Verwirrung

I’ve been plastering White Plains NY with memetic masterpieces on and off for almost a year now. A wguke ago, I made The Meme Bomb Collection, Volume Aleph, and it got me thinking about the meme bombs we’ve been generating.

A lot of the meme bombs we’ve come up with are effective in that they are self-contained information packages which in themselves suggest an attitude or position.

My favorite meme bombs are the ones which…

-Give the reader pause. It’s really easy to get lost in the “zombie lurch”, the “9-5 crawl”, the “pedestrian trance”, or whatever you want to call it. I like meme bombs which jar the reader out of that and make them suddenly focus on the present moment rather than where they’re going. Some meme bombs which accomplish this are ones which successfully address the reader. “Hey! You, in the Khakis!” (if you’re actually wearing khakis, it might be startling).

-Suggest something bigger going on. Such as “Congratulations! You’ve just found clue #3! The man in the green jacket will tell you what to do next.” These meme bombs make reality seem a little bit weirder than the pedestrian might expect. Is there some crazy game going on? When and where is it happening?

-Provoke critical thought. Such as “miscarriage is manslaughter“. When taken at face value their meaning seems clear - but they actually suggest something else entirely.

-Add some levity or humor to the reader’s day. I really wish people would stop taking their day-to-day shit so seriously. Sometimes hearing a joke or seeing a funny graphic right in the middle of your walk back from lunch is exactly what you need. The BIP refers to this as rearranging the machine’s local components to (hopefully, eventually) provoke a change in the whole system.

-The Absurd and the Surreal. The Principia calls these Mondos. like “If the telephone rings today, water it!” At first they seem to make sense, but the more you think about them the less sense they make. Personally, I get these phrases stuck in my head all day. “The womb is a prison - FETUS LIBERATION FRONT!”

I like meme bombs which appear friendly or light. Some of the meme bombs developed by the PD Community are hostile and bitter, or preachy and cerebral. Frankly, far left propaganda tastes just as bad to me as far right propaganda, so I dislike political meme bombs. I also dislike the ones which specifically seek to make people feel worse without provoking action. (such as: “Your wife is cheating on you.“)

I also feel that graphics and icons are essential to getting the reader’s attention. An attractive visual packaging makes the memebomb more likely to be remembered.

An ideal memebomb is something which the reader will repeat to others. Little kernels of wisdom are good for this, but I feel that most of them are a bit too dense or “heavy” to pierce the pedestrian trance.

a discussion from PD about memes and graffiti follows…

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GUYS, THE INTERNETS ARE NOT ASSISTING OUR LADY OF DISCORD, HILLARY CLINTON, ACHIEVE MAXIMUM LULZ AS PRESIDENT OF THESE UNITED STATES. She is falling far behind in polls and funds. She is breaking down emotionally almost twice a month. Her mascara is running. She has been making crazy talk about getting a boob job. She has been having sex with Bill again. EVERYTHING IS FALLING APART FOR HER. This election season should be a time for America to HEAL, but nobody will let Nurse Clinton take care of our country.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, HELP HILLARY. Her campaign is accepting DONATIONS OF ALL SHAPES AND SIZES at this address:

Hillary Clinton for President
PO Box 1781
Merrifield, VA 22116-9965

She is accepting money, but it may be too late for that. DISCOFLUX.COM ENCOURAGES YOU TO SEND THE FOLLOWING ITEMS INSTEAD:

- Socks
- Canned food
- Kleenex (generic preferred)
- Tiny violins
- Paper airplanes made from Hillary Clinton campaign fliers
- Matchbox cars
- Cleaning supplies
- RAZORBLADES
- Condolence cards

THERE ISN’T MUCH TIME LEFT. ACT NOW, OR THE

ESTABLISHMENT MIGHT LOSE THIS ELECTION.

STATUS QUO GO!

- Vexati0n 

Are you excited about the OMGASM yet? It’s changing lives and blowing minds. And it’s spreading like STUPIDFIRE.

Check out the most recent Golden Apple Seed Mission: POSTERGASM

Here’s some of the latest pics from the mission:

IT’S YOUR TURN! GET INVOLVED!

Don’t just use the internet as a form of passive entertainment - get off your ass and DO IT!

• Put up crazy posters

• Take a picture and upload it to flickr

• tag it with ”postergasm” – voila!

Check out one of OMGASM’s current projects: COLBERTGASM

This is an oldskool Discordian jake which involves sending tons of snail mail.

Mission Statement

During the week of February 17th-23rd, 2008, we will send Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert as much mail as possible. Letters to Colbert will invite him into the Illuminati. Letters to Stewart will invite him into the Discordian Society. In order to gain entry, on March 5th they must explicitly use a Discordian or Illuminati “code word” (of their choosing) on the air.

Buzz week is going on RIGHT NOW, so get on it! Check out the website for mailing addresses and sample letters. We hope everyone will mail at least 20 letters (about eight bucks worth of stamps) - but consider mailing more!

As usual, check out the GASM mission feed under “colbertgasm” to find more links relevant to this project, and more Golden Apple Seed Missions in general.

If you don’t send letters, and they use a codeword on the air on March 5th, you’ll wish you had participated. And if you play along, you’ll be able to fondly reference that time that Discordians pranked the media and you were there at ground zero.

Now get off your ass and DO IT!