things move around

Institutes are Indispensible because they Instruct the world on Issues of Importance.

But I have been unable to form an institute, owing to certain local, national, UN and intergalactic funding issues, and also, needless to say, because every Institute needs a Mission Statement.

Some famous Mission Statements from History:

We Will Prevail - George W. Bush

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old. - Winston Churchill (extended version, available only on gatefold LP)

I will survive - Gloria Gaynor

I am become death, the destroyer of worlds - F.R. Leavis

Yippe Kay Yay Motherfucker - Bruce Willis

How could I hope to match these illustious examples? These were some great institutes, ranging from The U.S. of A. to the New Critics. I was fumbdounded. But now, I look up into the night sky, and the twinkling contents cause a debate with someone who shall remain nameless. I conjecture that a certain incandescence is Polaris, The Pole Star - I am rebutted, and hasten to the World Wide Web (Mission Statement: Life is like a box of chocolates) the quicker to obtain my satisfaction.

I discover an Institute which, though lowly in its goals, its manners and means has the Mission Statement to end all Mission Statements. A Mission Statement which makes other Mission Statements look like weak-kneed moments of crapulous self-doubt and fuzzy-headedness.

The Polaris Institute - retooling citizen movements for democratic social change in an age of corporate-driven globalization.