George Saunders issues a sort of ironic and self-aware mission statement for People Reluctant to Kill for an Abstraction in Manifesto. In it, he humorously compares the actions of typical, everyday people to those of criminals, terrorists, sociopaths, and murderers, eventually drawing the point that his organization is “many,” that it is “worldwide.” The main argument of the entire piece is that we are far from killing in the name of a baseless notion. The daily actions of an average Joe going to work on a crowded freeway and a lady in Tokyo are mundane and will continue to be mundane. Nobody doesn’t have a crazy thought in their head, but thankfully most of us living in 2018 don’t do the first thing that comes to mind. Saunders may have wanted to show readers, through a bit of humor, how easy it is to be normal by creating the image of an organization that goes out of its way to do literally nothing.

Manifesto

With this piece, George Saunders talks about PRKA (People Reluctant to Kill for an Abstraction), and how its individual members avoid committing malicious acts towards other people based on an intangible belief. In reality, many of us are part of this organization, whether we realize it or not. He mentions that members of the group have chosen not to do terrible things, such as flying planes into buildings or bulldozing homes. Instead, members have done reasonable human acts, such as feeling admiration for small things after the sudden death of a kitten. Saunders writes this to make people realize that causing harm to other people based on some belief or idea is not the way to obtain a peaceful society. In today’s world, extreme, violent acts are done upon others simply because of various groups’ extreme beliefs, so Saunders is trying to argue against that idea. He does this by not explicitly naming any groups that we assume may choose to do these harmful acts in the beginning before suddenly associating individual people from different places with actions that are more human-like towards the end. In this way, he touches on human emotions to get his point across.

Manifesto by George Saunders

From what I can understand about the article, Saunders is trying to promote the idea that things aren’t what they seem to be. He challenges the ideas of stereotypes, that have a negative impact on the image of certain types of people. The main example that he provides is one about an American solider within the middle east. The stereotype that he presents is how destructive soldiers are towards the country that they are invading or currently fighting in. Most assume that everyday there is destruction, where bombs would go off and destruction would occur. However as stated by Saunders that is not the case, in fact it is quite the opposite. Saunders uses the actions done by the “People Reluctant To Kill for an Abstraction” organization to show just how those images of soldiers were indeed false. He writes about how the organization was highly against destruction, as zero buildings were destroyed and how silent the surrounding area was. It was so quite and peaceful, that it wouldn’t even wake a baby up. Saunders also writes about violence towards people, where the PRKA wouldn’t inflict any form of injuries towards others. They didn’t force people to do what they didn’t want, even when it comes to sexual desires the members would control themselves and put aside such feelings.

Overall, the PRKA is a form of symbol, a symbol against the stereotypes that were put against people that identify differently the the ‘general norm’. In fact, in the way that Saunders describes this organization, it makes it seem that it isn’t an organization at all, rather it was a symbol for people. The purpose of this supposed organization, was to make people value the individual regardless of the stereotypes that are put upon them. Saunders writes couple of examples that shows this idea of putting away ones judgmental feelings about someone, and doing something to aid them. There was the inclusion about the homophobic grandfather who rewarded a gay man after helping him. The grandfather in that moment, showed empathy towards the man and was able to put aside his negative thoughts of homosexuality in order to compensate the man for helping him. These is also the toothless women, known for being negative and bitter throughout her life, wanting to change. She wanted to change before it was too late for her to be able to redeem herself, which shows how one can’t be judged by their outside. In short, the PRKA refers to people who are able to forgive others, or at least put away their opinions in order to help others. It shows that the stereotypes that people have established aren’t necessarily true, and people have to accept the fact and try to find out the truth themselves.

In the article “Manifesto” by George Saunders, the author comments on the vices in our society. Specifically, how peopel tend to prefer violence and extreme methods to send across a message or simply, just ot get rid of their frustration. The author discusses a demonstration his organization held in order to illustrate that perhaps the easiest way to not spread violence is simply by not doing anything that would hurt anyone. The demonstration was held in four phases: in the first no one was beheaded; in the second one, no bombs or any type of sexual assault was commited; in the third one, no planes were sunk; in the fourth one, any type of explosives were prevented from exploding; in the fifth and the last one, no abuse, whatsoever, took place. This was just to show the audience that despite the hardship that everyone face in their lives, its best to refrain from violence to deal with it because there is always a better and much more peaceful way of finding a solution.

George Sanders is saying a lot in his piece; Manifesto. A manifesto is “a declaration of policy and aims.” And that is exactly what Sanders says in this piece. He states the goals of his PKRA party and details the exact things they did to fulfill their aims. He says that their group reaches people who have don’t even belong to their group.  He portrays his group as a cult. A cult of love that will reach their goal no matter what.

In this piece, George Saunders is saying that his organization, People Reluctant to Kill for an Abstraction, is one that does not involve showing force by violence or terror, but by consideration and love. This is important because he lists the acts of violence and humiliation that are usually performed on victims and writes that none of this actually happened. No one was killed, injured, humiliated, or held any grudges. The organization that Saunders speaks of, is people of a whole and are willing to support each other in times of needs. Their voices will be louder than the cries of terror and will stand up to opponents of the organization. Saunders’s intention for writing this could’ve been to unite everyone as a whole because he lists some people from all over the place and their situations and their hope for a better world. He doesn’t point out a specific group or ethnicity that makes up this organization, but “we”. Saunders want us to relate to each other of our distresses and fears of the world and together, we can endure, and prevail.

“Manifesto,” George Saunders

In this piece, George Saunders flips the script in his version of a manifesto. Saunders begins with introducing his, seemingly real but purposefully sardonic, organization, People Reluctant to Kill for an Abstraction (PRKA). The “show of force” that his organization conducted satirically details how PRKA was able to not commit any atrocities. What Saunders lays out as a meticulous performance with different operational phases is in reality just examples of humans behaving in the interest of well being, not selfish radicality. This piece is arguing that the world is full of temporary evil but good has a longevity that will always overshadow that evil. Sanders purpose for this piece, I believe, is to open the eyes of those who often forget this reality. These manifestos have been known to be given as the declaration of aims behind a certain purpose, more than often a radical  one.

 

“Manifesto” was an interesting read, to say the least. I was left confused because it’s not really clear as to what, or rather who Saunders could be referring to. However, from my understanding, this piece was a social commentary on stereotypes. So it might not even matter who or what the author was referring to. The article was mocking people who believe in the stereotypes portrayed in the media. Towards the end of the article, Saunders writes “Since the world began, we have gone about our work quietly, resisting the urge to generalize, valuing the individual over the group, the actual over the conceptual.” This is most likely referring to the people who refuse to let stereotypes define others, to not follow everyone else into the trap. Saunders then writes “This is PRKA. To those who would oppose us, I would simply say: We are many. We are worldwide. We, in fact, outnumber you. Though you are louder, though you create a momentary ripple on the water of life, we will endure, and prevail. Resistance is futile.” This goes to show that although the opinions of the few are represented more often it doesn’t mean that they’re factual. As a whole, we can nullify the effects of stereotypes or better yet, put an end to the use of them.

George Saunders’ PRKA Manifesto is a satirical piece. He describes an organization for peace in the style of one set to bring destruction. He writes of not bulldozing homes or beheading or flying planes into buildings. Instead of describing a cause worth killing or dying for, he describes a cause that isn’t worth the shedding of blood.  At the end of the piece, Saunders summarizes his group as “resisting the urge to generalize” and insisting upon valuing the individual, the small decent act, and the complicated reality of the present moment.

In writing an ironic manifesto for a peaceful group in the style of one aiming to spread their message through force, Saunders provides his views of a better world. He aims to convince his readers that, instead of always taking action, people (and the world) could benefit from more reluctance.

In this piece George Saunders is talking about a group of people, PRKA (People Reluctant to Kill for an Abstraction), and their actions for the day. These people managed to not kill anyone or do anything catastrophic. They didn’t attract any attention to themselves. Saunders is ironically describing ordinary people as if they are some sort of forceful group. I believe the overall purpose of this piece is to remind people that while we hear a lot of negativity and constantly bombarded by news of hatred and violence, there is still good in the world. In fact, good people outnumber the bad people we hear of all the time. He’s reminding people the world isn’t as horrible as we may think.