  Self-organisation requires a multi-component system. In turn, a
multi-component system requires that there exist conditions in which more than
one component is robust enough to survive. This is the case in the manganites
because the free energies of surprisingly dissimilar competing states can be
similar -- even in continuous systems that are chemically homogeneous. Here we
describe the basic physics of the manganites and the nature of the competing
phases. Using Landau theory we speculate on the exotic textures that may be
created on a mesoscopic length scale of several unit cells.
