Ten Humble Thoughts About Manifesto Writings

I wrote this in mid-2023, and re-wrote part of it today

 1.  I've read around seve manifesto pieces (the last one being this Nashville nutcase) in my life, and generally....all of them have the problem of a writer who is marginally rational, sometimes severely irrational and probably not capable of living in a society with other people.

2.  The writers of manifesto documents....tend to want to fix/resolve world or society problems.  I'm not saying their vision or thoughts would work....just that they want a broke system to be fixed.

3.  Even a 3rd grader could probably sit and write a simple one-page manifesto.  I'm not saying it's a talent you really need....just that anyone can write BS like that.

4.  People seem to be attracted to commerce, political or society type manifestos.  You just don't see someone writing a manifesto over NBA rules, winter tires, or weight issues.

I'll add here.....if you asked me about it being a male or female thing.....women seem less inclined to fix things....so I think it's mostly a male-dominated thing.

5.   When someone wants to protect you from reading a manifesto....they seem to have the thought that you can't handle the content or chosen topic.  Naturally, they have read it....meaning they can handle it.

6.  I get the sense (maybe I'm wrong) that more men write manifesto documents, than women.  Maybe women just walk out and skip this BS-gotta-write-a-manifesto, and just make change without a lot of chatter.

7.  There doesn't seem to be any value to writing a 7-page manifesto....to writing a 700-page manifesto....on the same subject material.  You'd think that readability would make a guy keep change ideas to just twenty pages max.

My advice....if you are leaning toward 700 pages of manifesto....you probably should be looking for real work (hauling hay), or starting cult following.

8.  Is the Bible a manifesto?  Well.....you might make the case that the Old Testament might fit into this way.  

9.  The problem in that two guys could write a manifesto each....on the same topic....equaling 700 pages each, and each come to a totally separate vision/problem?  Yeah, it's possible.

10.  The odds of a hundred folks being offered 'free' manifesto material, and 99 flat turn down the opportunity to read such a document?   Yeah, that is part of the sales problem of manifesto creation.

Egypt Chatter

 Over the past month or two, I've been following the scan business of the ground under the Pyramids (in Egypt).

So  someone spent some time to image the data into a graphic chart.

My thoughts?

First, whatever amount of time people speculated on the building of the pyramid structure....with the underground stuff....logically, you should triple the building time.

Level of engineering talent?  It's stuff that only a PhD-type engineer would dream up (at today's level).

Then the issue comes up....with all other structures in Egypt....are any built like this?  No.....which means it's probably a whole different crowd who built this...from scratch.

Then, the new added details say that the Great Sphinx has the same underground structure....so they were all built around the same time.

Purpose of the spirals and the structures underground?  You would not go to this layer of detail....to bury a body or two.  It has to have purpose/design.   

Digging down?  So far, the Egyptian authorities have not gone to suggest that.  Their whole story....for at least two-hundred years....doesn't really fit well with this 'bunker-stuff'.

Purpose of the structures under the ground?  I'm of the mindset that it's electrical generation of some type.  

Digging?  I'd suggest digging one single hole adjacent to the Great Sphinx....connect to the spirals, and eventually to the structure.  You could do this in six weeks.  The question is...could you handle some crazy scenario where it's technology at least a hundred years more advanced than what we have today?  

Does The 'We-Hate-America' Or 'No-Kings' Advertising Work?

 Well...NO.

If you already hated America....it does help reinforce your logic, laying a secondary layer of cult-BS on top of what you already have..

Maybe if you grew up in western Oregon/Washington or the LA area....you might have 50-percent of the public believing in some of the BS.  If you grew up in the midwest, Tennessee, or deep-south....it's hard to influence more than 10-percent of folks to feel 'hate' on the US.

All of this evolving into a NO-BS campaign, or NO-radicals campaign,  or NO-riot campaign?  Yeah, I could see people reacting that way.

I end this commentary with one analysis....all this 'babble' reminds me of Joe Biden talks from the past four years.....mostly making little sense.  Did Joe design the No-Kings BS?

This Whole Vance Boetler 'Saga'

 For about 12 hours....I've been following this 'saga'.

Nothing makes sense.

Boetler was a 7-11 manager....who happened to hook up with Governor Walz.  Then he's hooked with a USAID program in the Congo....millions moving around.  

Boetler then happens to have millions to spend on property.  

Money-laundering situation?  It just looks like he moved a couple million a month, and had a machine to avoid being noticed.

Elon's crew destroying the model?  Yeah.

But the more you look at this....fake PhD degree....all-connected up.....former 7-11 manager status.  He seems like a CIA Oswald/PhD character.

I don't think you will ever see the guy alive, and it's better if the 'controllers' simply take him out of the public eye.

Odd thing?  He has a manifestowhich happens to be deemed inappropriate to release to the public.  Wonder why?

Iran: More of the 1970s Spiral Story

Yesterday, I told a good bit of the history decline of Iran, and the Shah.  A fair amount of the ending....leads to economic woes of the 1970s.   So this blog today digs into the end.

One single problem in economics?  No.  This was a cascade of issues....some related to the Shah's management of things...some by bad luck.

First, there was a over reliance on oil profits/revenue.  The bulk account for the majority of government revenue. Amazingly....the 1973 oil boom, triggered by OPEC's price hikes, gave Iran a flow of cash.....but this also hooked up the nation to a chaotic economic path. 

When oil prices dipped and fluctuated....the nation wasn't ready for this type of environment.  All of this....with the Shah's 5th Development Plan (coming in 1973 and lasting through 1978).....was planned oil income positives....not the negatives.

From 1970s on....inflation was a yearly topic.  The Shah's crew cranked up the "White Revolution" and designed a pretty aggressive industrialization scheme to re-make Iran into a European-style economy.  Within this mix....came big plans for infrastructure, military, and nuclear-power projects.

Inflation level?   Twenty-percent per year...minimum.  The working class?  Screwed.

Then came economic mismanagement.  Large-scale projects with unsustainable growth were prioritized. Bureaucratic inefficiency went hand-in hand with corruption....with elites and insiders getting rich. 

Public anger was noted as these issues were seen.

Then came the effort to modernize agriculture...which oddly changed traditional family farming systems.  The small small farmer couldn't compete....so they packed up and moved to urban cities for 'real' jobs (this simply created urban slums by the mid-1970s).  Late 1970s?  Iran's agriculture’s share of the GDP had dropped like a rock, and Iran became dependent on food imports.

All of this led to what one could describe as social inequality....where the rich did ok, but the working class were left to deal with inflation and housing shortages. 

Skilled labor shortages?  Yeah....so the effort to update ports, roads, airports and power grids were in a spiral. This led to a lack of trained professionals...meaning non-Iranian expensive foreign contractors.

So as Iran approached 1980....unemployment was up in the 10-to-15 percent range....inflation was killing off public support for the Shah. 

It was an odd public anger where four groups were now...anti-Shah.  The radical Islamic crowd....the radical leftist folks, the urban-working-class, and nationalists, all pitted against the Shah, and not  really grasping what the alternate path would bring. 

The Shah?  You could make a case that he was surrounded by people who didn't really agree his agenda....saw insider ways of getting rich, and weren't capable of evolving the general plan when it was leading to failure.

It's been 45 years of the 'after-the-Shah' agenda, and you probably could say that the period has been just as screwed up as the 1970s....just longer in duration.  Banks marginally work....capital mostly flows out of the country as business owners don't see a reason to expand.

Inflation?  Since 2000....up to to 2010...it was in the 10-to-15 percent range.  From 2010 to 2020....20-to-30 percent per year  inflation rate.  From 2020 to today?  Mostly 30-to-40 percent range.

Currency issue?  If you have excess Iranian currency....you convert to dollars, Euro or Dubai currency.....arranging for it to leave the country.

Amazing story.