Something that really struck me from the Futurist Manifesto by Marinetti is that so many people want to glorify war.  In the manifesto, Marinetti mentions that “we want to glorify war”, and he also mentions patriotism and contempt for women.  As I was reading all that I thought, wow, that sounds a lot like the contemporary far right extremists in our country.  I think it is so incredibly sad that many people choose not to glorify peace.  Why would anyone want life to be more violent than it already is?  Makes me think of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who did several really famous performance art pieces to glorify peace.

Also in the Futurist Manifesto, Marinetti states that he wants to “demolish museums and libraries”.  I think that is so obviously a colossally bad idea, because if one forgets the past, one is bound to repeat the past.  I mean, my god, what was Marinetti thinking?  This whole manifesto comes across quite petulant and immature to me.  And I don’t know how it’s a good idea to glorify manufacturing cars etc. and then also want to destroy things like museums and libraries and undermine the foundations of venerable towns.  What fun would it be to drive those cars through desecrated hollowed out cities and towns?

I also did not care for the Constructivist Manifesto by Rodchenko et al.  Their whole stance against art and focus on technology is lame as far as I’m concerned.  Why can’t art mix with things like science and technology?  For one thing, they each can be used for combinatory play, one for the other, which can be extremely useful for unlocking new ideas in either.