Rant 66: Cracked

[Irreverend Hugh, KSC]

Rant 66
Cracked

,ÄúWestern democracy has become a parody. It allows the state to turn despot, to act, decide and plan on our behalf, and what is worse, when we consider the influence of the mass media, to think for us as well.,Äù-Jean Markale (from King of the Celts)

,ÄúAn eccentric Gaelic schoolmaster is quoted in the West of Scotland Magazine, who used to spout intelligible Gaelic imitations of Latin authors for hours,Äîsuch as, ,ÄòArma virumque cano.,Äô ,ÄòAirm a,Äôs fir se chanum.,Äô The dominie said he was cracked, but there was method in his madness.,Äù
J.F. Campbell in 1860 (from Popular Tales of the West Highlands vol. 4, pg. 348)

Is madness a method? Or is method a madness? Or is the madness in distinguishing between the two? To be closest to honesty, who can really say? Can you say? How do you know that your sanity is not merely statistically normal schizophrenia? If you assert that it is not, then you must admit that it is only an assertion, and much evidence can be brought to bear on either defending or refuting it. It,Äôs all just a matter of how you organize the evidence. It,Äôs all just a matter of how you decide to organize and categorize the thoughts and feelings you have. People will tell you that reality doesn,Äôt really work this way; that there is something more than just how we choose to organize and discern our perceptions. But what reality do you know beyond your perceptions? Exactly. You don,Äôt know reality beyond your perceptions,Äîbeyond what you have experienced, or heard/read about. People will treat you according to the way they perceive you without a thought to whether or not they really know you. And most often you do the same. Cut the crap. Flush the bullshit. Pony up and admit it finally. You are just as cracked as the so-called world in which you live. You are just as cracked as THEY are. The only difference between you and THEM is that hopefully you realize this.

Child of chaos, you think yourself free, yet insist upon your sanity? Your claim to a stable subtle hidden sense of self is merely another fiction you have created to give yourself some sense of ,ÄòMe,Äô as opposed to THEM. Don,Äôt go shooting off your mental masturbation canons yet! I said that your self is a fiction, a creation. I didn,Äôt say that it was not real, in as much as anything could be said to be real or unreal, in as much as semantic juggling along those lines could be said to be saying anything. Do you get what I am trying to say? Are you starting to realize the old Discordian saying ,ÄúBe ye not lost in the precepts of order,,Äù or what?

Freeing yourself up from the limited categories of sanity and insanity could perhaps be a quick jolt into a new life of wondrous possibilities. Perhaps not. Perhaps it will just lead you into some place with white padded walls and funny drugs that make you stupid. (It helps to keep your mouth shut at the appropriate times, if you wish to escape the latter fate.) The shackles of order are everywhere, regardless of whether they masquerade as sanity or insanity, or whether they pass themselves off as creativity or stupidity. The point is to awaken to some sort of realization of this in the ways that you know how, and then to live as you see fit. But even then you probably won,Äôt seem too sure of any of this. The ancient chaoist dictum ,ÄúI have no fucking clue,Äù serves up the wisdom of this whole line of thought quite nicely. And it is right. I have no fucking clue,Ķat least for you. If I did, I might share it with you for appropriate compensation or something. But it would be much easier for you to get your own fucking clue. Or best of all, to make your own damned clue. (I could be wasting your time with this rant, but then I could just as easily argue that you are wasting my time. So let,Äôs leave those sensical-sounding gesticulations out of the equation for the time being.)

Of course the whole world has gone mad, but just how do you think that you haven,Äôt gone mad with it? Of course the whole world of people has become the herded masses, but how can you ever think that you yourself are not part of them? If you refer to the ,Äòmasses,Äô as the ,Äòherd,Äô, what does that say about your origins? If these questions puzzle you or infuriate you or don,Äôt provoke a damned thing in you, then we can help you with that. The inherent lunacy behind it all is not what bothers me one damn bit. Nor would it bother you if you,Äôd just come out from behind your shield of self, sanity, ideas, or what-have-you. (What-have-you can be a particularly vile sort of shield. I have that on foul un-authority.)

Forget all your grandiose delusions of sanity or of what-ever-it-is that makes you believe yourself free from the madness. Acknowledge that you are just as mad as everyone else around you. Perhaps, at that point you will get a little more creative in your madness. Perhaps you will start to shake off the shackles of grayness which you so often complain about. Perhaps you can even be able to see the sly wink of your Goddess as She pushes you that much closer to an edge that you know deep down inside really exists only in your own mind. Perhaps you will see Eris from time to time, encouraging you along in your madness. Perhaps nothing of the sort will happen. But that,Äôs up to you.

(Bureaucracy 25th, 3170)
(The 92nd Day of the Great Tzaddik Rouge Purple Monkey Discordian Jihad)