that exists. But, they each represent something interesting about the form, and will be accompanied by curated comments.

None of the manifestos posted are posted with explicit permission. They are all found published on the web, free for any to read, and links will be provided to the original location. I am showing them out of the original context here, to first analyze the content. Then, one may proceed to the original site to look at other interesting things like host site, format, font, pictures, and other available materials.

We invite you to read, and to comment if you like. If you want to or have written your own manifesto, send it along! If it's interesting/funny/different we'll through it up there.

If at any time you want to see the full exhibit, click the tag "Manifestos Exhibition", below. That should take you to all the relevant exhibits, that all have the same tag. The preamble to the exhibition can be found here.

Enjoy!