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MysticWicks endorsement: "I've always, always regarded the Discordians as being people who chose to be Discordians because they can't be arsed to actually do any work to develop a relationship with a specific deity, they were too wishy-washy to choose just one path, and they just want to be a mishmash of everything and not have to work at learning about rituals or traditions or any such thing as that."

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Topics - Cain

#1201
Or Kill Me / Second Manifesto of the PFLD
April 14, 2007, 04:04:03 PM
So, you've read the Principia, you can now see the fnords, you even know the terrible secrets of The Conspiracy.  You realize you have some sort of connection with us, a sort of familiarity of presence, as if we're the kind of people and system you have been working towards all your life.  You even knowledge what we say...as if we took the words out of your very mouth, had the thoughts before you did.

Thats great, but don't tell us about it.

We're not interested in your pointless flattery, your idle thoughts on assorted fringe material, your tedious questioning or pointless slams, your need to engage us.  In fact, unless you can tell us something we don't already know, you may as well not bother contacting us at all.

If you think you have something in common with us, then do something to prove it. 
#1202
Think for Yourself, Schmuck! / BIP theme tune
April 13, 2007, 06:08:49 PM
Devo's Plain Truth

Who are you and who am i
Except a couple of people With nothing else to do
But follow vain obsessions
Making gestures towards the truth
While trying to ignore it
When it,Äôs convenient to
The symbols we believe in
Sometimes turn inside out
Reshaping each dimension
Were so sure about
Dreams get so frustrated Fantasies turn pranks
A simple ounce of common sense Is money in the bank.
#1203
Bring and Brag / Musical detournment
April 13, 2007, 03:05:44 PM
Well, part of the reason I wasn't posting much over easter (well, as much as I could have) was because my friends have roped me into their band they've set up and I spent a week and a half in a garage practicing my guitar skillz (minimal, given how I havent played in a while).

Anyway, we were looking for some songs to practice and we found a couple of Rogue Trader songs that have some pretty good lyrics for our style of playing (rock-punk).

Which as got me thinking.  Rogue Traders do sort of have a sneering, anti-consumerist slant to their music, despite their almost pop-rock-electro sound, which makes them sound quite appealing to radio stations (check out the lyrics to Way to Go! and Fashion for the best examples).  Anyway, I'm going to float the idea to the rest of them of picking up some well known and quite innocuous pop songs, changing the emphasis a bit, add some sarcasm and let them rip.  I'll let you know how that goes down.
#1204
Principia Discussion / Neophilic Irreligions
April 12, 2007, 02:52:49 PM
http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/neophile.html

The unprecedented growth of the World Wide Web signals the emergence of new forms of communication in the so called Age of Information. Social groups are reevaluating the manners in which they conduct relationships and form organizations. Religions are no exception. Many faiths have online sites where members and nonmembers can gather facts about the group's beliefs, history, and locations of worship. Groups utilize electronic forms of communication like e-mail or newsgroups that bridge the distance between members. Audience cults, a term used by Stark and Bainbridge in The Future of Religion, are dispersed, unorganized religious groups. Three will be the focus of this paper: Discordianism, the Church of the SubGenius, and the cults of Cthulhu. I have attempted to show that the 'members' of these groups are actively involved in the construction of the World Wide Web. Due to their intimate affinity for the computer interface and lack of interest in traditional organization, these audience cults are better categorized as neophilic irreligions, diffuse groups of individuals committed to chaos and the unfamiliar that find meaning in supernatural forces embedded in parodies of conventional faiths. These irreligions construct social space and provide meaning for, instead of retreating from, the confusion and unpredictability so rampant in cyber communication. These groups provide members with ultimate meaning and general compensators that are in tandem to what the Web, and more generally, the Information Age, is all about.
#1205
Think for Yourself, Schmuck! / Neoism
April 11, 2007, 08:13:29 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoism

Neoism refers both to a specific subcultural network of artistic performance and media experimentalists and more generally to a practical underground philosophy. It operates with collectively shared pseudonyms and identities, pranks, paradoxes, plagiarism and fakes, and has created multiple contradicting definitions of itself in order to defy categorization and historization....

Neoists refer to their strategies as "the great confusion" and "radical play". They were acted out in semi-private Apartment Festivals which took place in North America, Europe and Australia between 1980 and 1998 and in publications which sought to embody confusion and radical play rather than just describing it. Consequently, both Neoist festivals and Neoist writing experimented with radical undermining of identity, bodies, media, and notions of ownership and truth. Unlike typical postmodern currents, the experiment was practical and therefore existential. Monty Cantsin, for example, was not simply a collective pseudonym or mythical person, but an identity lived by Neoists in their everyday life....

In the early 1980s, the Neoist Reinhard U. Sevol founded Anti-Neoism, which other Neoists adopted by declaring Neoism a pure fiction created by Anti-Neoists. The Dutch Neoist Arthur Berkoff operated as a one-person-movement "Neoism/Anti-Neoism/Pregroperativism". Similarly, Blaster Al Ackerman declared himself a "Salmineoist" after Sicilian-American actor Sal Mineo, and John Berndt was credited by Ackerman as having given Neoism the name "Spanish Art," circa 1983. In 1994, Stewart Home founded the Neoist Alliance as an occult order with himself as the magus. At the same time, Italian activists of the Luther Blissett project operated under the name "Alleanza Neoista"....


Neoist plays like multiple names, plagiarism and pranks were adopted, frequently mistaken for Neoism proper and by mixing in situationist concepts, in other subcultures such as the Plagiarism and Art Strike 1990-1993 campaigns of the late 1980s (triggered largely by Stewart Home after he had left the Neoist network), Plunderphonics music, the refounded London Psychogeographical Association, the Association of Autonomous Astronauts, the Luther Blissett project, the Michael K Project, the German Communication Guerilla, and, since the late 1990s, by some net artists such as 0100101110101101.org. Other artists who explicitly if vaguely credit Neoism are The KLF, Luther Blissett, Alexander Brener/Barbara Schurz, spart and Luke Haines (of The Auteurs and Black Box Recorder).

Neoism is also mentioned briefly in David O. Russell's 2005 film I ♥ Huckabees. Dustin Hoffman's character says the word under his breath in response to Jason Schwartzman's experience to "the blanket thing," which is a method of understanding the universe derived from being zipped up in a body bag.

The California-based tech-pop band Brilliant Red Lights also applies the word in the song "Neoism," the first track off their second album, Actualism. The band imagines a literal--albeit applicable--definition of the word, defining it as "the culture of the new."

http://www.neoism.info/
http://neoist.org/
http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/neoism_index.html
http://anti.neoism.info/
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=Neoism
http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/neoism/neoman.htm
#1206
On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense

1

    In some remote corner of the universe, poured out and glittering in innumerable solar systems, there once was a star on which clever animals invented knowledge. That was the highest and most mendacious minute of "world history",Äîyet only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths the star grew cold, and the clever animals had to die.

    One might invent such a fable and still not have illustrated sufficiently how wretched, how shadowy and flighty, how aimless and arbitrary, the human intellect appears in nature. There have been eternities when it did not exist; and when it is done for again, nothing will have happened. For this intellect has no further mission that would lead beyond human life. It is human, rather, and only its owner and producer gives it such importance, as if the world pivoted around it. But if we could communicate with the mosquito, then we would learn that he floats through the air with the same self-importance, feeling within itself the flying center of the world. There is nothing in nature so despicable or insignificant that it cannot immediately be blown up like a bag by a slight breath of this power of knowledge; and just as every porter wants an admirer, the proudest human being, the philosopher, thinks that he sees on the eyes of the universe telescopically focused from all sides on his actions and thoughts.

    It is strange that this should be the effect of the intellect, for after all it was given only as an aid to the most unfortunate, most delicate, most evanescent beings in order to hold them for a minute in existence, from which otherwise, without this gift, they would have every reason to flee as quickly as Lessing's son. [In a famous letter to Johann Joachim Eschenburg (December 31, 1778), Lessing relates the death of his infant son, who "understood the world so well that he left it at the first opportunity."] That haughtiness which goes with knowledge and feeling, which shrouds the eyes and senses of man in a blinding fog, therefore deceives him about the value of existence by carrying in itself the most flattering evaluation of knowledge itself. Its most universal effect is deception; but even its most particular effects have something of the same character.

    The intellect, as a means for the preservation of the individual, unfolds its chief powers in simulation; for this is the means by which the weaker, less robust individuals preserve themselves, since they are denied the chance of waging the struggle for existence with horns or the fangs of beasts of prey. In man this art of simulation reaches its peak: here deception, flattering, lying and cheating, talking behind the back, posing, living in borrowed splendor, being masked, the disguise of convention, acting a role before others and before oneself,Äîin short, the constant fluttering around the single flame of vanity is so much the rule and the law that almost nothing is more incomprehensible than how an honest and pure urge for truth could make its appearance among men. They are deeply immersed in illusions and dream images; their eye glides only over the surface of things and sees "forms"; their feeling nowhere lead into truth, but contents itself with the reception of stimuli, playing, as it were, a game of blindman's buff on the backs of things. Moreover, man permits himself to be lied to at night, his life long, when he dreams, and his moral sense never even tries to prevent this,Äîalthough men have been said to have overcome snoring by sheer will power.

    What, indeed, does man know of himself! Can he even once perceive himself completely, laid out as if in an illuminated glass case? Does not nature keep much the most from him, even about his body, to spellbind and confine him in a proud, deceptive consciousness, far from the coils of the intestines, the quick current of the blood stream, and the involved tremors of the fibers? She threw away the key; and woe to the calamitous curiosity which might peer just once through a crack in the chamber of consciousness and look down, and sense that man rests upon the merciless, the greedy, the insatiable, the murderous, in the indifference of his ignorance,Äîhanging in dreams, as it were, upon the back of a tiger. In view of this, whence in all the world comes the urge for truth?

    Insofar as the individual wants to preserve himself against other individuals, in a natural state of affairs he employs the intellect mostly for simulation alone. But because man, out of need and boredom, wants to exist socially, herd-fashion, he requires a peace pact and he endeavors to banish at least the very crudest bellum omni contra omnes [war of all against all] from his world. This peace pact brings with it something that looks like the first step toward the attainment of this enigmatic urge for truth. For now that is fixed which henceforth shall be "truth"; that is, a regularly valid and obligatory designation of things is invented, and this linguistic legislation also furnishes the first laws of truth: for it is here that the contrast between truth and lie first originates. The liar uses the valid designations, the words, to make the unreal appear as real; he says, for example, "I am rich," when the word "poor" would be the correct designation of his situation. He abuses the fixed conventions by arbitrary changes or even by reversals of the names. When he does this in a self-serving way damaging to others, then society will no longer trust him but exclude him. Thereby men do not flee from being deceived as much as from being damaged by deception: what they hate at this stage is basically not the deception but the bad, hostile consequences of certain kinds of deceptions. In a similarly limited way man wants the truth: he desires the agreeable life-preserving consequences of truth, but he is indifferent to pure knowledge, which has no consequences; he is even hostile to possibly damaging and destructive truths. And, moreover, what about these conventions of language? Are they really the products of knowledge, of the sense of truth? Do the designations and the things coincide? Is language the adequate expression of all realities?

    Only through forgetfulness can man ever achieve the illusion of possessing a "truth" in the sense just designated. If he does not wish to be satisfied with truth in the form of a tautology,Äîthat is, with empty shells,Äîthen he will forever buy illusions for truths. What is a word? The image of a nerve stimulus in sounds. But to infer from the nerve stimulus, a cause outside us, that is already the result of a false and unjustified application of the principle of reason. If truth alone had been the deciding factor in the genesis [Genesis] of language, and if the standpoint of certainty had been decisive for designations, then how could we still dare to say "the stone is hard," as if "hard" were something otherwise familiar to us, and not merely a totally subjective stimulation! We separate things according to gender, designating the tree as masculine and the plant as feminine. What arbitrary assignments! How far this oversteps the canons of certainty! We speak of a "snake": this designation touches only upon its ability to twist itself and could therefore also fit a worm. What arbitrary differentiations! What one-sided preferences, first for this, then for that property of a thing! The different languages, set side by side, show that what matters with words is never the truth, never an adequate expression; else there would not be so many languages. The "thing in itself" (for that is what pure truth, without consequences, would be) is quite incomprehensible to the creators of language and not at all worth aiming for. One designates only the relations of things to man, and to express them one calls on the boldest metaphors. A nerve stimulus, first transposed into an image,Äîfirst metaphor. The image, in turn, imitated by a sound,Äîsecond metaphor. And each time there is a complete overleaping of one sphere, right into the middle of an entirely new and different one. One can imagine a man who is totally deaf and has never had a sensation of sound and music. Perhaps such a person will gaze with astonishment at Chladni's sound figures; perhaps he will discover their causes in the vibrations of the string and will now swear that he must know what men mean by "sound." It is this way with all of us concerning language; we believe that we know something about the things themselves when we speak of trees, colors, snow, and flowers; and yet we possess nothing but metaphors for things,Äîmetaphors which correspond in no way to the original entities. In the same way that the sound appears as a sand figure, so the mysterious X of the thing in itself first appears as a nerve stimulus, then as an image, and finally as a sound. Thus the genesis [Entstehung] of language does not proceed logically in any case, and all the material within and with which the man of truth, the scientist, and the philosopher later work and build, if not derived from never-never land, is a least not derived from the essence of things.

    Let us still give special consideration to the formation of concepts. Every word immediately becomes a concept, inasmuch as it is not intended to serve as a reminder of the unique and wholly individualized original experience to which it owes its birth, but must at the same time fit innumerable, more or less similar cases,Äîwhich means, strictly speaking, never equal,Äîin other words, a lot of unequal cases. Every concept originates through our equating what is unequal. No leaf ever wholly equals another, and the concept "leaf" is formed through an arbitrary abstraction from these individual differences, through forgetting the distinctions; and now it gives rise to the idea that in nature there might be something besides the leaves which would be "leaf",Äîsome kind of original form after which all leaves have been woven, marked, copied, colored, curled, and painted, but by unskilled hands, so that no copy turned out to be a correct, reliable, and faithful image of the original form. We call a person "honest." Why did he act so honestly today? we ask. Our answer usually sounds like this: because of his honesty. Honesty! That is to say again: the leaf is the cause of the leaves. After all, we know nothing of an essence-like quality named "honesty"; we know only numerous individualized, and thus unequal actions, which we equate by omitting the unequal and by then calling them honest actions. In the end, we distill from them a qualitas occulta [hidden quality] with the name of "honesty." We obtain the concept, as we do the form, by overlooking what is individual and actual; whereas nature is acquainted with no forms and no concepts, and likewise with no species, but only with an X which remains inaccessible and undefinable for us. For even our contrast between individual and species is something anthropomorphic and does not originate in the essence of things; although we should not presume to claim that this contrast does not correspond o the essence of things: that would of course be a dogmatic assertion and, as such, would be just as indemonstrable as its opposite.

    What, then, is truth? A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms,Äîin short, a sum of human relations which have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which after long use seem firm, canonical, and obligatory to a people: truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that this is what they are; metaphors which are worn out and without sensuous power; coins which have lost their pictures and now matter only as metal, no longer as coins.

    We still do not know where the urge for truth comes from; for as yet we have heard only of the obligation imposed by society that it should exist: to be truthful means using the customary metaphors,Äîin moral terms: the obligation to lie according to a fixed convention, to lie herd-like in a style obligatory for all. Now man of course forgets that this is the way things stand for him. Thus he lies in the manner indicated, unconsciously and in accordance with habits which are centuries' old; and precisely by means of this unconsciousness and forgetfulness he arrives at his sense of truth. From the sense that one is obliged to designate one thing as red, another as cold, and a third as mute, there arises a moral impulse in regard to truth. The venerability, reliability, and utility of truth is something which a person demonstrates for himself from the contrast with the liar, whom no one trusts and everyone excludes. As a rational being, he now places his behavior under the control of abstractions. He will no longer tolerate being carried away by sudden impressions, by intuitions. First he universalizes all these impressions into less colorful, cooler concepts, so that he can entrust the guidance of his life and conduct to them. Everything which distinguishes man from the animals depends upon this ability to volatilize perceptual metaphors in a schema, and thus to dissolve an image into a concept. For something is possible in the realm of these schemata which could never be achieved with the vivid first impressions: the construction of a pyramidal order according to castes and degrees, the creation of a new world of laws, privileges, subordinations, and clearly marked boundaries,Äîa new world, one which now confronts that other vivid world of first impressions as more solid, more universal, better known, and more human than the immediately perceived world, and thus as the regulative and imperative world. Whereas each perceptual metaphor is individual and without equals and is therefore able to elude all classification, the great edifice of concepts displays the rigid regularity of a Roman columbarium and exhales in logic that strength and coolness which is characteristic of mathematics. Anyone who has felt this cool breath [of logic] will hardly believe that even the concept,Äîwhich is as bony, foursquare, and transposable as a die,Äîis nevertheless merely the residue of a metaphor, and that the illusion which is involved in the artistic transference of a nerve stimulus into images is, if not the mother, then the grandmother of every single concept. But in this conceptual crap game "truth" means using every die in the designated manner, counting its spots accurately, fashioning the right categories, and never violating the order of caste and class rank. Just as the Romans and Etruscans cut up the heavens with rigid mathematical lines and confined a god within each of the spaces thereby delimited, as within a templum, so every people has a similarly mathematically divided conceptual heaven above themselves and henceforth thinks that truth demands that each conceptual god be sought only within his own sphere. Here one may certainly admire man as a mighty genius of construction, who succeeds in piling an infinitely complicated dome of concepts upon an unstable foundation, and, as it were, on running water. Of course, in order to be supported by such a foundation, his construction must be like one constructed of spiders' webs: delicate enough to be carried along by the waves, strong enough not to be blown apart by every wind. As a genius of construction man raises himself far above the bee in the following way: whereas the bee builds with wax that he gathers from nature, man builds with the far more delicate conceptual material which he first has to manufacture from himself. In this he is greatly to be admired, but not on account of his drive for truth or for pure knowledge of things. When someone hides something behind a bush and looks for it again in the same place and finds it there as well, there is not much to praise in such seeking and finding. Yet this is how matters stand regarding seeking and finding "truth" within the realm of reason. If I make up the definition of a mammal, and then, after inspecting a camel, declare "look, a mammal" I have indeed brought a truth to light in this way, but it is a truth of limited value. That is to say, it is a thoroughly anthropomorphic truth which contains not a single point which would be "true in itself" or really and universally valid apart from man. At bottom, what the investigator of such truths is seeking is only the metamorphosis of the world into man. He strives to understand the world as something analogous to man, and at best he achieves by his struggles the feeling of assimilation. Similar to the way in which astrologers considered the stars to be in man 's service and connected with his happiness and sorrow, such an investigator considers the entire universe in connection with man: the entire universe as the infinitely fractured echo of one original sound-man; the entire universe as the infinitely multiplied copy of one original picture-man. His method is to treat man as the measure of all things, but in doing so he again proceeds from the error of believing that he has these things [which he intends to measure] immediately before him as mere objects. He forgets that the original perceptual metaphors are metaphors and takes them to be the things themselves.
#1207
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_constructionism

Social constructionism or social constructivism is a sociological theory of knowledge based on Hegel's ideas, and developed by Durkheim at the turn of the century. It became prominent in the U.S. with Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann's 1966 book, The Social Construction of Reality. The focus of social constructionism is to uncover the ways in which individuals and groups participate in the creation of their perceived reality. It involves looking at the ways social phenomena are created, institutionalized, and made into tradition by humans. Socially constructed reality is seen as an ongoing, dynamic process; reality is re-produced by people acting on their interpretations and their knowledge of it. Berger and Luckmann argue that all knowledge, including the most basic, taken-for-granted common sense knowledge of everyday reality, is derived from and maintained by social interactions. When people interact, they do so with the understanding that their respective perceptions of reality are related, and as they act upon this understanding their common knowledge of reality becomes reinforced. Since this common sense knowledge is negotiated by people, human typifications, significations and institutions come to be presented as part of an objective reality. It is in this sense that it can be said that reality is socially constructed.

Within social constructionist thought, a social construction (social construct) is an idea which may appear to be natural and obvious to those who accept it, but in reality is an invention or artifact of a particular culture or society. The implication is that social constructs are in some sense human choices rather than laws resulting from divine will or nature. This is not usually taken to imply a radical anti-determinism, however.[citation needed]

Social constructionism is dialectically opposed to essentialism, the belief that there are defining transhistorical essences independent of conscious beings that determine the categorical structure of reality. The specific mechanisms underlying Berger and Luckmann's notion of social construction are discussed further in social construction.
#1208
Propaganda Depository / Discordian Music
April 09, 2007, 10:39:20 PM
#1209
Think for Yourself, Schmuck! / Unfinished notes
April 09, 2007, 08:52:51 PM
The correspondence theory of truth (access to knowledge through senses or reason is flawed) is denied.  No reason to suppose mental concepts tally with reality except through direct interaction.  Cannot be universalized. 

Discordian view: the universe is in a state of ,Äúbecoming,Äù (Heraclitus) chaotic movement and change and coherence is a mental construct.  ,ÄúTo know,Äù means to have imposed categories on chaotic processes which are useful to us and/or based on incomplete data (Law of Fives).

Broad to universal consensus must be reached for a society to exist.  This is naturally an enforced decision (alliance between military and priesthood), however it is incomplete in its understanding and so cannot succeed (Law of Imposition).  Collective life is made possible, however it begins to break down and takes increasing amounts of force to be held together, which only destabilizes the system further.  Illusionary hunt for proof of metaphysical musings.

Linguistics as a BIP.

People think with words.  Higher concepts can only be thought of through verbal means in particular.  However, language simplifies the world, removes the chaos.  Controls how thinking happens as well as what can be thought (subject-object framework).

Science a BIP?

World can be observed and learnt from to our benefit.  However, science cannot discover absolute or transcendental proofs.  Science vs worship of science.  However, global scepticism an unsolvable paradox.  Absolute rejection is another blind alley and not a very fruitful or accurate one at that.  Contingent knowledge?  Acceptance of knowledge, that has been tested, working for the now, but without blind worship as to its eternal value?  Possible.
#1210
don't represent any cohesive ideology or material solution, but rather a plethora of different solutions that appeal (by providing meaning and/or security and/or economic advancement) to specific target groups,

are typically networks rather than hierarchies (they are not replacements for the state)

aren't tied to territory (and hence aren't required to provide services to anyone other than their members)

often find extremely profitable ways to finance their own growth

have developed a new method of warfare to protect themselves and extend their power (open source warfare)


Now consider that context when reading this: http://www.ctc.usma.edu/Tamimi/ISI--Fourth_Gen4.pdf
#1213
In many ways, the best way to understand something is by watching and noting the effect it has on other agents and institutions.  The best and most obvious example of this in modern history is Discordian interaction with contemporary Paganism.  Whatever our reasons at the time for seeking the contact with a large and apparently disparate community, it can serve as a useful lesson for future encounters ,Äì as well as prepare new Discordians for the harsh and often inflammatory reactions to their presence.

Obviously, there were some positive gains from the encounter.  However the negative ones are of more interest, because there is so much more to be learned.  Often from those who opposed us, we were the victim of slander campaigns and relegated to a lesser status in religious standing (and while avoiding contamination from the majority of Grey and Cabbage religions is hardly a bad thing, there was a notable lack of logic to their reasoning as to why this was done), not to mention falsely ascribed certain motives and opinions which were taken from a purposefully incorrect understanding of Discordianism.  These reactions and other related observations will be noted below.

A notable and common reaction is that many will seek to downplay or ignore your contributions.  To accept the opinion or help or argument of a known Discordian is to acknowledge validity to the irreligion and its beliefs.  Since your very values are set up to mock their own systems of implausible and unsustainable belief, it implicitly implies their own incorrectness (ignoring for now the admirable ,Äúquantum agnosticism,Äù of many Discordians, such as RAW, in this regard) and questioning their faith.  Obviously this only applies to those who have a superficial understanding and reading of Discordianism.  As your status becomes better known, this reaction will become more common.

However, the most common reaction was to simply treat Discordianism as a parody religion that only a fool would believe in.  If it was treated as a purely artistic project that only a simpleton could mistake for a real religion, its proponents are at once are sidelined.  Of course, this is to totally ignore several points for similar reasons to above, but it also fails to draw a distinction between religion, spirituality and irreligion.  The foremost is what the vast majority of Pagans take part in, the second some Pagans and Discordians both take from the form of their belief system and the final is a purposeful creation of a spiritual system that undermines religion instead of meekly being alternative to it.  The Church of the Subgenius would probably be the only other example of this and it is rooted in Discordianism anyway.  Because of its hostility to mainstream religion, irreligions must be denied validity.

Of course, the next major avenue of attack is to seize upon the word ,Äúchaos,Äù while gripped with a primordial fear of anarchy, the collapse of civilization, the permission of everything and all the other desperate fantasies of intellectually stunted and repressed demagogues.  Of course, because reading a book is too much hassle when deciding to condemn something, the clarified Discordian definition of the word is overlooked, as well as the dialectic between Disorder and Order that is expressed.  To accept that chaos is the synthesis of these two notions, that allows evolution, creation, possibility and chance, as well as understand the Discordian position of supporting one extreme to aim for the synthesis, well would require a knowledge of Western philosophy beyond that of most Pagans (while that the last statement was meant to be purposefully insulting, it is true that many are very unaware of developments outside mainstream Christianity and their own faith ,Äì over the last 2,400 years in some cases).  Among the more intelligent and intellectual, the tendency is therefore to think of Discordians as abstract theorists, whose support for their position is intellectually based, either in a Hegelian system or philosophical anarchism.  In short, because we apparently exist in a world of abstraction and theory, our activities and forms of dissent and attack against regimented society, authoritarian institutions and individuals are denied coverage.

This is of course to set up the next denial, which is also another form of attack.  A contradiction in the reasoning is obvious.  This claim is fairly familiar, that Discordians are active, but only within the student movement and among certain ageing Yippies and other counter-culture movements of the 60s and 70s who ,Äúought to know better,Äù.  In short, we are a contemporary form of Dadaists, who run amok performing street theatre, practical jokes and constitute a lunatic fringe of activists who oppose current society and certain individuals.  Here of course, we are given more credit, but who has heard of Yippies being despised by a broad section of the Pagan movement?  Much less while being philosophical anarchists?  This criticism often comes from the politically left inclining Pagans, for a very simple reason.  In effect we are their bad conscience, who unlike them, are able and willing to act on the physical level to achieve our goals.  In short, we do not make recourse to ,Äúmagic,Äù to disappear our problems, nor do we hide our timidity under a religious cloak of universal law.

While on the general subject of politics, it was important to note the many criticisms and confusion that occurred in this area.  Discordianism is of course not a political philosophy, though many of its followers take an interest in it and apply certain Discordian ideas to the practice and proper conduct of government.  Pagans surprisingly have some very broad and often contradictory political positions in relation to their religious beliefs.  Most interesting was the emergence of ,ÄúConservo-Paganism,Äù which is neither conservative as Burke or Oakshotte would understand the term, nor particularly Pagan.  Instead, it seems to be an attempt by conservative and free market ideologues to create a new market while splitting the usual left-environmental concerns of most Pagan groups.  In addition, it is only comprehensible through the distortions of the US political system, where the meanings of political science terms have been so corrupted by populist discourse they barely resemble reality.  In this case, to be a Conservative is to support the Republican party, despite its hijacking by Dominionist and Evangelical groups who would gladly see most Pagans denied constitutional rights and freedoms.  Naturally, the centrist and neo-liberal Democratic Party is considered ,Äúleft wing,Äù, a vague and some would say meaningless term in a country with no history of a popular socialist party.

In other words, debate was framed under the US model, with all its misunderstandings and rhetoric.  Naturally, there was disagreement with virtually every established position.  We were considered anarchists because we criticized Marxism, right wingers for criticizing liberals, liberal radicals for criticizing Marx and conservatism (of the new and old varieties), socialists by the libertarians, technocrats by the primitivists and vice versa.  In short, no one person could actually define our political thinking and so create false theories with which to contrast with their own beliefs.  We would then be berated for not acting as a ,Äúliberal,Äù or ,Äúsocialist,Äù or whichever chosen theory should, in the mind of the attacker, be our system.  Naturally, we were more liked by certain liberal sections, but mainly because we concentrated on NeoConservatvism for our attacks.  Our reasons for this should be obvious, namely at the time this was the dominant force among both Congress and the Executive and allied states often fell into line regardless of their own political ideology (the UK, Israel, Australia).  Attacking a group that essentially had no current power is pretty worthless, hence our sidelining of Democratic policy up until the point of our departure before the 2006 elections.

As I'm sure none of you need telling, the idea of a unified Discordian viewpoint on virtually anything is nonsense in itself, but it did not stop certain factions from seeking one, in some cases explicitly.  Naturally, the complaint from this that arose was that Discordian thought was ,Äútoo complex,Äù or ,Äúcontradictory,Äù for people to understand and thus should either be abandoned or simplified.  What was actually meant was that the person in question did not like Discordianism because it did not place demands on them like other religions, did not require slavish devotion to a single or two mythical characters and in short did not give them a step by step guide in how to deal with life without recourse to their own brains.  Rather than admit this, they transfer their confusion and dislike onto the masses.

Finally, the reaction of authority figures to the presence of Discordians is fascinating.  Putting aside concerns previous to our arrival involving favourites of the leaders and economic concerns that directed interest in certain ways, it was a most enlightening experience.  Quite obvious attempts were made to intimidate and reduce the influence of the Discordians through various tactics of removing writings from their proper place and sidelining our theories to only those who sought them out knowingly.  In addition, we were placed under additional scrutiny and surveillance.  More often than not an authority figure would deal with a Discordian in a far stricter manner than other members, simply because of their recognition that we were their natural enemies.  Reasons beyond this were not needed, since we were able to accurately critique their systems of control and coercion while at the same time making fun of them and refusing to be intimidated.  In addition, several Discordians had a sizeable if superficial following among the forum members (a common reaction of Pinks when confronted with more Subgenius like Discordians with some charisma) and there was a very real threat of the place of the leaders as the centre for authority being undermined.  Of course, this reached a breaking point where we were expelled or otherwise coerced into passiveness so that we could no longer counteract their leadership.  What was most interesting was this was framed as a Discordian problem and they and their allies were the only targets, yet it was denied because of the retaining of a couple of token dissenters, normally the more mystically inclined or those who had not yet given sufficient grounds, in terms of threat to authority, for their removal.  In short, an attempt at a moral split between Discordian factions.

I know this has been longwinded and verbose to say the least, but I felt some sort of analysis of the events of MysticWicks, taken from a less personal and more abstract perspective would be of use.  Not least for understanding how Cabbages will react in other settings, although it is in itself a damning indictment of the current state of the Pagan community (although not all Pagans).  I hope this can be of considerable use for those considering future actions along similar lines.
#1214
Literate Chaotic / More tin foil hat material
March 29, 2007, 10:36:36 AM
http://www.whale.to/v/books1.html

You see the lengths I go to in order to find high quality lulz?
#1215
Literate Chaotic / The Grey Lodge Occult Review
March 22, 2007, 09:32:30 AM
http://www.greylodge.org/occultreview/idxs/completeidx.html

Back Issues of the "Grey Lodge", who seem to be into their counterculture/Robert Anton Wilson style freakery.  Each issue has downloads for you to steal, sometimes as text files, pdfs, videos or mp3s.  Topics range from Alien abduction, the OTO, A;.A;., Men In Black and basically covering the range when it comes to wierd occult shit.
#1216
Bring and Brag / ATTN Artists and creative types
March 18, 2007, 04:51:49 AM
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Discordia wishes to commission a logo for our esteemed organization.  The payment will be free membership in Scotland's premier quasi-terroristic organization as our Artistic Director, knowing we are likely to use your logo forever and, most valuably, my eternal gratitude.  Me and the 6 or so asshats I've duped into being my minions basically need something for the local flyers and rants sent to the newspapers.  I'm thinking maybe one seal based design and another as a page header of some description.

I'd do it myself, but my computer design skills are teh crap.
#1217
Found lingering on my laptop hard drive from where I had left it since Xmas...despite making several dozen flyers and spreading them in London, Bristol and Edinburgh

=========================================

Their principal activity is an extreme mental derangement. . . . In the maximum number of languages the Discordian Society sends letters from foreign countries filled with the most filthy expressions. In our opinion the Federal Bureau of Investigation gave them too much credit in investigating them.
- Unnamed US Justice Department Official

The concerns of this movement, currently supported by ,ÄúThe Good Reverend Roger,Äù and ,ÄúEast Coast Hustle,Äù among others, are in some sense comparable, a hundred years later, to those of the Young Hegelians and especially to the Marx of the 1844 Manuscripts . . . . That is to say, they imagine that a revolution is possible and their program is aimed at making one.
- New Absurdist Magazine #23

These ,Äúactivists,Äù have insulted the society in which they live and all its values. They should be dealt with by psychiatrists. I don,Äôt want to take any legal measures against them ,Äî they should be in a lunatic asylum. . . . As for their incitement to illegal acts, the Minister of the Interior is looking into that.
- Dominique de Villepin, 2006

The Discordians . . . are more anarchist than the anarchists, whom they find too bureaucratic.
- Robert Anton Wilson

Their doctrine, if such a term can be used in describing their delirious ravings, . . . is a sort of radical revolutionism with an underpinning of nihilism. . . . A monument of imbecilic fanaticism, written in a pretentious jargon, spiced with a barrage of gratuitous insults both of their professors and of their fellow students. It constantly refers to a mysterious ,ÄúDiscordian Society,Äù
- Militant Tendency, 1981

Then appeared for the first time the disquieting figures of the ,ÄúDiscordian Society,Äù How many are there? Where do they come from? No one knows.
- Daily Mail, December 1994

Discordianism is, of course, no more the specter that haunts industrial society than was communism the specter that haunted Europe in 1848.
- Gregory Hill, Usenet Post, 1996

WARNING: Leaflets have been distributed in the Brixton area calling for an insurrectionary general strike. It goes without saying that such appeals have not been issued by our democratic trade-union organizations. They are the work of provocateurs seeking to provide the government with a pretext for intervention. . . . The workers must be vigilant to defeat all such maneuvers.
- Socialist Workers Party Directive, 1981

. . . the Discordian Society, which has its base in San Francisco and which is controlled by the security and espionage police of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics...
- John Birch Society

Their general headquarters is secret but I think it is somewhere in London. They are not students, but are what are known as Discordians; they travel everywhere and exploit the discontent of students.
- Anonymous interview published in the News of the World, 1987

We are here concerned with only one small group who alone set the scene for the May events and provided the insurrection with a dialectical backbone. These few outlaws, these Discordians, universally despised by political organizations and student bodies, have their base on the surrealistic fringes of the Left Wing. From there they have nurtured one of the most advanced, coherent revolutionary theories (though often plagued by academic arrogance and ,Äúin,Äù references), which provoked a near-liquidation of the State.
- Taken from the suppressed Colombia University Report into the April 23rd take over of the University in 1968

Miss Martin said the ,ÄúDiscordians,Äù were a religious movement active in Greece in the 10th century BC, and that there had been ,Äútalk,Äù on the campus of a revival under that name in Berkeley.
- San Francisco Examiner (18 May 1972)

The Discordian Society was created by the CIA from scratch in 1957 in New Orleans under the slogans ,ÄúNothing is True, Everything is Permissible,,Äù ,ÄúA Discordian is prohibited in believing what he reads,,Äù and ,ÄúCreative Disorder!,,Äù and is the paradigm example of a CIA synthetic all-purpose formation. The loose and programless anarchist ,Äúleft cover,Äù countergang on the Discordian model is ideal for the CIA for the recruitment of new agents, the launching of psywar operations, the detonation of riots, syndicalist workers,Äô actions (e.g., LIP strike), student power revolts, etc., the continual generation of new countergang formations, and infiltration, penetration and dissolution of socialist and other workers,Äôorganizations. . . . During the 1968 problems, the Discordians were assigned to stop the Labor Committees from developing into a mass-based working-class party.
- New Solidarity, 28 August and 6 September 1977

Discordianism seems to have ,Äúcaught on,Äù in the U.S.A., particularly in California, that playground of the ideologies. . . . The American Discordians seem to be repeating the pattern of mutual exclusion and criticism as occurred in Europe, and to be employing a fairly impenetrable Hegelian vocabulary. . . . Wilson and Hill are worth reading for their critique of modern consumer-culture (if you can arrange a few weeks free of work and booze).
- Time Magazine, 1976

Behind the angry young men of Amsterdam we find a secret Society. . . . The Provos provide the previously isolated theorists of the Discordian Society with troops, ,Äúintelligent surrogates,Äù capable of constituting the secular arm of an organization which itself prefers to remain more or less behind the scenes.
- Figaro Litt?©raire (4 August 1982)
#1219
Think for Yourself, Schmuck! / Wheeeeeeeeeeee!
March 14, 2007, 01:30:49 PM
http://concordiamovement.blogspot.com/2007/03/black-iron-prison.html



Modern Discordians have finally almost created a new idea on their own . . . they only had to rip it off from an imfamous CIA investigated sci-fi hack named Dick. How appropriate.

This idea is known as the Black Iron Prison, and the basic concept is that your own perceptions are a prison from which you can never break free from. Once you realize you are trapped in a prison you can try to break out, but once you are outside you realize you are trapped within a larger, more impenetrable, prison. No matter what you do, or what you try, you are trapped.

What a cheery concept.

They offer no ways to get out, or think around this concept, its just laid out there and you had better digest it, accept it, and like it or you are a shallow fool who doesn't get the 'harsh reality' of the situation.

The idea comes from Dick's book Valis, which nobody I know has read or even heard of. The more obscure, the better, I guess.
#1220
Think for Yourself, Schmuck! / Absurdism
March 07, 2007, 09:00:16 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism

Salient parts c+p'd

Absurdism is a philosophy stating that the efforts of humanity to find meaning in the universe will ultimately fail (and, hence, are absurd) because no such meaning exists (at least in relation to humanity).

What is the Absurd? It is, as may quite easily be seen, that I, a rational being, must act in a case where my reason, my powers of reflection, tell me: you can just as well do the one thing as the other, that is to say where my reason and reflection say: you cannot act and yet here is where I have to act... The Absurd, or to act by virtue of the absurd, is to act upon faith ... I must act, but reflection has closed the road so I take one of the possibilities and say: This is what I do, I cannot do otherwise because I am brought to a standstill by my powers of reflection.

,Äì Kierkegaard, S??ren

In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus considers absurdity as a confrontation, an opposition, a conflict, or a "divorce" between two ideals. Specifically, he defines the human condition as absurd, as the confrontation between man's desire for significance/meaning/clarity and the silent, cold universe (or for theists: God). He continues that there are specific human experiences that evoke notions of absurdity. Such a realization or encounter with the absurd leaves the individual with a choice: suicide, a leap of faith, or acceptance.

man can choose to embrace his own absurd condition. According to Camus, man's freedom, and the opportunity to give life meaning, lies in the acknowledgment and acceptance of absurdity. If the absurd experience is truly the realization that the universe is fundamentally devoid of absolutes, then we as individuals are truly free. ,ÄúTo live without appeal,,Äù as he puts it, is a philosophical move that begins to define absolutes and universals subjectively, rather than objectively. The freedom of man is, thus, established in man's natural ability and opportunity to create his own meaning and purpose, to decide himself. The individual becomes the most precious unit of the existence, as he represents a set of unique ideals that can be characterized as an entire universe by itself.


I believe our current project to be the metaphysics of the Absurd.
#1221
Think for Yourself, Schmuck! / Plan of action
March 07, 2007, 04:48:01 PM
1. Come up with a better name (BIP is too philosophically constrictive and attracts emo/goth types.  Sorry, but it is).

2. Decide where we want to go from there.  Is this meant to be a blueprint for action or trying to figure stuff out?  Throw in a target audience here.

3. Get writing.

4. Position the project as something associated with the Discordian movement but not part of it.  Thats important, because sooner or later everything fizzles out and I'd rather the place where the ideas come from didn't go with it.

5.  More suggestions?
#1223
As you know, I have always advocated a clear headed and objective view of the state of things.  You cannot do otherwise if you hope to effect change ,Äì without knowing what has happened and is happening, you are adrift with no plan and no way of knowing what is of practical use or not.

Because of this, I feel it is necessary to for once and all put an end to a very pernicious lie, namely that America had a revolution and, that unlike those in France and Russia, it was a success, for various reasons.  It is true that in America there was no Terror, that no death squads like the infamous Cheka arose as a sword and shield to the revolutionaries.  And the reason for that is not that Americans are quantifiably different, or have higher moral standards.  Its simply because what happened was not a revolution and so the after effects did not follow the same pattern.

I know what you're thinking.  ,ÄúBut...there was fighting...and they separated...a new country was created...the Bill of Rights and Constitution....whats he on about?,Äù  And you're right, all those things did happen.  But they do not necessarily add up to a revolution.

A revolution must negate all preceding history and political theory that came before, annihilating them on the tide of their chosen ideology.  In revolution, ideas are put on trial, with humans in their places on the dock.  These ideas and their human hosts are killed as a sacrifice to the new order, as a symbol of a new dawn in humanity and the end of the previous order.  Invariably, this turns to state terror and rivers of blood.  In short, the revolution must, by its nature, kill itself in a blaze of self-destructive glory, giving rise to new tyrants and monsters.

In America, this did not happen.  There was no American Robespierre, no Stalin.  King George III was never put on trial and executed, Lord North and the rest of his inept Parliament were not given shallow graves and no new order was proclaimed.  There is a crucial reason as to why this is; America was a successful rebellion, one of the very few in history, which makes it very different to a revolutionary state.

America, it can be argued, is in fact the true heir to the British political system.  Radical democracy had long existed in the colonies, the political ideals they expounded an extension of British ones, but with updated theories from the latest philosophers.  The separation of powers, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution are all implicitly part of the British constitution, weakened though it is through its unwritten nature.  Those who worked from this system, such as Paine, Locke and Hume, were the inspiration for the likes of Jefferson and Madison.

In short, the rebellion was not about the creation of new values, but the restoration of old ones.  That is the vital difference, the limiting factor that ensures a rebellion will not end up copying the Terror.  It is a built in factor that leads to self-moderation and the real establishment and respect of human rights.  American revolutionaries did not dispute George III as a King, only his claim to rule over them, the nature of the relationship.

In short, rebellions work.  Another example for you to ponder.  In 1975, in Helsinki, the NATO powers forced the Soviet Union and its allies into singing a treaty on human rights, in return for improved trade.  The Soviets thought nothing of signing it and ignoring it, despite the treaty making it law for these rights to be respected.  But the dissidents took note.  While of course, it was only one factor among many, the Helsinki accords were as close as anything to a philosophical basis for the rebellions.  They were not out there to deny Communism as a system (in fact many called themselves Socialists, both among reformists and dissidents), they were there to deny what was being done, again to dispute their relationship with the state.  And again, they had success.  The Warsaw Pact was destroyed without a shot being fired, the USSR soon to follow.

Many Discordians may like to think of themselves as revolutionaries too.  God knows, there are enough self styled dissidents, protesters and anarchists etc who will gladly take that title.  However, what should really be sought is the mantle of rebellion.  Revolutions invariably go full circle, whereas rebellion can restore what was once lost.  Falling into the trap of seeing America or 1989 as ,Äúsuccessful revolutions,Äù, working variations of Russia and France, is just falling into another trap, making a mistake that could be very costly.

Food for thought, I feel.
#1224
Propaganda Depository / Kopyleft Authors
March 05, 2007, 09:34:36 PM
Please post in here if you are willing to let others use your works.  If there are any special conditions (such as a piece of work you don't want to be used or whatever) please state them here too.
#1226
Or Kill Me / On Conspiracy Theorism
March 03, 2007, 01:17:15 PM
Alot of people interested in the counter-culture in general and particularly the three ring circus of Discordianism, the CotSG and affiliated Subcordian asshats, take a deep interest in conspiracy theories and the workings of secret cabals which are hostile to our very existence. I don't necessarily need to describe such groups as I'm sure you know what I mean. The Illuminati, various arms of The Conspiracy....Them, in short.

Obviously, many ordinary people do not believe in any sort of Them at all and so these groups have perhaps jeopardized their "credibility" (as if what Pinks and Greys think actually matters) in certain circles. However, a lot of people are wasting their time in this general area of inquiry. Thats not to say there are not conspiracies, because there are and they are very real, but most people have been hoodwinked into looking in totally the wrong direction for them. I certainly don't have all the answers, but I am in a position where I can quite legitimately research the linkage in the corridors of power and am able to tell you what I know.

I wont name names however....not real names. Rule 1: everyone is a disinformation agent. Its all too easy for false information to be fed to you or me, so I'll just sketch out the general 'shape' of whats going on, letting you fill in the blanks yourself. I'll also tell you what is likely not true and why I think thats the case. Firstly, the liars.

Many Conspiracy Theorists come from the Christian Patriot Movement, a collection of pig-ignorant degenerates and criminals who couldn't find their backsides with both hands, let alone highly intelligent conspirators working in the shadows. Invariably these idiots will make racist claims of "International Jewish Bankers" and...well, I barely need to go on. The sort of shit you can read in The Turner Diaries and other pieces of infantile fantasizing interspersed with horrific racist violence and disgusting characterization. If you believe anything that comes from these circles, chances are you're a brainwashed idiot duped by some charismatic leader with a Messianic complex.

Building on from example one, there is the general "Jewish Conspiracy" which is popular among the far-right (just ask Nick Griffin), the far left and various religious groups. This is quite frankly utter horsecrap....going by history, we should probably have a White Christian Male conspiracy, as these are usually the people involved in such things. Its basically scapegoating and stems from a religious need to place the blame for the death of Jesus on anyone but the Romans, who actually did him in. Anyone with any real knowledge of history would dismiss the idea of any single ethno-religious group being behind all conspiracies, or even just a large one as utter crap.

The UN is another one also taken from the far-right. Apparently they are a godless and evil organization preparing to take over the USA and occupy it with foreign troops....whereas the depressing truth is in fact the UN is nothing more than a device for the USA to legitimize its actions abroad. It doesn't always work of course, but given the powers the US gave to itself as a charter member....well, its a testament to the power of propaganda that people can think its anything but a slightly unruly tool of the USA.

Intelligence services are often a favourite one, for obvious reasons. Cloaked in secrecy, given wide powers to act pretty much outside the law, the similarities with secret police of bygone times, yeah here we are onto something more plausible. However, it should be remembered that almost always these are merely foot soldiers for higher powers and if they are doing something, its because they have been directed to do so. Running drugs, assassinations and so on, while invariably blamed on a rogue faction, do serve a greater political or security purpose.

The Satanic cult is another favourite, particularly among David Icke sorts, who can combine it with the relatively more interesting alien abduction theories. Satanic Ritual Abuse is probably one of the greatest scare stories of the 80s, one for which there is very little to no real evidence. Most Satanists are....well, jerks basically. Smart people, very quick mentally, but real assholes. The CoS is basically a money making device and the Temple of Set...well, its occult so its not my cup of tea, but its no worse than what Wiccans get up to. What is often referred to as organized Satanic abuse in fact is usually widely disorganized and carried out by...mentally ill Christians. Who, coincidentally, are the sort of people most likely to promote this theory.

Alien abduction is interesting....in the few cases where there is genuine reason to believe that is in fact what happened. However, in most cases they are part of a carefully crafted government disinformation project. Not only does it explain experimental aircraft tests quite nicely, it also keeps a whole bunch of people on a wild goose chase, either keeping them distracted and ruining their credibility, or causing the believers to fall under the sway of irrational terror and hopelessness. I'll explain more on this another time, but there is evidence to suggest that intelligence agencies have in fact staged many of these events, either as part of a general disinfo project or as covers for other activities.

International Banking is actually one of the few areas where the theorists may have a point. If you throw in the various multinational companies involved with them, as well as a few NGOs. The World Bank and IMF are essentially tools of the European and US governments, used to "crack open" foreign markets, totally undermine the economy, then buy up previously state owned companies at bargain basement prices and bleed the plebs. Its the modern day version of colonialism, only it actually makes a profit.

Secret societies are of course the number one favourite for conspiracy theorists. Been around a long time, naturally secretive....the problem is most of them are basically talking shops. Anyone can join the Freemasons and while there are a few specific lodges that have been involved in some nasty shit, the majority are quite dull. The Illuminati have never been proven to exist beyond their downfall in 1785 and the Priory of Sion were always a sham. Most of these are generally beneficial organizations anyway, the Freemasons in particular being closely aligned to Enlightenment ideals expressed by writers like Voltaire and Diderot.

So what do I believe?

I think there are certain...factions at the very top of the political-economic structure, whose membership is hard to ascertain but who can be judged by their actions. At least one is highly antagonistic, ultra-nationalist and allied with certain sectors of big business. These are closely allied with certain Theocratic nuts, with whom there is overall agreement, though each dislike the other for certain reasons relating to their own beliefs. There is one whose view could most accurately be described as Neo-Liberal, who are largely benevolent and are closely linked to a benevolent movement for world governance. And there is another who wants the same world governance, but for entirely less high-minded reasons.

And of course, within each group there are sub-groups, factions and dissent.

One final tip before I end this - don't look to fancy sounding names and titles, because thats entirely the wrong way. Look towards bland sounding committees and think tanks, with boring names like the Committee for a Free Britain or The American Enterprise Institute....also watch out, as certain groups (such as the Project for a New American Century) are likely to shed their skin and change when exposed to too much light (as when they changed into the AEI).

Apart from those, for me Conspiracy Theorism is rather like Alternate History discussion, its an interesting look into how the world could be, as well as fuel for the imagination.
#1227
http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj94/nichols.html

Maj David Nicholls, USAF
Maj Todor Tagarev, Bulgarian Air Force

For the last 30 years, the study of chaos has intrigued investigators, prompting many to see a great future for the study and application of chaos theory. In science and engineering, chaos theory has significantly improved our understanding of phenomena ranging from turbulence to weather to structural dynamics.  Chaos theory has even been used to drastically improve our ability to control some dynamic systems.  In the social sciences, there has been considerable interest in whether social phenomena, previously thought to be random, have an underlying chaotic order. Several mathematical tests for chaotic behavior have been applied to historical data from both the stock market and cotton prices. These tests indicate that these economic phenomena are chaotic and so have a deterministic basis (i.e., are governed by rules) as opposed to being random. Naturally, this has received some business attention, and at least two firms are now using chaos theory to guide their financial advice.

There is evidence that warfare might also be chaotic. First, strategic decision making, an integral part of war, has been found to be chaotic.  Second, nonlinearity, which is a requirement for chaotic behavior, appears to be a natural result of Clausewitzian friction.  Third, some computer war games6 and arms race simulations have been found to exhibit chaotic behavior. Fourth, previous work by the current authors applied several tests for chaos to historical data related to war. Those tests demonstrated that warfare is chaotic at the grand strategic, strategic, and operational levels.

An Overview of Chaos Theory


In this paper, we will discuss some important implications of chaos theory in the context of warfare. First, however, we will briefly summarize some important aspects of chaos theory.

Nonlinearity

If a system is linear, it means that the output of the system is linearly related to the input. In other words, if the input is doubled, the output will be doubled; if the input is tripled, the output will be tripled, and so on. In nonlinear systems, however, the output might be related to the square or the cube of the input. Such systems are often very sensitive to input. All chaotic systems are nonlinear.

Predictability of Chaotic Systems

Dynamic systems can differ from one another in how they change with time. In random systems, future behavior is independent of the initial state of the system and can be characterized only in terms of probabilities. For example, unless the dice are loaded, the next roll of the dice is totally independent of the previous roll. On the other hand, periodic systems return regularly to the same conditions, as exemplified by the pendulum clock. Such systems are totally predictable because once one period is known, all others must be identical. Chaotic systems are neither random nor periodic. They are not random because the future of a chaotic system is dependent upon initial conditions. They are not periodic because their behavior never repeats.

Chaotic systems never repeat exactly because their future behavior is extremely sensitive to initial conditions. Thus, infinitesimal differences in initial conditions eventually cause large changes in system behavior. An often-used example of this sensitivity is weather. Weather is so sensitive to initial conditions that there is a belief that the flap of a butterfly's wings in America could eventually cause a typhoon in China.  It is inconceivable that conditions on the earth could ever duplicate an earlier time to the point where even all butterfly flights are duplicated. Therefore, the earth's weather will never be periodic.

In addition to making chaotic systems aperiodic, extreme sensitivity to initial conditions means that it is not possible to determine the present conditions exactly enough to fully predict the future. Figure 1 illustrates this point. In figure 1, successive values for x are plotted resulting from the nonlinear equation xi+1 = 4xi - 4xi2. For one plot the initial value of x was 0.7. For the other plot it was 0.70001. Initially, they are indistinguishable from one another, but as time goes on, even such a small difference between the two is magnified until their behavior appears totally unrelated. Short-term predictions are still possible because small influences will not have had time to grow into large ones. However, what is short-term depends on how sensitive the system is to small changes at that point in time.

The importance of this concept is that it explains how a system can be governed by a set of equations and yet still be unpredictable. We cannot know the initial value of a system, such as that illustrated in figure 1, precisely enough to predict which path the system will follow. If warfare is chaotic, this tells us that we cannot make perfect predictions even if we could reduce war to a mechanistic set of equations. Fortunately, as is also illustrated by figure 1, there are bounds to the unpredictability of a chaotic system. Furthermore, chaos theory provides tools that can predict patterns of system behavior and can define bounds within which the behavior is unpredictable

http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj94/nic1.jpg

Phase Space

The construction of a phase space plot is often used to better understand chaotic behavior. A phase space plot is a plot of the parameters that describe system behavior. It is useful because it provides a pictorial perspective for examining the system. An example of a phase space plot for a simple pendulum is shown in figure 2. At point A in figure 2, the pendulum is the maximum positive distance from the bob's neutral point but its velocity is zero. This is shown as point A on the phase space diagram. At B the distance of the bob from its neutral position is zero, but its velocity is at a maximum (in a negative sense). The other points of the phase space plot show the relation between the velocity and position for other pendulum positions. In this case, where there is no friction, the motion of the pendulum is constrained to remain on the elliptical path shown in the phase space plot. The technical term for this ellipse is the attractor for the system. One can see that this attractor is periodic because the path of the system exactly repeats itself in each orbit around the origin.

http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj94/nic2.jpg

In contrast, figure 3 shows an attractor for a chaotic system. This attractor is a tangled mess of trajectories. The complexity of this attractor has led to its being dubbed a strange attractor. Although there are still constraints as to how the system behaves, there are a lot more possible states for the system. It is important to note that the phase space paths of a chaotic system will never coincide. If this were to happen, the system would become periodic. The longer a chaotic system is observed the more paths are taken and the messier the phase space plot of the attractor appears. Superficially, the attractor may appear to be completely disorganized. Closer examination of the phase space, however, reveals that the attractor is organized but in an unconventional manner.

http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj94/nic3.jpg

It is possible to simplify the portrayal of the attractor by taking a two-dimensional slice through it (shown in the lower half of figure 3). This also makes the structure of the attractor more obvious. This two-dimensional section is called a Poincar?© map.10

Fractals

We generally define things dimensionally in terms of integers. Lines are one-dimensional, planes are two-dimensional, and solids are three-dimensional. Fractals are objects with fractional dimensions. This concept appears at first sight to be nonsense. An object with a fractional dimension of 1.5, for example, would be more than a line but somehow less than a plane. Nevertheless, such things are not only thought to exist, but such geometries are central to chaos theory. One example of such a geometry, although it is not chaotic, is the Koch snowflake.

The Koch snowflake starts as an equilateral triangle. A one-third scale equilateral triangle is added to each side. A one-third scale triangle (of the new, smaller triangle) is then added to each side of the resulting figure. This process is continued ad infinitum as illustrated in figure 4.

http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj94/nic4.jpg

The perimeter of this shape has several unique features. First, although it is a single, continuous loop that does not intersect itself and that circumscribes a finite area, its length is infinite. Second, Benoit Mandelbrot calculated that the dimension of the perimeter of the Koch snowflake is 1.26.11 This means that the perimeter is between a line and a plane. Third, the shape of the perimeter of a Koch snowflake is self-scaling. That is, the perimeter would look the same whether you looked at it with the naked eye or with a powerful microscope.

These geometries are pertinent to chaos because strange attractors are fractal. Strange attractors, like the Koch snowflake, are infinite curves that never intersect within a finite area or volume. If a system is chaotic, it will have a strange attractor and the Poincar?© map will show fractal characteristics. That is, the Poincar?© map will remain similar regardless of scale.  Thus, Poincar?© maps can be used to determine if a system is chaotic by visually depicting the nature of the attractor. The dimension of the attractor can also be calculated. If an attractor's dimension is not an integer, then the system is chaotic.

Implications of the Presence of Chaos in Warfare Previous work examined historical data associated with the grand strategic, strategic, and operational levels of war. That work showed that war is chaotic on all of these levels. If war is chaotic, then it must have the characteristics of a chaotic system. We will now describe some of the characteristics of chaotic systems and define what they mean in the context of warfare.

Computer Simulation Can Enhance Understanding

Computer numerical modeling or simulation has greatly increased our understanding of physical chaotic systems. The reason for this is that the equations that govern chaotic systems are nonlinear and therefore are generally not analytically soluble. Chaos theory, however, cannot be used by itself to derive a theory of warfare. As with any other theory that describes a phenomenon, a theory of warfare must be based upon observation, hypothesis, and testing. Specifically, development of a model of warfare would require the development of the structure of the model, the determination of the number and type of variables, and the determination of the form of the equations. In addition, system parameters and control factors, as well as sources for noise, would have to be identified. This is a very difficult task for any particular situation that is complicated by the possibility that different models might apply for different antagonists.

Chaos theory can help us by suggesting ways to develop our model and ways to use the model once it is developed. For example, observation of a chaotic system can be used to determine the dimension of the system. The number of variables needed to describe the system must at least equal the dimension of the system. Therefore, chaos theory can be used to define the minimum number of variables required in our computer model. Chaos theory also suggests that computer models of warfare must contain some nonlinear relationships between system variables so that the computer model is chaotic and thus reflects the chaotic nature of warfare. This may actually prove to be advantageous since the fractal nature of chaotic systems may allow relatively small and simple war games to accurately simulate warfare. Realistic war games that could be run on a desktop computer would have significant educational and operational advantages. Finally, the rate of information loss can be calculated for a chaotic system. This quantity is related to how far into the future predictions can reasonably be made.

The ways in which computers have been used to understand chaotic behavior in physical systems also suggest ways to use the computer to model warfare. For example, although chaos theory explains some aspect of the weather, the reader has probably noted that weather forecasting has not become perfect. This criticism, however, misses one of the most important contributions that chaos theory has made to weather prediction--chaos has given weather forecasters a means to determine if their forecasts are likely to be accurate. Chaotic systems are highly dependent upon initial conditions but they are not always equally so. If a chaotic system is in a portion of its phase space where the initial conditions are critical, then uncertainty in determining the initial conditions makes a large number of outcomes possible. If a chaotic system is in a region of its phase space where the initial conditions are not critical, then only one outcome (prediction) is likely. In practice, weather forecasters use this behavior by inputting small changes in initial conditions into their model. If the small changes produce small variations in the prediction, they have shown that the system is in a portion of phase space where the initial conditions are not critical and their prediction is likely to be true. If the minor changes in initial conditions produce large deviations in future behavior, forecasters know that their prediction is likely to be in error.

The same approach could be taken to understand when predictions in warfare are likely to be accurate. This in itself would be a valuable contribution of computer simulation to understanding warfare. There are, however, two additional reasons why this approach may be even more applicable to warfare than it is to weather. First, unlike weather forecasters, we have some ability to change the initial conditions. Specifically, if we find ourselves in a region of great uncertainty, we could determine which conditions would have to be changed to move the system to a position where the outcome was predictable and desirable. The quantity and type of forces are examples of initial conditions that we might be able to change. Second, we could use our model to determine which initial conditions and which variables had the most profound effect on our predictions. This would aid in identifying centers of gravity (COG) and information that we needed to know precisely. That is, it would tell us where to concentrate our attack and what intelligence information was most critical.

#1228
I just had a genius idea.
#1229
Typically an ideology has three components, a Descriptive, Prescriptive and Strategy section.  Descriptive describes the world as it is, Prescriptive describes how the world should be and Strategy is how you move from one to the other.

I have my own ill-defined thoughts on the issue, but I would like to hear others ideas first.
#1230
WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?

This isn't the latest reality teevee show!  This isn't the coolest new electronic trinket!  It isn't a ringtone! So why the hell are you messing with it?  You'd better put this down, before someone sees you...you might get in trouble, or worse!  You might even look stupid and uncool!

Listen, genius...the powers that be work very hard to insure that you have all the information and entertainment that they think you need.  And THIS is how you thank them?  By reading some subversive flyer that was probably left here by some British-hating freak?  Huh?  Well, that's gratitude for you.

Shouldn't you just put this down, and go turn on the television?  You're probably missing something that you just can't live without.  What's gonna happen during your 20 minute lunch break, when everyone's talking about X Factor, and you missed it?  What then?  You'll be a pariah. Your coworkers will laugh at you behind your back, and you'll be "off the team".  Good luck with that next promotion, Trevor!

So, look...just put this down quick, before anyone notices you reading it, and we'll pretend this never happened, okay? Now, get back to work, and pay attention to what you are supposed to be paying attention to!

Or Kill Me.






























THERE IS NO CONSPIRACY!
Written in the spirit by The Good Reverend Roger.

Despite any rumors you may have heard, there is no conspiracy.  Certainly not one formed by asshats and jackasses commonly known as Discordians and Subgenii.  These groups are too silly and self-absorbed to do anything like attack the evils that beset our society by using The Machine's very own neuroprogramming techniques (which, of course, don't exist). Anyone who says differently should get themselves a tinfoil beanie.

Indeed, the very idea of some secret cabal of weirdos, freaks, and mutants out to topple the monolith that we used to call our government is ludicrous. Especially given their non-violent methodology.  Everyone knows that revolutions only come with guns and near-mythical hero-figures, right?  The notion that some nebulous group is out there subverting people with imagery and printed words designed to alter moods and behaviors is simply science fiction of the wildest, most escapist variety.

Even if there was, what could they possibly hope to accomplish? After all, life in the UK is perfect right now, isn't it?  Things couldn't possibly be any better!  Unless you've been outsourced, or were born with dark skin, or have weird ideas about civil liberties...but then you really don't count, anyway.

So relax, citizens, ignore that feeling of the ground shifting beneath your feet, and discount any bizarre rumors you may have heard.  Britain is secure, the economy is great, and you have tons of stuff to watch on teevee.  And Robin Cook and David Kelley both died natural deaths, and everything has been great since then, anyway. Just grab a beer, turn on X Factor, and...

GO BACK TO SLEEP!

Or Kill Me.

























WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?
Written in the spirit by The Good Reverend Roger.

Well? What happened? When did the UK turn into a huge collection of sissies, begging for our rights to be repealed for our "protection"? That's not Britain!  That's China, or North Korea. What the HELL are we doing?

So far, we've pretty much tossed away our entire rights, along with most of the rest of the parliamentary checks on absolute power. Politically sanctioned wiretaps, limits on protests and free speech, a bag full of useless wars that not even the PRIME MINISTER can properly explain, torture, suspension of habeas corpus...the list goes on and on.

Don't mind that grinding noise, Britain...That's just John Stuart Mill grinding his wooden choppers in his grave.

And don't even think of blaming your government, people. Because, hey, who the hell elected them? Who stood by while "both" parties stripped away our sacred liberties? Who?

That's right. It was YOU, Trevor. Shame on you. Shame on you for pissing on the graves of our forefathers, who fought for liberty against foes both foreign and domestic. Shame on you for wanting to be slaves. And now you are finally getting the government you deserve.

Or Kill Me.





























HEY, SUCKER!
Written in the spirit by The Good Reverend Roger.

Yeah, you. What the HELL do you think you're doing? Just look at yourself...wearing clothes you hate, paid to say and do things you hate, dealing with people you hate. However much they're paying you, it isn't enough.

You are supposed to be working to have a "better life". Well, are you? Is it better? Or are you simply toiling away for the privelege of doing it again tomorrow? Guess what, Bunky...working towards the future is BULLSHIT, because - as far as you know - this IS the future! If you got hit by a bus tomorrow, what would be on your tombstone? "I regret I only had one life to spend at the office"? For Chrissakes.

Well, I have news for you, chump. Hell has an express lane, and it's crammed nut-to-butt with people like you, who threw away their lives staring into their damn coffees and jabbering about work into their cell phones when they were supposed to be out having FUN. Remember fun? Remember just saying to hell with it, and screwing off for a weekend, not even ONCE thinking about the daily grind? How long has it been? Well, too late now, you pitiful drone!  They OWN you, on the job and off, and - even though you could - you're not gonna do a damn thing about it, are you? No, I very much doubt you will...And, thus, you are damned.

But don't worry too much about hell, Slappy...Hell is what you settle for, and you've been there for years.

Or Kill Me.



























TELL YOURSELF EVERYTHING'S FINE.
Written in the spirit by The Good Reverend Roger.

Relax.  Everything is gonna be okay.  At least that's what you tell yourselves, while pretending that the alarm klaxons and red warning lights are just part of your city's "Celebration of Freedom".  You pretend that the groaning noise of the supports giving way is just the sound of the house "settling".

Go ahead...put your head in the sand.  After all, if you can't see them, they can't see you, and that means they can't get you, right?  And who are they?

Look around you.  Creditors call at ungodly hours, MI5 is listening to you phone, Special Branch is reading your mail, CEOs are selling your future, and politicians are lining up to feed your children to the meatgrinder in Afghanistan.

I can hear you now..."But they aren't after me", you whine, "I pay my taxes!  I am a good citizen!".  Well, of course they aren't out to get you, because you've been had all along.  You've been miserable so long that you can't even feel the hook in your mouth, because it's completely surrounded with scar tissue.  Odds are, you don't even remember what it's like to actually feel good!

So wake the hell up, jackass!  It turns out that your "Dream life" really consists of you sitting on the couch watching the latest "reality teevee" show, in a cold sweat, while you ponder your bone crushing level of debt.  Your kids despise you, and will never know that you used to be cool! WAKE UP!  Get off that damned couch! Kill that teevee! Kick a boot through the life-stealing thing!  Get your spouse and your kids, and go do something that doesn't involve television or drinking! Go bowling, or play footie, or just go to the friggin' museum!

FOR GOD'S SAKE, RUN WHILE YOU STILL HAVE LEGS!

AAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Or Kill Me.





















SO, YOU HAD ANOTHER BAD DAY.
Written in the spirit by The Good Reverend Roger.

It was a real booger, wasn't it, Sparky?  My guess is, you've had more than your share of those. In fact, ask yourself when was the last time you had a good day?  Can you even remember? Hell, maybe it was so long ago that you are starting to believe that bad days are the normal state of affairs.

Not so...or, at least, only if you allow it.  Co-workers stabbing you in the back, or just pissing you off with their narrow-minded attitudes and laziness?  Tell 'em to fuck off.  Seriously.  You'll feel much better.  Is your boss on your case?  Stop caring.  Do whatever it takes to get by, and feel free to throw a monkey wrench or two into the gears. The worst they can do is fire you, and if you're already miserable, who cares?  There are other jobs, and nobody checks references anyway.

Stop taking this crap! You aren't paid enough for this shit! Join those of us who have discovered that being bad feels good!  Listen up, Slappy...none of these jackasses give a damn if you live or die, so why the HELL are you being so damn NICE?  Drop a train on those geeks!  Stop being a "Bob"-damned drone, for Chrissakes!  Turn your nightmare back into the Dream life!  Get some serious weirdness back into your life! You only get one life, and yours is trickling away!

FOR GOD'S SAKE, LIVE A LITTLE!

Or kill Me.






























DID YOU EVER GET THE FEELING...
Written in the spirit by The Good Reverend Roger.

...That you are the butt of some horrible joke? That the society you live in is one huge, hideous sham?  Well, you just might be right...just look around you.  Nothing works, anymore.  Your job is boring.  You don't actually have any fun, anymore.  Your teevee is crammed full of pollyanna crap that you can't stand, but you watch it anyway.  Even your church has gone sour, filled with holier-than-thou jackasses that delight in the failings of others.  You don't even remember, really, the last time you laughed until your guts bled.

Sound familiar? Of course it does. It's that way for everybody.

Well, almost.  There are still a few of us out to have a blast, and maybe even a few cheap yuks at the expense of those who still believe in Rule Britannia and the Almighty Pound.  Whoa, there...does that sound un-British to you?  Of course it does, because you've been conditioned since birth to view these things as Gods...even though they are nothing more than social fictions. Fact is, our attitude is British as hell...Monty Python and co would recognize us, and call us their kin. They understood, you see, that it isn't easy, having a good time. You gotta TRY to laugh at this sorry version of hell that the UK has become...but it's worth it.

You see, what we call "Britain" today is a farce, a grand comedy in which the lead roles are played by Nazis dressed up as Bolsheviks. We have plenty of capitalism, but no free enterprise (believe it or not, they are two separate and diametrically opposed things).

If you can't crack horrible jokes about things other people won't even bring up, then maybe you better forget you ever saw this. But if you find the current rolling disaster as funny as we do, go to  http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum and join the asshat revolution. It's a hopeless cause, of course, but the people WE want shouldn't be bothered by little things like that.

Do you know how weird things really are? We do.

Or Kill Me.




















GIVE UP.
Written in the spirit by The Good Reverend Roger.

That's right, just give up.  It really is easier to ignore how the government and your fellow citizens dump on you.  It's easier to just get by, and make yourself forget that you were born a free person.  It's easier to simply not think about how corporations have totally taken over every aspect of your life.

Good Doggie.

Face it, schmoe, you're just one cog in a vast machine, right?  Nothing you say or do counts, anyway, so why make waves?  Right right right?

You make me sick.  What the hell are you...A human or a sheep?  I have bad news for you, you schlep...Sheep get shorn...and eventually, they go on the dinner plate.  For God's sake, walk on your hind legs!  These jackasses that make your life a living hell are NOT invincible.  They're just gasbags that got were they are through luck and sheer bullshit!  They're no better than you, and - here's a little secret - they have no real power over you.

The sad thing is that you'll never believe that.  You'll just continue letting them shit on you, and telling you lies.  Lies like how, if you just put up with it long enough, it will be YOUR turn to shit on someone. HAW HAW! SUCKER!  You'll be believing that until the day they shove your carcass into a hole in the ground.  Well, too bad, jerk!  The odds of you becoming rich and powerful "some day" are about the same as you being hit by lightning while holding a winning lottery ticket.  You keep believing that Margaret Thatcher bullshit, and you'll be the sucker that they already know you are.

But you aren't really listening, are you?  No, of course not.  Go back to your hovel, turn Celebrity Big Brother on, and fantasize about the day that your turn will come.  Don't bother thinking about how to stop being a chump, and if that scream building in your gut just turns into a yawn, relax.  That's just your soul, going down for the last time.

Or Kill Me.





















It Only Hurts When I Laugh.
Written in the Spirit by The Good Reverend Roger.

Friends, doesn't it seem like life has become some horrible rollercoaster?  Like things are moving too fast, and there's nobody in control?  Well, the First Church of the Wrath of Baby Jesus has the solution:

Give up.

That's right, stop trying.  Getting by in life these days is like trying to get with that boy/girl/prairie squid, back in high school.  If you try too hard, you'll just mess up, and wind up going to prom with your cousin.  Again.

Now, this isn't to say you shouldn't DO anything...but just do it with omnifallibility in mind.  Fact is, you ARE going to make mistakes, no matter what you do...so stop worrying.  Most people, of course, will start wars to avoid admitting they make a mistake.  Here at The Church, we get nekkid and ROLL in our mistakes!

Now, it takes a lot of practice to attune yourself to The Art of Not Trying, so you'd better get started now.  Gonna be late for work?  Piss on it...it ain't the end of the world.  Spending all your time looking in the mirror and obsessing about your weight?  Screw it.  Go have a sundae, and then start thinking about what you like about yourself.  Find enough things to like, and suddenly you won't want that sundae, and you'll be amazed at how fast the pounds melt away (unless you're an anorexic, in which case you'll suddenly notice that you aren't a blimp, and you'll go have another sundae).

You see, we here at The Church used to worry like you do.  We worried about war, the economy, babies having babies, you name it.  But then it occurred to us that the humans can't help being the way they are, and WE sure as hell can't change them, so we may as well get our cheap yuks in while we can (Sometimes we laugh until we can't stop screaming).  Recently, we've had a lot to laugh about...and so would you, if you'd just learn to see the humorous side of Doom.

So, if you want to be like us, laughing until your guts bleed at things that most people won't even bring up, come join us at http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum  And if you DON'T want to be like us, come anyway (somebody has to be the butt of the joke, after all).

YOU MAY NOW STOP WORRYING FOREVER.

Or Kill me.
#1231
Or Kill Me / SBOTD Rant: Bad Faith
March 01, 2007, 04:41:32 PM
One of the basic claims of Discordianism is that we are radically free to choose and act as we wish.  Its spelled out on page 00008 and has remained one of the few things almost all Discordians can agree on.  You are free, not you can be free or freedom is available to you, but right now, at this very second, you are an independent agent who is capable of making choices and taking responsibility for them, because only you caused them.

However, many people try to avoid this freedom, precisely because they dread responsibility.  I don't have to tell you about most of these, the conservatives who put faith in tradition, the Christians who put faith in being part of God's plan and every other person who constructs a worldview that puts them at the mercy of higher powers and the world in general.  Victim mentalities, often where no victimization exists.

In short, we choose social roles and institutions and norms in order to escape our freedom, to give it away and abdicate responsibility.  One of the most insidious of these is Discordianism, precisely because it proclaims freedom so openly and positively.

Many Discordians feel they should or actively do play the role of someone who is a bit ,Äúzany,Äù, slightly unpredictable (though tiresomely predictable within a certain range) and given to bad faux-surrealism and Dada.  I should point out not everyone is like this and there are some people who have always been like that.  This is not directed at those people.  Instead, it is directed at people who play that role because they feel this is how a Discordian should be and/or want to fit into the Discordian community more.

This is simply not true.  You have an idea taken from an incomplete impression of the Principia Discordia, with an all too Cabbage-like need for acceptance from your chosen set of peers.  In short, you laughed at all the wrong parts and took seriously the ones you were meant to find funny.

First off, you're falling into the ,Äúconformity of the radical,Äù fallacy.  That every radical group or gathering etc should have a narrowly defined set of behaviour and interests and those acting outside of it are ,Äúposeurs,Äù or fakes of some description.  Remember that bit in the Principia about people belonging to the Orders of Discordia just as likely carrying a flag of the counter-establishment as the establishment?  Good.

Secondly, your actions and behaviour are suggesting to the rest of the world that you are playing the role of a Discordian, that you are an automaton whose only purpose is to act out the essence of being a Discordian.  This is basically a paradox, you are using your freedom to actively deny it.  ,ÄúI'm a Discordian, I'm supposed to act crazy!,Äù etc.  A very interesting position.

Of course, Discordianism is no stranger to paradoxes.  But normally they are used to illustrate a point in a humorous manner, or draw attention to some inconsistency in a viewpoint.  Also, Discordians do have a commitment of sorts to freedom, as previously stated.  Obviously everyone does, but to be fair its not often as explicitly stated.

The thing is, you can't escape freedom.  By making a choice to act like your idea of a Discordian, you may be denying it, but you are responsible for your choice at the same time.  So what you should really ask yourself is ,Äúis this really the best way to exercise my freedom?  Or should I, as a free person, act as I see fit, instead of how I think others will approve of me?,Äù

I know where I stand on the issue.
#1232
Or Kill Me / Fascism: the real deal
February 25, 2007, 11:45:06 PM
Many political words are similarly abused. The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies "something not desirable."
- George Orwell, Politics and the English Language.

Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power
- Benito Mussolini

Why need we trouble to socialize banks and factories? We socialize human beings.
- Adolf Hitler

The word Fascism is bandied around a lot these days.  ,ÄúOh President Bush/my parents/teh librul medias/someone else I really don't like are fascists,Äù.  In fact, as Orwell noted as soon as the years immediately preceding WWII, the term Fascism, which had before the war meant a specific political ideology, had become nothing more than another political buzzword, rather in the way ,Äúfreedom,Äù or ,Äúsecurity,Äù has become today.

Occasionally, somebody will use what looks like, on the surface, a more useful variation, to describe an authoritarian dictatorship.  However, this is even more misleading.  Its most common use is an invocation of ,ÄúGodwin's Law,Äù, to justify modern military intervention.  Saddam Hussein was not a Fascist.  Neither were the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.  Both were totalitarian nightmares where dissent would likely put you in a dungeon, but that doesn't make the cut.  Fascism is special and we should be fortunate there have been very few historical examples of it at all.

The problem is using a word that you do not know about will invariably mean that when someone who does know what it means challenges you, you end up looking like an idiot.  Furthermore, knowing the peculiarities of the ideology will mean you are more capable at noting any further resurgence, which is entirely possible in the current political climate, albeit under modified circumstances.  Note: for the purposes of this essay, I am treating Fascism and Nazism as the same, with the latter being an especially virulent version of the former.  There are minor differences, but they are more related to the German feelings of grievance for the past 150 odd years and difference in emphasis on the state and people.

Lets start with the basics.  A fascist state is always an industrial one.  Always.  Modern society is a prerequisite for the political conditions which can bring a Nazi party into power.  Thats because the basic purpose of the movement is to bring meaning back to contemporary existence, which is often considered as empty or lacking due to lack of religious fervour, increasing globalization and growth of rational biased movements (Socialism, Liberalism etc).

To bring back meaning, the state is set up as a new deity.  This is not uncommon among most dictatorships, usually accompanied with a cult of the personality, but in Fascism the state will have a specific meaning in historical, cultural and biological terms which will likely clash with its more legal definition.  For the best example, Germany, the country ,ÄúGermany,Äù became linked to those who spoke German, had German culture and historical links with Germany.  So, naturally, the Germans in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Austrians were considered all to be part of the ,ÄúGreater Nation,Äù.  Anyone who did not share this was not German.  So Jews and Gypsies, not accepting the culture and 'biology' of Germans were not considered citizens and could not become one, in stark contrast to today where one can become British or American via a nationality test.

Hypernationalism will be the consequence of the stress placed on the historic importance and place of the nation.  Almost always it will be considered exceptional for reasons in its history (the British Empire, the Roman Empire, American victory in the Cold War, German cultural influence etc) but has recently been robbed of this and things ,Äúneed to be set right,Äù.  Focus will be placed on the military as the instrument of the state in claiming and keeping its special status.

Fascism is often called collectivist, which is broadly correct.  However, since the term is usually a libertarian slur for anyone on the left who disagrees with them, I will extend this somewhat.  Collectivist purely means a society where stress is placed on the community over the individual.  Obviously, this has authoritarian undertones, but is not necessarily a trait of the left, as is often surmised by right wing supporters.  In Communism, the collective is (at least in theory) organized from the bottom up.  The workers take control of the means of production, no-one else.  And in fact, as we can see in Soviet history, this has mostly been true.  Anyone with an ounce of common sense would not locate factories thousands of miles away from both the raw materials and markets, or piss away their only foreign traded resource, for nearly nothing, in sweetheart deals to their allies.

Nazism, by contrast, is corporatist.  That is to say, it is organized from the top down into a collective unit, by the state and its allies in industry.  This is why corporations and fascism are so closely related, because the former is a microcosm of the latter.  Its also a clever trick that often brings the working classes into bed with the Fascist party, as with Germany with Gregor Strasser or the BNP in the UK.  It appears to be working to the benefit of the workers, as well as stressing nationalism, thus gaining widespread appeal.  Sometimes this can degenerate into National Bolshevism, but more usually the higher ranks of the party will control or remove that faction.

Naturally, this left wing rhetoric will totally vanish when the party comes to power, usually by a combination of externally caused crisis, internal disorder and mass street violence.  The crisis creates a need for exceptional solutions, which fascists preach.  Internal disorder is often caused by groups allies with the party, along with general crime which may be exacerbated by the crisis.  Mass street violence will end up intimidating both minor parties and mainstream ones on the local level, leading to a dangerous polarization in the politics of the nation.  Only those brutal enough to use violence to enforce their will can have a say in the political process.

Along with the vanish in shamelessly fake left wing rhetoric will come a new found respect for the middle classes and in ,Äúprotecting them,Äù against a whole host of imaginary hobgoblins the Nazis will have seized upon as threatening the nation.  Be it Jews, Muslims or Atheists, they will be defined as incapable of existing alongside the people of the nation.  Historically, biological reasons would be given, nowadays, culture is where the emphasis is usually placed, being as it is in the mouth of fascists, a code word meaning ,Äúdirty foreigners,Äù.

However, the economic policies that are put in place by the new ruling party almost always destroy the middle class, as it is a possible area of resistance to the total control of the state.  Once internal enemies are ,Äúpurged,Äù, this economic configuration, along with emphasis on self-sufficiency will invariably result in territorial expansion.  No doubt, the fascist economy needs expansionism to exist and will eventually fall into recession without it.

Religion is usually of secondary purpose to the party.  Despite a close alliance in Spain, the relationship is usually collaborative with the largest groups either siding with the party or being harassed into exile.  Religion will be interpreted to serve the interests of the state, though it will often be mistrusted by those in power as another possible rival for control.

Fascism is always racist, though the groups chosen will vary a lot based on context.  Jews will always be targets for their streak of mystical individualism they introduced into Europe and for ,Äúkilling Jesus,Äù, whom Nazis tend to hold in high respect for some odd reason.  In the current political climate, Muslims are another easy target, whereas more obvious anti-Semitism has been toned down, because it is partly recognized as an election loser and because of support for Israel against Muslims. 

In summation, fascism is a radical and revolutionary right wing movement, which incorporates elements of the left as part of its cynical bid for power.  Revolutionary, it wants nothing less than the total recreation and reorganization of society.  Its basis is in violence, worship of the state, hypernationalist racism, militarism and expansion.  The individual means nothing and the only truth is force.  In short, it is the exaltation of the executioner by the executioner, torture by the torturer and sadism by the sadist. 
#1233
Literate Chaotic / ITT: Modern Bible Translation
February 25, 2007, 09:47:52 PM
Example one (by George Orwell)

I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.


Into......

Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.
#1234
Literate Chaotic / Paranoia
February 20, 2007, 11:07:43 PM
I open my eyes as something drags me abruptly from my sleep.  The harsh tones of a phone are ringing, violating the sanctity of my rest.  Rubbing my eyes,my hand reaches to take the sheet off me as I swing my legs out of bed.

Looking at the window, I can see that its light outside, though the curtains are closed.  The clock on my beside table reads 15:27.

Oh god I feel awful.  Its that terrible feeling of not having quite enough sleep, mixed with getting up at an odd time and having the driest throat possible.  And that bloody phone is still ringing.  Still unable to see straight, I desperately scrabble on the floor for...something.  Anything liquid.  My hand grasps the slender neck of some bottle and without a second thought I pick it up and swig the contents.

Scotch burns down my throat as I splutter and nearly choke.  Now I feel really bad, but at least I'm awake and alert.  Steadying myself, I blink, then manage to lurch towards the white plastic device.  Dead line.  Damn, wrong one, where's the mobile?  Shaking my head, I finally wrap my hands around it and press receive.

,ÄúHello?,Äù I whisper.
,ÄúAh, yes, hi.,Äù  Male voice, somewhat hesitant, but otherwise lucid seeming and in control.  The voice went on ,ÄúI was referred by Liam.,Äù
,ÄúWhats this about?,Äù
,ÄúI have a job that needs doing.  Are you available?,Äù
,ÄúOf course.  What sort of work are we talking about here?,Äù
,ÄúSomething within your skill set.  An item has to be retrieved from a courier who may be...difficult.,Äù
,ÄúI see.  And who am I working for?,Äù
,ÄúI'm not at liberty to say.,Äù
,ÄúGoodbye.,Äù  I went to hang up the call when I heard frantic shouting from the end of the line.

,ÄúWait!  Why would you turn this down?  The company hasn't been heard from in 3 months now.  We can pay just as well, if not better.,Äù
,ÄúJust because you know about the company doesn't make you any more reputable than before, in fact rather the opposite.  I think its best we ended this call.,Äù
,ÄúHold on!  We can meet, allay your concerns!  I insist.,Äù
,ÄúThen desist.  I will talk only to my employers.  At a venue of my choosing.,Äù
,ÄúYou're presumptuous, Drake.,Äù
,ÄúAnd you're less than an idiot.  So would I be, if I did any less than I demand now.,Äù
,ÄúYou dare-,Äù
,ÄúYes, I do, quite frankly.  You're only one client and my list of jobs is growing.  The market for ex-company employee's isn't as big as you'd think, so I'm doing rather well.  Now whats going to happen is in 10 minutes I'm going to call you back, and I'll expect to be talking to the man.  Or else, this SIM card will be fried and you'll never have contact with me again.  Understood?,Äù

I hung up and took a deep breath.  Hardball.  It was always the way to play the game.  Not that what I said wasn't true, because it was, but you had to watch yourself in this sort of business.  No-one else would, after all.

7 minutes later, the call came.
#1235
Think for Yourself, Schmuck! / R D Laing
February 17, 2007, 12:32:36 AM
Laing argued that the strange behaviour and seemingly confused speech of people undergoing a psychotic episode were ultimately understandable as an attempt to communicate worries and concerns, often in situations where this was not possible or not permitted. Laing stressed the role of society, and particularly the family, in the development of madness. He argued that individuals can often be put in impossible situations, where they are unable to conform to the conflicting expectations of their peers, leading to a 'lose-lose situation' and immense mental distress for the individuals concerned. (In 1956, Gregory Bateson articulated a related theory of schizophrenia as stemming from Double Bind situations.)

Laing was involved in research linking development of psychosis to family background. Despite supporting evidence, this has been controversial ever since, and the influence of parents who feel 'blamed' for a child's diagnosis of schizophrenia accounts for most of Laing's unpopularity in many circles. It was an inappropriate attribution by commentators who had not grasped the breadth of Laing's view of the nature of pathogenesis in families, as he had maintained throughout his career that parents are equally mystified, and unaware of the disturbed nature of the patterns of communication.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._D._Laing


Interesting, especially the Double Bind connection.  I'm seeing potential for this both in terms of O:MF and general communications ideas.
#1236
Literate Chaotic / Mega-lol wingnut war poetry
February 16, 2007, 05:28:18 PM
In Iraq an IED explodes,
An American soldier dies,
But that blast will grow as the media blow
It up before our eyes.
And trumpet to the watching world,
These fifth column falsifiers,
Like sheep they bleat we face defeat,
Our foe's force multipliers.

Osama and his minions know,
In combat they can't beat us;
So they hope and pray will come a day,
Our own media will defeat us.
Ignoring all the good we've done,
Liberals focus on the gore,
On losses mounting and body counting,
To prove we've lost this war.

They disgraced us once in Vietnam,
So now these leftists feel,
That again they'll win with media spin,
And make America kneel.
But defeatists aren't the only ones,
Learned lessons from the past;
Back then we swore we'd lose no more,
This time we're standing fast.

The Internet's exposed them,
As elitist media liars;
They stand unclothed and widely loathed,
Our foe's force multipliers.
Some day when all our troops return,
With Iraq on freedom's path,
The liberal elite who sought defeat,
May face some Righteous wrath.

...







































:lulz: :lulz: :lulz: :lulz: :lulz: :lulz: :lulz: :lulz: :lulz: :lulz: :lulz:
:lulz: :lulz: :lulz: :lulz: :lulz: :lulz: :lulz: :lulz: :lulz: :lulz: :lulz:
:lulz:
#1237
Literate Chaotic / Insomnia
February 14, 2007, 02:25:25 AM
I light a cigarette, because I can't sleep.  Dirty habit I picked up, but I rarely do it at all, so I don't feel too much guilt.  Once again its past midnight and I'm still up, my mind buzzing away long after it should.

I'm outside with the cold air, just a light breeze really, brushing against my face as I look towards the town at night.  Its pretty inviting, the desire to just walk over, as the last few stragglers are making their way home and do...something.  I used to, not that long ago even, but I'm not in the mood tonight, I can't summon the will to raise hell at the drop of a hat like I once did.

I take another drag, with my mind still putting in the overtime.  Did last night's little escapade affect anything?  Well, apart from half a dozen enraged Marxists and some very startled bar staff?  In the heat of the moment, the planning and execution, it all seems so...perfect.  But then the down hits you as always, when you watch them scurry away, not laughing at something any objective person would consider hilarious and carefully rebuild their fractured little world.

And of course, this has even less of an effect at a level I want it to.  Something would be nice to work with, some degree of infamy, a truly 100% deserving target, anything.  Something I can work up from.  Of course, the only area I do have any influence is the one where I can't use it...hows that irony for you? 

I could just watch TV or a film.  But there's nothing there to interest me.  Not much can consume me and wear me out any more...people are starting to notice, too.  They assumed I was just being an elitist snob when I expressed no interest in the latest reality TV program or new teen drama.  And I probably am, but its extended to the point that the entire media has alienated me.  Its not even disgust, its just one just wave of apathy, can't give a fuck-ism.  Sitting there and letting something else dictate my thoughts so totally, homogenizing my thinking with the rest of society...its an overreaction, but its still against much of what I stand for.

So little to do in this dead end town.  Little clubs, with their little committee meetings and careful planning, their votes which no-one ever dissents on but give that gloss of democracy to the ego-driven devices and qualifications to add to their CVs.  I knew I should have gone to a city, somewhere where the town doesn't shut down once 11pm rolls around.

But still, I've nearly worked myself to the state of tiredness I need to get some sleep.  Sure, its nearly 1am, and I need to be up early tomorrow, but I'll survive, somehow.  I always do.
#1238
http://www.righteouswarriortemple.org/New%20Folder/arcont.htm

Worth reading.  The book itself may still be available.
#1239
Communism is the death of the soul. It is the organization of total conformity - in short, of tyranny - and it is committed to making tyranny universal.
- Adlai E. Stevenson

Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force.
- George Bernard Shaw

Under capitalism man exploits man; under socialism the reverse is true

- Polish proverb


In 1806, Hegel commented on Napoleon's victory at the Battle of Jena, calling it the "End of History", as the revolutionary forces of France smashed the Prussians, ushering in a new political order.  In 1917, as the Bolsheviks fought throughout Russia, they proclaimed the first state in the world based on the theories of Karl Marx, the start of the end of History.  In 1989, a State Department official going by the name of Francis Fukuyama claimed the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the broken Communist control of the USSR also meant the end of History.

It took a long time, but finally the majority of the world came to the conclusion that there was something basic in Communism, as with Fascism and Nazism, that led inexorably towards murder, terror and state repression.  That the ideology was itself flawed and led to such terrible ends was finally realized after almost 80 years of self-deception on behalf of much of the Left.

However, it has not yet been widely realized that the same problem is now implanted in free market capitalism as well.  This is the problem of inevitable progress towards a goal which cannot be improved on, towards ending History and creating a Utopian world order based on the chosen philosophy.  The end of History means that the perfect ideological system has been discovered and all that is left is to let this idea dominate the globe.

Starting to see the similarities?

The problem is that there are a whole host of people who don't seem to share this view.  Fukuyama called them "those mired in History", a polite way of saying backward savages, it seems.  The posited totality and clarity of the argument simply does not hold up against the rest of the world.  And therein, the problems start.

Nietzsche was right, God is dead, at least in the realm of ideology (despite some spasms in the Middle East and the USA, which mostly seem to be to keep the proles in line).  In his place however, has been erected the Temple of Man, where it is promised Heaven will be recreated on earth.  Nothing has changed in 2000 years of history, the ideas change their cloaks but their aims remain the same.  Mankind has a purpose, a set start, an aim and final end, where a Utopia will be for the faithful and every evil is justified in working to that end.

The modern disciples of Adam Smith and David Ricardo have taken the most apocalyptic, messianic and prophetical predictions of those philosophers and spun them out of all proportion.  They are the modern revolutionaries, despite already holding most of the world's power, they seek to rework the entire globe in their image, much like Lenin and Stalin did.

Seeing this as the highest stage mankind could hope to obtain, they feel it is their divine duty to spread the word, by the force of the sword, if necessary.  For all its pretensions to personal freedom and individuality, the "free market" will be enforced from the top down, it will be thrust upon the masses as the supreme gift these disciples could give.  Therein lies another problem, that viewing it from such a collectivist point of view invariably means the individual can be discounted, removed or destroyed for the greater good.

The Free Market becomes the new arbiter of good and evil, an all powerful and judgemental deity who does not take into account morals, only the greater economic good.  Good comes to be defined by those who shove share prices and profit margins ever higher, in short those who obtain economic power.  A philosophy based on pure power as the sole determinant of morals is inherently nihilistic, and such nihilism leads to state terror and repression.  When there is no evil, except that which leads to loss of production, you are in the same place as a worker in the USSR 20 years ago.  Your individuality is reduced to what material worth you can produce and anything else is irrelevant.  The absolute freedom of that modern day capitalists preach is nothing more than the destruction of justice, because that freedom leads to the rule of the strong over the weak without check or balance.

When this is realized, it is easy to understand why ex-Marxists have turned to fanatical NeoConservativism or twelfth century style Catholicism, as in reality the changes are superficial and regardless of the message, the basic ideas and goals remain.  It also shows why western governments are now turning towards authoritarianism and why those most outspoken in their capitalist sentiments have no compunction about working with dictators  like General Pinochet, , the Chinese ,ÄúCommunist,Äù Party and Kazakhstan. 

What's really ironic however, is that these groups may be in fact doing Marx's work without realizing it.  Marx had noted a series of crises in capitalism in his time, crises which he felt would lead to the overthrow of the political-economic system.  This didn't happen because most states incorporated some centralized controls which held these in check.  By removing then, the free market disciples are becoming another suicide cult, yet again emulating its philosophical parentage.

Until then, like its relatives, it will remain one small group of men murdering, lying and stealing from others, ostensibly for their own good.
#1240
Literate Chaotic / Anarchist and Communist texts
February 02, 2007, 03:24:14 PM
http://libcom.org/library

Still worth reading, even if you don't agree with either theory.  Especially if you don't, in fact.
#1241
http://www.thearma.org/

Good stuff.  Got the core texts (including both George Silver books) and some interesting articles
#1242
Put links and text for all good propagandic stuff in here.  Anything else will be deleted or moved.
#1243
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberty-positive-negative/

(note: this is an academic site, so its possible it will not load on your server.  If this is the case, I will copy and paste relevant sections)

Isiah Berlin originally coined the differences between positive (bad) and negative (good) liberty.  Though he meant it in a political philosophy sense and not metaphysical/epistemologically, there can be some crossover and ideas of merit within the concepts.
#1244
LMNO, LHX, RWHN?  Care to comment?
#1245
Think for Yourself, Schmuck! / Situationism
January 23, 2007, 11:59:43 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situationist

Situationist refers to a member of the Situationist International (SI), a very small group of international political and artistic agitators with roots in Marxism, Lettrism and the early 20th century European artistic and political avant-gardes. Formed in 1957, the SI was active in Europe through the 1960s and aspired to major social and political transformations. In the 1960s it split into a number of different groups, including the Situationist Bauhaus, the Antinational and the Second Situationist International. The first SI disbanded in 1972.

The first issue of the journal Internationale Situationniste defined situationist as "having to do with the theory or practical activity of constructing situations. One who engages in the construction of situations. A member of the Situationist International". The same journal defined situationism as "a meaningless term improperly derived from the above. There is no such thing as situationism, which would mean a doctrine of interpretation of existing facts. The notion of situationism is obviously devised by antisituationists."

Situationist ideas have continued to echo profoundly through many aspects of culture and politics in Europe and the USA. Even in their own time, with limited translations of their dense theoretical texts, combined with their very successful self-mythologisation, the term 'situationist' was often used to refer to any rebel or outsider, rather than to a body of surrealist-inspired Marxist critical theory. As such, the term 'situationist' and those of 'spectacle' and 'detournement' have often been decontextualised and recuperated.

In political terms, in the 1960s and 1970s elements of Situationist critique influenced anarchists and other leftists, with various emphases and interpretations which combine Situationist concepts more or less successfully with a variety of other perspectives. Examples of these groups include: in Amsterdam, the Provos, in the UK King Mob, the producers of Heatwave magazine (who later briefy joined the SI) and the Angry Brigade. In the US, groups like Black Mask (later Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers), The Weathermen and the Rebel Worker group also explicitly employed their ideas.

In the 1980s and 90s, Situationist ideas were taken up by 'second wave' anarchists. These theorists, such as Bob Black, Hakim Bey, Fredy Perlman and John Zerzan developed the SI's ideas in various directions, but all attempted to remove the perspectives and proposed practices of the SI from a Marxist theoretical context. These theorists were predominantly associated with the magazines Fifth Estate, Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed and Green Anarchy, in which they developed these perspectives. Some hacker related e-zines, which like samizdat were distributed via email and FTP over early internet links and BBS quoted and developped ideas coming from SI. A few of them were N0 Way, N0 Route, UHF, in France; and early Phrack, CDC in the US. More recently, writers such as Thomas de Zengotita in "Mediated" wrote something which holds the spirit of situationism, describing the society of the "roaring zeroes" (i.e. 2000-).

Most recently, more politically heterogeneous radical groups such as Reclaim the Streets and Adbusters have respectively, seen themselves as 'creating situations' or practicing detournement on advertisments.

http://www.nothingness.org/SI/
#1246
Aneristic Illusions / Russel Brand pwns BNP knobs
January 15, 2007, 12:10:20 PM
#1247
Literate Chaotic / The Inevitable Dossier
January 10, 2007, 07:10:36 PM
Something passed onto me by a Neurocam Op, I was told it may be interesting for our sort of people.  210 page pdf file, so worth a read based on length alone:

http://theinevitabledossier.com/theinevitabledossier.pdf
#1248
Post-modern bullshit

What the hell has happened to the world?  Every half awake person must have asked themselves this question at some point.  It seems as if the last 200 years of genuine progress and curing social ills has been thrown out the window, around 1979 coincidentally, given the following examples.

If you don,Äôt think things are that crazy or bad, just think about this for a minute: the dominant philosophy currently on American campuses is that there is no such thing as ,Äúreality,Äù, that in fact reality is a textual construct about which pretty much anything can be said if made to sound obscure and edgy enough.  This isn,Äôt just some obscure philosophical abstraction - right now this is the dominant way of understanding most of the social sciences and literary analysis in general and is filtering down into the public very nicely.

But the insanity is not just confined to rigidly dogmatic American and European academics, this whole stinking planet is infested with those peddling insanely dangerous dreams, from the Mullahs in Iran to the ,Äútheologians,Äù of Deconstruction to the Vatican.  The Age of the Screaming Fanatic is upon us, you will believe or it will cost you your job and credibility, or maybe even your life.  The ideas matter little, because essentially they are all part of the same illness, the malaise that drives people to hate reality and the world around them and to conjure powerful theories to kill it off.  Nietzsche,Äôs Zarathustra talked of them at length, but he was mistaken in attacking Christianity, it was a symptom and not a cause as he believed.  The extent is far greater.

By making you distrust what you know and can prove, be it that evolution exists, that 1300 year old myths are not a good basis for policy or that there are in fact good reasons to resist fascism, they supplant reality with fables and ensnare you in chains.  ,ÄúThe truth shall make ye free,Äù is not just a pithy statement, it,Äôs an axiom that has been remembered in every successful venture.

You may wonder why post-modernism takes as much as my scorn as the reactionary neanderthals of Iran and the American mega-churches.  Its quite simple really, a methodology that was once quite useful at shattering the basis of oppressive and tyrannical ideologies became co-opted by them.  When declaring e=mc2 is a ,Äúsexed equation,Äù is considered a boldly transgressive example of leftist thought, you know your ideology is full of it, and not in a good way.  These theories, undermining the idea of an objective reality at all have made it impossible to tell fact from fiction and so create a meaningful social critique that may lead to some actual progress.

Of course, any sort of critical function is absolutely necessary to distinguish a Discordian from a Cabbage, but one needn,Äôt succumb to stupid notions about the world being a human generated swarm of varying interpretations with no basis to point out that, for example, the foreign policy of America is being run by idiots and criminals, or that the Taliban were knuckle dragging thugs who lived in the 13th century.

The gas chambers of Auschwitz were not a social fiction.  The carpet bombing and slow genocide of Chechnya is not a textual interpretation.  To subscribe to such notions is not only foolish, it is down right insulting, degrading and deadly.  Conservatives will often attack ,Äúliberal relativism,Äù, but then turn around and demand that their bullshit ,Äúcreationism,Äù must be taught because the children "must be exposed to all the theories that are out there", even when they are patent crap, it seems.  Post-modern leftists make sounds approving political and social freedom and in the next sentence praise post Iran for its ,Äúesoteric content,Äù, while the theocratic backed patrols stone adulterers and rape victims.  From the smallest bits of nonsense to national policy, these insanities infect everything.

Funnily enough, while this has always been in the background, to some degree, it really spilled out into the world at large in those crazy days of 1979-80.  In Iran, the oppressive regime of the Shah was dissolved and replaced by a bloodstained monster and religious fanatic from the dark ages, giving fuel to insane zealots over the region.  Margaret Thatcher and her laughably na?Øve ideas of unrestrained ,Äúcapitalism,Äù (read: state backed monopolies operating outside of the law) were suddenly tried on the guinea pig of the UK.  The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, giving the aforementioned zealots some advanced weapons training, a lot of cash, some crazy ideas about bringing down two empires and a lot of serious clout.  Finally, in America, the crowning achievement of the Enlightenment, that  had seized ,Äúthe sceptre from the tyrants hand,Äù and broken free from religious domination, the population voted in an evangelical Christian simpleton, who took the tide of his militant church going moron supporters straight to the White House and made it a dominant political force ever since.

It,Äôs a heady concoction indeed and one can see how all three intermingle and threaten to hand our lives over to obviously insane individuals.  One can promote pretty much anything with post-modernism, which is precisely why the NeoCons in America love it and have gotten away with so much by aping its techniques.  They have used post-modernist ideas in order to not just promote Christianity, but distort and undermine the very meaning of the legal system, which readily explains its degeneration into a Kafka-esque farce where ,Äúrendition,Äù and ,Äúcoercive interrogation techniques,Äù are used, instead of what the average person would call kidnap and torture.  Islamic fundamentalists, in a religious induced fit of a persecution complex then claim they are under threat and try to expand their faith, making Christians paranoid.  And so on, into a self-sustaining loop of mutual mistrust and twisted perception, which will incidentally crush everyone inbetween.

Under all three paradigms, there is no space for the defence of freedom or human rights.  Post-modernism gives us no reason not to kowtow to tyrants and Christianity and Islam, with the Divine Right of Kings and the powers of Caliph and Imam respectively, actively encourage it.  What free thinking and self-respecting individual would ever succumb to such theories?

At the last count, well over 3 billion.
#1249
Think for Yourself, Schmuck! / Extelligence
December 12, 2006, 07:40:50 PM
I was just wondering what you thought of the concept of extelligence and how it can be used both in breaking down and keeping a certain concept of reality:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extelligence
#1250
Or Kill Me / A PSA from Wilhelm Reich
December 11, 2006, 09:38:28 PM
Listen, Little Man: Your heritage is a burning diamond in your hand.

See yourself as you really are. Listen to what none of your leaders and representatives dares tell you: You are a "little, common man." Understand the double meaning of these words: "little" and "common."

You are afflicted with the emotional plague. You are sick, very sick, Little Man. It is not your fault. But it is your responsibility to rid yourself of this sickness.

You confuse the right to free speech and to criticism with irresponsible talk and poor jokes. He who has to protect the living against the emotional plague has to learn to use the right to free speech as we enjoy it in America at least as well for the good as the emotional plague misuses it for the bad. Granted equal right in the expression of opinion, the rational finally must win out.

What is important is not individual treatment but the prevention of mental disorders. You have locked up the crazy people, and the normal people manage this world. Who, then, is to blame for all the misery?

You have begun to play a governing role on this earth. It is on your thinking and your actions that the future of humanity depends. You give impotent people with evil intentions the power to represent you. Only too late do you realize that again and again you are being defrauded. You must come to realize that you make your little men your own oppressors, and that you made martyrs out of your truly great men.

You are different from the really great man in only one thing: The great man knows when and in what he is a little man. The little man does not know that he is little, and he is afraid of knowing it.

For you are afraid of life, Little Man, deadly afraid. You will murder it in the belief of doing it for the sake of "socialism," or "the state," or "national honor," or "the glory of God."

I recognized the deadly fear of the living in you, a fear which always makes you set out correctly and end wrongly. You had the happiness of humanity in your hands, and you have gambled it away. You had the world in your hands, and at the end you dropped your atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Through the centuries, you will shed blood where life should be protected, and will believe that you achieve freedom with the help of the hangman; thus you will find yourself again and again in the same morass.

I found what makes you a slave: YOU ARE YOUR OWN SLAVE-DRIVER. I have ceased to be willing to die for your freedom to be anybody's slave. I tell you: Only you yourself can be your liberator!

You yourself create all your misery, hour after hour, day after day. You think the goal justifies the means. You are wrong: The goal is in the path on which you arrive at it. Every step of today is your life of tomorrow. You stand on your head and you believe yourself dancing into the realm of freedom.

You could have long since become the master of your existence, if only your thinking were in the direction of truth. You are cowardly in your thinking, Little Man, because real thinking is accompanied by bodily feelings, and you are afraid of your body. Many great men have told you: Go back to your origin - listen to your inner voice - follow your true feelings - cherish love.

The kindly individual believes that all people are kindly and act accordingly. The plague individual believes that all people lie, swindle, steal and crave power. Clearly, then, the living is at a disadvantage and in danger.

There is only one antidote to the germs of the emotional plague in the mass individual: his own feeling of living life. The living does not ask for power but for its proper role in human life. It is based on the three pillars of love, work and knowledge.

You beg for happiness in life, but security is more important to you, even if it costs you your spine or your life. Your life will be good and secure when aliveness will mean more to you than security; love more than money; your freedom more than party line or public opinion; when your thinking will be in harmony with your feelings; when the teachers of your children will be better paid than the politicians; when you will have more respect for the love between man and woman than for a marriage license.

You will no longer believe that you "don't count." You will know and advocate your knowledge that you are the bearer of human society. Don't run away. Don't be afraid. It is not so terrible to be the responsible bearer of human society. Inflated leaders would have no soldiers and no arms if you clearly knew, and stood up for your knowledge, that a field has to yield wheat and a factory furniture or shoes, and not arms. All you have to do is to continue what you have always done and always want to do: to do your work, to let your children grow up happily, to love your mate.

You are GREAT, Little Man, when you are not small and petty. You are great when you carry on your trade lovingly, when you enjoy carving and building and painting and decorating and sowing, when you enjoy the blue sky and the deer and the dew and music and dancing, your growing children and the beautiful body of your woman or your man, when you learn to understand and think about life. You are great when you hold your grandchildren on your knees and tell them about times long past, when you look into an uncertain future with their trusting childlike curiosity, when you lull your newborn to sleep, when you sing the good old folk songs.

Follow the voice of your heart, even if it leads you off the path of timid souls. Do not become hard and embittered, even if life tortures you at times. There is only one thing that counts:

to live one's life well and happily.