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Messages - JackALope2323

#1
Some while back (I forget an even estimate of how long ago) I stopped watching the news. Why? Because it depressed me so much. Hearing stories about all the natural disasters, atrocities committed by man against man, and just all the general misery, misfortune, and unhappiness in the world just completely turned me off from watching the news.

Recently, I've been reading a few news stories, just to pass the time.

Jesus Christ, real news is now more hilarious to me than Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert ever was.

This, for example: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20000855-503544.html

I nearly fell out of my chair after watching the video.

Thanks to Discordianism, rather than watching the news and going to bed depressed about all the shit happening in the world, I can watch the news and go to bed with a few laughs tucked under my belt for the day.

Thanks, Eris.
#2
Or Kill Me / Re: Society is an abused child.
March 18, 2010, 03:53:16 AM
@ Everybody: I'll admit, the moment I hit "Reply" the first thing I was thinking was "OMGZ YUO IS NOT TEH REALLY REAL DISCORDIANS FOR REALZ CAUSE YOU DIDN"T M-BRACE MY AWESOME DISCORDIAN IDEAS!!!!", which was what I usually do every time anybody disagrees with me, regardless of the arguments they've presented. As I said, I'm stubborn as a god damned mule, and will almost never admit I'm wrong.

But then a part of my mind spoke up and went "Wait, no, that's not right. That's not right at all."

And then I was Enlightened, etc. etc.

And, once again, thanks for all the advice and support. Rather than, you know, throwing me out on my ear at the first sign of insolence from me.

@ Calamity Nigel: I suppose I should offer you a real apology, rather than the half-assed, not-really apology I gave you earlier in the thread.

I was a fucking moron for using the blacks-into-thugs example in the OP. I indeed fell into the same trap I was describing with the analogy, automatically generalizing blacks as "thugs and gangstas". Wow, I totally had my head up my ass, I really did. And, honestly, I doubt that I do fucking get it. Maybe somewhat, but definitely not completely. I was being a screeching monkey who was flinging shit at someone trying to feed him. And for that, I apologize.
#3
Or Kill Me / Re: Society is an abused child.
March 17, 2010, 07:44:05 PM
@ LMNO: Not necessarily not believing anything people tell you, but taking it with a grain of salt, at least. Be willing to accept that they MIGHT be wrong, not necessarily that they ARE.

And thanks. I was afraid I was being Pineal, and it seems that this entire thread has only confirmed my fears.

@ Satzanfang: I'm starting from the assumption that most people don't think for themselves.

And no, I didn't find the Principia during school time. I found it at home, after ranting elsewheres about the inherently fucked political system in this country. Somebody pointed me to the PD, and said I might be interested.

And then I got all pineal on ya'll. =D

@ The rest of you: Thanks for the criticism. As it is, I'll be honest that I have no idea how to respond to most of it, so I'm not going to try and just end up making myself seem more like an idiot than I already have. At the moment, I'm going to go get some ice cream.

Oh, and thanks, to all of you. Seriously.
#4
Or Kill Me / Re: Society is an abused child.
March 17, 2010, 01:32:56 PM
Such a warm welcome I'm getting from everybody! =D

@ Dimo: I don't mean to preach. I understand, from my friends and apparently from you guys, that I tend to unknowingly enter "preach mode" a lot. I apologize if I came across as preachy.

@ Semaj: Then, apparently, I only have one real friend.

My idea was to get more people to be willing to think out of the programming... It can't be that hard, right? I mean, apparently, that little PosterGASM adventure I went on got at least ONE person to think differently than they had been. So I must be getting somewhere.

And besides, saving humanity is my idea of fun, anyways. ;D

And I'll think on that last statement.

@ Triple Zero: I never said human instinct is what makes us decent. I believe that, when given the chance to think for ourselves, rather than being told what to thought, humans are decent who would not believe that violence is the solution to all or most answers, and would go about their lives relatively peaceably, not ripping into one another.

@ Emerald City: I am indeed very self-deluded. That it something I will never, ever deny. Probably an idiot, too. Just ask everybody who knows me.

@ Nigel: If you believe so. I was simply engaging in, what I believed to be, friendly debate, in an attempt to refine my own ideas. I'm stubborn as shit (Which is, unfortunately, my biggest flaw, which, as much as I work on it, can't seem to go away when I tell it to.), and it takes a lot to dislodge me from an idea entirely, but I'd like to believe I'm more than willing to at least refine an idea.

@ Joh'Nyx: It's more than obvious that not every human is decent under all of what we are forced to be by The Machine (TM). There are Ted Bundys and Charles Mansons' out there, without a doubt. But I have no doubt that, in a government-free society, mob justice would quickly result in most of these detriments quickly being resolved.

And would you say that Society doesn't have a problem, Joh'Nyx? I understand Society probably doesn't believe it, but that's why I'm trying to be active like I am.
#5
Or Kill Me / Re: Society is an abused child.
March 17, 2010, 04:16:16 AM
Basically, the idea that everyone should think for themselves, rather than simply blindly believing what anybody, even members of Authority tell them. And, considering the subjective nature of each individual's reality, one should always be willing to question ANYTHING, especially their own beliefs and views about the world.

I didn't go into the whole "Everything is Chaos; We simply apply illusions of Order and Disorder." jazz. If some had inquired further, I would've, but, as it is, not a single individual cared to delve past what was previously stated.
#6
Or Kill Me / Re: Society is an abused child.
March 17, 2010, 03:06:17 AM
I apologize for my reference to blacks like that. I was in the heat of the moment, and wasn't thinking straight. Looking back on it, it's probably not the best hyperbole to use, as Nigel said.

@NotPublished: Most people who are pushed away by being instilled that they are something are practically Discordians already; In name or otherwise.

@Joh'Nyx: I didn't use any with direct references to Eris or Discordia... Although I do have Pope cards I plant to put-pocket random people who seem like they might actually read the Principia through and consider it.

I don't preach to my friends. They came and asked me what I was trying to do with the posters, and I explained. They automatically rejected my explanations without any consideration. I really didn't even directly name "Eris" or "Discordia". I just espoused the ideas that come along with them.

Also, if I only became friends with fellow Discordians who aren't puppets of The Machine, I'd be a very, very lonely person. Minus the internet. But I'm done with only having friends on the internet, thank you very much.

Mind telling me where my metaphor seems inaccurate?

And yes, I do believe that deep down, behind the mask The Machine (TM) has forced most of us to wear, humans are decent people who won't go around killing everybody they don't like if there were no police to stop them from doing so. The only reason we believe people and ourselves to be like that is because The Machine (TM) tells us they are so, so that we believe that we need The Machine (TM) to protect us, when, in fact, The Machine (TM) is pointless.

(Sidenote: I am probably [Inaccurately] interchangeably using "The Machine (TM)" and "Authority" as the same things.)

I was under the impression that most Discordians were, in fact, Anarchists. Maybe I'm crazy.

@Semaj: I never said it wasn't people's fault for not believing what The Machine (TM) tells them and pushing away, as NotPublished did to his step-father. I'm just pointing out that most people, unfortunately, are like the step-child that NotPublished was not, the step-child who believes what his step-father tells him and becomes a loser or a slut or a thug or a whatever. In the same way, most people in society become what THEIR authority figure, be it the Media or the Government or whatever, tells them they will be, or what they can only be.

They are, is it is, weak. But, just as a weak person who was abused can be brought up out of their idea that they can only be a loser or a slut or a thug or a whatever by a psychologist or something similar, so can the people in society be brought up out of their idea that they are or can only be what The Machine (TM) tells them they are or can be. Society is mentally ill, gentlemen. And we are their psychologist.
#7
Or Kill Me / Society is an abused child.
March 16, 2010, 09:46:19 PM
As it is, I've been breaking Rule #1 of the Wise Spag. Far too much, unfortunately. As it is, though, with my suspension, everybody knows of my... Beliefs. So I figure it won't hurt. Once I move to Rhode Island, nobody there will know about what I did here, anyways, and I can start afresh as a "Normal".

I've been trying to explain to my friends the philosophy behind Discordianism, exactly all of the beliefs espoused in the Black Iron Prison. To, for some reason, my surprise, none of them are willing to listen to me. I know this shouldn't surprise me, but fuck. It hurts when The Machine (TM) has worked so well that people won't even listen to alternative views, let alone consider them.

There's one analogy that either I came up with or was implanted in my head and I think is mine, that I really love. But, as it is, I've been unable to get it out to anybody, so it's been stewing here in my head, demanding it be expressed. So I toss it at you guys, who I know will be able to understand and appreciate it.

Society is like the abused child. When the parent comes home, drunk and angry, slaps the child, and tells them how much of a failure, or a slut, or a loser, or a thug they are, night after night, over and over again, this message being drilled into their heads, what happens? The child BELIEVES these things their sole authority figure in life (At the moment) is telling them. And so, therefore, they become a failure, or a slut, or a loser, or a thug, because they BELIEVE this is what they are, and that it is all they ever will be able to be, because their authority figure told them so.

The same applies to individuals in society. For example; Blacks in America are constantly shown this image of other blacks being only one thing: Thugs and street gangsters, people who drop out of high school and resort to a life of crime. They are shown this by the media, by the government. And what happens? Most blacks in America BECOME like what they are shown; They become like what they are told they are; They become like what they are told they can only be. They do not believe that they can be any more than that thug or gangster.

However, my larger point applies to not just an individual group of people; It applies to the entire population of America, and the entire population controlled by The Machine (TM). We are given this view that we, as people, are naturally violent. That, without control by some sort of Government, we would destroy ourselves. We are given the view that we are animals, needing farmers to corral use and leash us and lead us along. And therefore, we BECOME these animals that are violent and need to be controlled. We BECOME these creatures that, if not governed, would destroy one another. We do not think about ourselves; We do not think "Am I a creature that is violent?" We blindly accept the "facts" that are given to us by our authority figures, just like the abused child.

This should not be, but, as it is, it is.

I'd continue, but I'm in school right now, and the class is almost up, so I need to put this laptop away. I hope this was understandable, and not just a ramble session.

-Jack
#8
I'm sorry, but do you even HAVE to ask that?

We're DISCORDIANS. If you don't know what our answer to that will be, either I need to stop generalizing and presuming, or you're pretty dense.
#9
Florida: Our most fucked up state.
#10
Cylon.
#11
I enjoy going to Starbucks and asking for a venti cup filled with just espresso shots, then chugging the entire thing. I usually do it in the Starbucks, too, just for shits and giggles.

Of course, my brain and bowels summarily decide to flip me a gigantic bird afterwards. That's cool, though. I have fun while I'm at it, and that's all that matters, amirite.

(Inb4 getting bitched at for buying Starbucks.)
#12
My 2 cents.

As it is, I'm still in my state public education system. Only three months left in it, thank Eris.

Recently, we were informed that the budget for our school district for the next school year included cuts to some things. This included:

- Sports. All sports. There will be NO more sports in our school district.

- Arts. All arts. There will be NO more arts in our school district.

- P.E. and Music in Elementary Schools.

- The IB program. This one is what really pissed me off. Even if I'm not into any arts or sports besides theater, I can understand how important they are to people. But I have been in the IB program for all four of my high school years. As much as any IB student will complain about how mind-numbing and spirit crushing the IB program is, if you genuinely ask their opinion, they will all tell you that the IB program is, perhaps, the MOST important thing in their high school life, more than any sport, more than any art, more than any friend, more than any lover. And they're cutting it. Just straight out. They had already cut the GATE program, and now they're cutting the IB program.

Now, I understand we're having a global financial crisis. California has been hit worse than most of the U.S. I understand that, too. I also understand that, because of this, the school district isn't getting as much money as it used to. And I understand the school district can't magically make more money appear, except with taxes, which I wholly oppose anyways. So I understand some cuts have to be made.

Now, here's the part I DON'T understand. Why are we cutting sports, art, P.E., Music, and IB while the school district is building a new district office which costs TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO BUILD AND MAINTAIN?!

The total cost of all sports is approximately $750,000 a year. Art, probably $200,000. P.E. and music, maybe $350,000. And I'm just pulling everything besides sports out of my ass.

And IB? IB costs $15,000 a year. Let me repeat that figure for you, for emphasis. $15,000.

The district office costs $25 million dollars to build. It is estimated that it will cost $500,000 a year to maintain. (Okay, the latter figure I pulled out of my ass, too. The former one, I didn't though.)

I went to the old district office, just to see it. Yeah, it's kind of old and ratty. I can understand that a new district office would be nice. I know I wouldn't want to necessarily work in the old one.

But then I remembered the High Schools in our district. They are literally falling apart. 1/10th of our lights simply don't work. The ceilings have stains in them. I could ramble for hours on it, but I'm not going to.

The High Schools are, simply, in worse condition than the old district office. Now, I might be able to understand those who organize our school district need a decent place to work in. However, I don't understand why they need a TWENTY FIVE MILLION DOLLAR office to work in, with a coffee bar in the lunch room, thousand dollar plus furniture, etc. etc.

One of my teachers, who's experienced more in his life than most ten people have experienced, commented on the situation. "In this school district, education is not about the students. It never has been. Education has been and almost certainly always will be about bureaucracy and appealing to the corrupt officials in City Hall."

So, I decided to go to school board meeting where they would discuss the cuts to the programs. I submitted my "Request To Speak" form before Six P.M., which is supposed to guarantee me three minutes to speak at during the school board meeting. About a hundred other people also submitted Request To Speak forms, which is about ten times more than usual. Now, I had been stressing about this all day long. I wrote a speech, memorized it, actually BOUGHT nice dress clothes JUST for the meeting.

School board meeting starts up. The head of the school board realizes that, if we gave all hundred or so three minutes to speak, we'd never get anywhere. So he suggested that each group of people, such as the sports, the art, the IB, etc., each have a caucus, and elect one or two or three people to speak on behalf of all of them. Those who wished to speak generally would be allowed their individual voices to be heard. I was, as it is, a general speaker. IB was my heart and soul, yes, but I wanted to speak out against ALL of the cuts, and that was my intent.

So, they start up with the individual speakers while the groups are caucusing. I'm nervous, sweating bullets each time they call out a name, hoping and fearing at the same time that it'll be me. I noticed that most of the people going up didn't say too many really... Enticing things. It was all very neutrally said, very wishy-washy. I also noticed that a lot of the people who went up, the school board recognized, and was friendly with. I didn't think about any of this until the head of the school board said "Okay... And that's all the general speakers, let's move onto the caucus'."

Wait a minute. I hadn't been called up. What the fuck?

I got out of there before I felt the need to tackle a school board member.

There was the bullshit of everything, laid out right before me. I always knew politics was a corrupt, dirty business. You could be a sewage worker and be covered in less filth than a politician. But to have corruption to such an extent in a god damned fucking local SCHOOL BOARD?!

That was the night I lost all faith in our political system. I went there to try to make a difference, but they never even let me try.

For a while, I was incensed. I had recently watched Fight Club, and was considering a radical, violent approach, like blowing up their fancy district office they were building, or something like that. Eventually I calmed down and got out of that state of mind (Thank God), but I was still pretty pissed at our entire political system, and society in general for sitting there and taking it.

And then, a couple of weeks later, I finally got around to actually reading the Principia Discordia. I had heard about it in the past, yes, but I never really tried READING it.

And the rest is history. Now I'm where I am right now. Maybe the politicians won't let me speak out at meetings. But by God, let's see if they can keep me from PosterGASMing all over this city.

[/rant]
#13
@ Dimo: My posters: http://www.mediafire.com/?nmyvmemmga2

I'm updating them as I go along, too. For example, one I just put in today that isn't on there: "Short-term enjoyment for short-term existence."

@ Cramulus: Thanks for the help. I'll definitely take your advice into more than casual consideration. As it is, the main problem I have, that I try to fix, is that I always do things with a goal in mind. I really need to work on the whole "doing something for the sake of doing it" jazz. I figure once I perfect that, my PosterGASMs will go over a lot better.

I had fun while doing it, certainly. But I think my over-all long-term goal still fought against me. Even when I realized that I had a goal, and that I shouldn't, I really couldn't get it to go away. I really need to get into not taking life so seriously and just doing things for the enjoyment. =D

Thanks for Artiststamp, too. Brilliant idea.

Anyways, I think I'm beginning to ramble now.

Thank you to EVERYONE for your support and advice. I'll definitely take it all in, and refine my GASMs into even better forms. -Jack
#14
@ Sigmatic: I suppose you're right. The best use of posters, I suppose, would be a few placed inconspicuously, rather than tons placed all over the place. I mean, I didn't draw attention to myself, but I drew attention to my actions. I understand that's what you're supposed to do, but I think I drew the wrong kind of attention. And far, far too much of it.

@ Everybody Else: I understand I had SOME kind of effect... I just thought that by the end of the day, I'd feel something in the air. Like something had CHANGED in my school. Like people had begun to think for themselves. It just wasn't there...

Anyways, in terms of the posters I used. I've gathered approximately seven hundred or so memebombs into a Works Processing Document, which I'll post later in this post. I printed out about the first two hundred, and posted them up all around my school. I tried to evenly distribute them, so that there wouldn't be too many in one spot, but they'd still be impossible to miss.

I plan to go to my local mall, downtown, and other heavily trafficked areas soon and start posting them around there. Maybe I can't get away with it at school, but by god I'll certainly try other places.

http://www.mediafire.com/?nmyvmemmga2

Hope you like my collection. =D

#15
GASM Command / This won't always happen... Right?
March 09, 2010, 03:39:38 AM
So, I went out on my first Discordian mission today; I got to school EARLY (Read, two hours or so before it actually started), and posted up a bunch of one-sentence Memebombs in poster/flier all around school. Give or take a couple hundred. I was very proud of myself, to say the least, especially that I managed to do the entire thing covertly!

So, the day goes on. People start talking about the posters. I smile inwardly. Lots of people are saying bad things about them, but that's to be expected, amirite?

And then I get word that the order has been sent from the administration to every faculty member to take down any of my posters they see. I get to view not only faculty but a number of students joining in the ripping down of my posters.

At lunch time, not a single one of my posters (Besides the one posted in the most inconspicuous areas, the ones nobody goes into) is left on a wall. Needless to say, my spirit is utterly crushed. Nobody really speaks out against it, either. Sure, somebody's (While they didn't know who's, still) First Amendment rights were just raped right in front of their eyes. But that's okay. The Machine (TM) ordered it, so it must be morally correct, right?

Adding insult to... Well... Insult is that in sixth period, at the end of the day, they decided to send an announcement over the intercom:

"Vandalism is NOT tolerated at (Insert school name here). Any students caught vandalizing school property will be punished severely." (It's paraphrased, but you get the point.)

So, I'm sitting here now in a melancholic state, to say the least. I'm completely convinced that nothing I can do in terms of GASMs will ever get anywhere, after today. So, I wanted to ask you guys, who are infinitely more experienced than Mr. Noob here.

Does this usually happen? Do there have to be infinite failures like this before a success finally comes along? Should I just keep trying, no matter how much Authority smacks me down? Or should I give up while the giving's good? I mean, I know I probably shouldn't be asking that, but I just don't even know after today.

Thanks. -Jack