Revision as of 14:14, 14 September 2010

A NOT-AT-ALL FUNNY COMMENTARY ON THE CHAO TE CHING BY DOKTOR ALPHAPANCE

Regardless of the origins, the Chao te Ching is an important contribution to Discordian thought. It distills and updates basic principles, as well as setting down current extrapolations and reinterpretations based upon present-day contexts and socio-economic-political realities.

First, a brief history of Discordianism: It was conceived as both a parody religion and a light-hearted philosophy in the late 1950's, mostly as a reaction to the rigid cultural norms found in America at that time. As such, it claimed that disorder was as important as order, and to embrace the latter without the former is foolish. To further tweak their noses at the establishment, they chose a minor Greek deity, Eris, as their anthropomorphized symbol of worship. A collection of collage, satire, and metaphysics under the name Principia Discordia, originally produced and distributed by hand, was eventually released as a publication in 1970. [Note: a complete, if somewhat pedestrian, summary can be found on Wikipedia.]

Skip ahead forty years.

Currently, the idea of Discordianism still exists, and has expanded as various adherents adopt and adapt the vague and often ill-defined concepts found in the original book into new outlooks on consensus reality; which brings us to the [/i]Chao te Ching[/i].

The manner in which it was written appears to be an adaptation (a "riff", if you will) of a stylistic aspect found in the Prinicipia Discordia, namely a syntax which parodies Biblical verse; clearly, the authors of the Chao te Ching wished to use the structure of the Taoist classic the Tao te Ching as a literary framework as a way to present Discordian ideas in a new context. In using a classic text such as this, the authors were presented with a number of challenges. While the austere poetry of the original proved to be a boon when parsing down typically verbose philosophical rants about the nature of reality and authority, Taoism often presents the universe in two distinct parts, Yin and Yang. Discordians, on the other hand, do not usually hold to such strict duality, calling even their own definitions into question. This issue is dealt with through recursive lines and chapters in the Chao te Ching that contradict previous chapters, often to the point of explicitly pointing out said contradictions.

In addition, the authors have apparently coined new terms and metaphors not found in the Principia Discordia. Not wanting this to be an encyclopedia, they can only allude to concepts like The Barstool, The Black Iron Prison, and The Machine™. While the passages add up to fairly concise explanations, it can only be assumed that the authors intend for the curious to hunt down and explore further texts which describe such concepts in more depth.

But all of this avoids the main question: Why was the Chao te Ching written? What purpose can it serve? In short, it provides a perspective that may be unfamiliar to the casual reader, or perhaps clarification if all they have heard of Discordianism is that it's, "a philosophy inside a joke inside a religion inside a joke." Most Discordians wouldn't even go so far as saying the Chao te Ching is a way to live your life – they want you to make up your own mind. In fact, this entire work has been filed under a Non-Commercial Share Alike license, which lets the reader create their own translation of the Chao te Ching without fear of copyright violation. In fact, the authors actively encourage new translations, in order to keep Discordia alive and vibrant rather than unchanging an stagnant.

See, I told you this wouldn't be funny.