Rev Roger: The Heresies, Chapter 2

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Blarg!

[Guido Finucci]

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Personally, I don't see it as rejecting society but as trying to see society in a way that doesn't require me to be locked into one, defined, way of thinking.

That's not ME! I'm DIFFERENT!

[eumaas]

I agree. Rebellion is either erased or absorbed. "Kerouac Wore Khakis", nothing nowhere no how.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I agree. Rebellion is either erased or absorbed. "Kerouac Wore Khakis", nothing nowhere no how.

Fact is, by the time 1000 people know of your rebellion, it isn''t a rebellion anymore...it has been crushed or do-opted.

[PrincessEris von Tartarus]

On one hand Roger is right. We could be some kind of deranged part of evolution/genetic defect. But who says we are only the scum that keeps digging itself up and imagines its superiour even though its in the wheels just like the rest?

I see discordians as a counter-part to greyfaceism. There can be no day without light, there can be not warmth without cold. So there can be no order without discorder. Its just natural that some people turn out discordian to disrupt the routines and help the development of life and so on to go on. no matter in what direction. "good" or "bad". The greyface and the discordian world are co-dependent and always were and always will be.

[eumaas]

The Situationists have some texts on the idea of recuperation (the Man absorbing the symbols of rebellion) and detournement (the rebellion subverting the symbols of the Man).

[The Good Reverend Roger]

On one hand Roger is right. We could be some kind of deranged part of evolution/genetic defect. But who says we are only the scum that keeps digging itself up and imagines its superiour even though its in the wheels just like the rest?

Well, I wouldn't say scum, EvT, but we ARE trapped in the cogs along with everybody else.

[PrincessEris von Tartarus]

On one hand Roger is right. We could be some kind of deranged part of evolution/genetic defect. But who says we are only the scum that keeps digging itself up and imagines its superiour even though its in the wheels just like the rest?

Well, I wouldn't say scum, EvT, but we ARE trapped in the cogs along with everybody else.

Yes we are... just take a glance at the holy chao. a circle, a wheel! order and chaos inside. spin it around and then you can see how things go.. all stuck in one system and one cannot be without the other or else it cannot roll and the concept falls apart.

Isn¥t this the taoist bit of our thing? I do not see myself actually struggling but more having a good time and enjoying the effects of my actions. And there is something really concentrated and thoughtful about a good jake or mindfuck. a mere shot at any greyface is not the art dearies. thats just fun for a quick passtime. the great masterpieces of jake and OM are chiseled out of a block of questionmarks and transformed into an individual exclemation mark - to provoke the questionmarks on the other side - balance - because we got questionmarks from thier exclamation marks...

*knotted up in deep thought*

[eumaas]

Great post, EvT.

[Slarti]

The Heresies of Rev Roger, Chapter 2

A simple fact that most Discordians don't want to think about is this:  We need the Greyfaces far, far more than they need us.  In simple terms, we simply could not survive without them...if every greyface on Earth disappeared tomorrow, we would all be dead 3 days after the canned food ran out.  Most of us would be dead long before that; abcessed teeth, strep throat, and other simple ailments would carry us off in droves long before the last supermarket shelf had been stripped.

Thus, we are, in essence, parasites.  We are the guinea worm in the guts of society, prone to suddenly erupt from the flesh of the body politic much like the movie Alien (though much smaller)(1).  We feed from the greyface, and offe nothing they care for, or need, in return.  The argument that we function as a "safety valve" is sheer nonsense, as anyone NEEDING that valve isn't a greyface...that person is a discordian.  So, perhaps a better analogy is that we are digger wasps (2)...we harvest our replacements from the greys.  In addition, we provide no more of a "spark of genius" than is normal.  The smartest man that ever lived, Sir Isaac Newton, was as grey as English cooking.

Ye Gods, can this be true?  Is it possible that we really aren't daring rebels at all, but rather an insidious parasite that not only feeds from its host, but mocks it while we do so?  This is a horrible thought...but far more hideous truths await...

We are mutants.  That's right, mutants.  Gazing back on history, Discordians were killed or exiled from most civilizations (Athens being a prime example, or England)...and those civilizations did just fine.  Discordians tend to be a fatal flaw in agrarian civilizations come harvest time.  So, how DID we survive?  The sad truth is that we didn't...but as the Discordian mindset seems to be a common mutation, or maybe just a recessive condition, we reappeared and flourished only after the greyface society became secure enough to handle the genetic load (3) we represent...much as it is able to handle persons with Down's Syndrome or short-sightedness.  I postulate that this began just after the last bubonic plague pandemic, just before the enlightenment.

Mutants, indeed.  Our mutation is a curse, the mutation of not being able to just get along...the mutation of independent thinking.  Now, there is some advantage in this, if you look at it in a certain light...we are the lemmings that are just bright enough to see the cliff, and to cry warnings to those around us...however, since the jumped up primates around us will not, can not, listen, all we are really doing is upsetting people and causing a fuss.  

We have convinced ourselves that we are wise to their game...more fools we...without pausing to consider that the greyfaces have been playing this game for 10,000+ years.  We play our silly word games, and pull our silly pranks, and convince ourselves that WE really see what's going on...when the sad truth is that our cozy little society has simply become a microcosm of the grey society at large/i]...albiet a slightly more FUN one.  We are absolutely convinced that we have hoodwinked society in some manner, while the real truth is staring us in the face.

What is this truth?  Simple; you can't beat the system.  It is utterly and totally impossible...One hundred centuries of greyness isn't going to be toppled by dressing up funny and freaking the merehumes(tm)...or anything else, for that matter.  It will stay just the way it is, until it blows itself up...or simply drowns in its own shit, like fruit flies in a jar.  

I can hear what you're thinking:  "FUCK YOU, REV!  That's not ME!  I'm DIFFERENT!"  Hehe...sure you are.  You're "different" all right...just like everybody else.  We reject society while benefitting from it.  We pretend that we have "found" ourselves, and that somehow WE lie in green pastures, when the truth is, we are on the same clanking conveyor belt...the one that goes to the spinning blades.

You won't listen, of course.  You'll play "good news, bad news" and "word association", and dress in your outre fashions, and jake the living bejeebers out of the greyfaces, never even notice the hammer coming down on your skull, just like it does to everybody else.

Way to go, Monkeyboy.

Or kill me.



NOTES:

1.  Guinea worms are real.  Look 'em up...if you have a strong stomache.  More on these later.

2.  Digger wasps?  Is God a PSYCHO?  Jesus fucking Christ, those things are NOT proof of a benevolent diety.

3.  Genetic load is when undesirable/fatal traits are not allowed to kill their host, and are thus passed on to further generations.

Then what do you suggest we do roger? of we can't escape, what should we do?

i for one, really don't care if i'm a slave to the machine. most of humanity doesn't even know that they're slaves, and they're fine and content. i know i'm a slave, and i'm happy. i'm just gonna keep on having a good time.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Then what do you suggest we do roger? of we can't escape, what should we do?

What is this "we" of which you speak?  I know not "we".

I'm going over to the dark side, while the going is good!



"That's one of them, officer!  Be careful, those apples are DEADLY!"
--Rev Roger, Rogue Discordian

[Y.M. Hut]

Though I choose different words, methods and reasons than Roger, I too wish to see a self-examination of the "Discordian" community.

However, Roger has once again given us a Catch-22. If we disagree, then we have done as he has predicted. If we agree, we'd have to change, and despite what the Chaos Preacher may tell you, even the self-proclaimed Erisian dislikes change.

But there is a third option, which Roger also touched upon.

FUCK YOU, REV!

That about sums it up.

If Discordianism intended us to just go about pulling down our pants in public and eating hot dogs then it would be no better than any other institutional church. But is is better, much better. Discordianism demands that you disregard its very tenets. So disregard for fuck's sake!

[B23.77]

Fuck you!

Jesus and I wanna FUCK YOU.

Fuck the Rev!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!  Fuck you!!

Random White Trash Fuck You!

Fuck you, sonny.

O mani fuck you!

See no fuck you!

Fuck you, big daddy!

Fuk you all!

Yes, fuck you, but the truth is, the Rev has nailed some truthes about me and other discordians.  I am a type of parasite on society.  A balance between grey-faced WORK and good ol' parties with the "colored" folk is necessary.  I just hope they don't hang me for befriending the "coloreds".  It is because they just might that I lean more towards slack.  They deserve parasites.  Vampires even.

[Irreverend Hugh, KSC]

Yep. Roger, you hit upon the truth that no one wants to see. Good Heresy!
We are all heading for the hammer, some of us get bloodied for thinking we can fight back or resist. But it's all a joke. Fighting back only strengthens the system. Being sneaky only means that the system will discover you one day, and after the threat of you is removed, will sell your lifestyle as the next big counter-culture.

Personally I believe I can keep myself free to a point within reason, unless of course I get picked up by the authorities for doing black bloc crap. But that's me. I don't see that I should waste time shouting at the people who have their minds too stuffed to notice, whether they are Discordian or otherwise. And if worse comes to worse, I will lie and pretend I was never any mutation (if I can get away with it).

The Celts used to say "It is better to be dead than to be a fat slave." But where are they now? The Free Celts are dead, and the rest have become fat slaves. Are we Discordians stupid enough to believe, without evidence, that we can escape the same fate?

[B23.77]

"God works in mysterious ways.  He said that he who is evil shall live 1000 years and he who is good shall be destroyed." -Sai Baba, self-proclaimed God with a few tricks up His sleeve, and my devotee father's master.