Discordian Evangelism

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Perhaps you can use the fact that most people wouldn't know the difference between Quetzocoatl and Tezcatlipoca if it snuck up behind them and damned them to eternal torment.

THIS.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Even if we're explicit, TL;DR is a problem for the General Public (our apparent target). I think attention grabbing either with either a direct message or a canard (like the War on You-Know-What) is the important bit.

We could dance nekkid with "Think For Yourself Schmuck!" written on our tummies and we'd be ignored by most of the population, I think.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

We Rat could dance nekkid with "Think For Yourself Schmuck!" written on his tummy and he'd be ignored by most of the population, I think for sure.

Fixed for accuracy.

[Iason Ouabache]

The web ring.  Unless you want to play with it yourself.

It's more like an online local newspaper that's gone global. They hire freelance writers to write on the chosen topic. I wouldn't object to advice, and I'll cut you in for it too, but I want to get back on writing again. I miss it.

The Examiner?  If not, we really should try to get someone on The Examiner. They have just about every other group covered.

[Requia ☣]

It might be more effective to introduce people to discordian thought process through literature or the like.  Write something, include crap on thinking for yourself in the subtext.

If I ever get up off my ass and actually make something I'll do that.  In the meantime I may as well put it out there and see if you productive types like the idea.

[Cain]

I'm restarting blogging soon.

I'm not blogging about Discordianism per se, but it will be obvious to anyone who pays attention for five seconds than I identify as such.  Time to reprise my role as le enfant terrible of the British blogosphere.

[Freeky]

The web ring.  Unless you want to play with it yourself.

It's more like an online local newspaper that's gone global. They hire freelance writers to write on the chosen topic. I wouldn't object to advice, and I'll cut you in for it too, but I want to get back on writing again. I miss it.

The Examiner?  If not, we really should try to get someone on The Examiner. They have just about every other group covered.

Yes indeed the Examiner. I was trying to think of what I would call the 'topic' I'd be writing about, as they don't have one just yet.

I was thinking something like 'High Wierdness'.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

It might be more effective to introduce people to discordian thought process through literature or the like.  Write something, include crap on thinking for yourself in the subtext.

If I ever get up off my ass and actually make something I'll do that.  In the meantime I may as well put it out there and see if you productive types like the idea.

Maybe, but Bob did that and ended up with RAWites  and Bobbies

[fogukaup]

I think my skills could come in handy.  Born and raised in the Jehovah's Witness cult, I learned some nice manipulation tricks and a flawlessn door to door strategy.  Hi erybody.

[Requia ☣]

It might be more effective to introduce people to discordian thought process through literature or the like.  Write something, include crap on thinking for yourself in the subtext.

If I ever get up off my ass and actually make something I'll do that.  In the meantime I may as well put it out there and see if you productive types like the idea.

Maybe, but Bob did that and ended up with RAWites  and Bobbies

Evangelism is a double edged sword like that.

I think my skills could come in handy.  Born and raised in the Jehovah's Witness cult, I learned some nice manipulation tricks and a flawlessn door to door strategy.  Hi erybody.

Aren't Jehova's Witnesses recruitment techniques targeted at, to put it diplomatically, people who will believe in things?

[Cain]

John Robb said something interesting.

The only question is how to operationalize it.

[Requia ☣]

What exactly would we need a supercomputer for?

Though if you have a good reason to have one it might be possible to get ahold of a decent sized chunk of OurNet.

[Cain]

We don't.

I didn't think I needed to spell out the analogies.

[Cainad (dec.)]

I'll spell 'em out; it helps me organize thoughts.

'Worms.'

Decentralized, open-source functionality.

Resiliency (to counteract the effects of people getting bored/moving on to other things).

[Payne]

John Robb, I note, is frequently interesting.

Anyway, I've stayed out of this thread until now, but now I have a few thoughts.

-Do we want more 'Discordians' (either professing Discordians, or just those people who are Walking Weird), or do we want more weirdness? It strikes me that yes, we are a pretty weird bunch of people, and like to shake things up a little - however we perhaps don't always use the resources we have at our disposal (individually or as a group) in the most effective and/or efficient manner. I don't actually have any ideas as to how to change this, but I reckon this is a question that should be asked.

-"Quality or Quantity"? Pretty much addressed in earlier posts. I'd say quality more often than not, which would probably require a more intensive and individual effort one 'target' at a time. qv. Roger and his Tucson network. OF course, we MAY just get the same number of quality converts with a more mass-evangelist effort, but then we are loaded down with those who aren't really up to much and will probably require leadership of one kind or another. Personally, I already do try to encourage quality weirdness but unfortunately without much success (I am failing to utilise my resources as an individual properly).

-Multi-levelled obfuscation, Factions, etc. I like the idea of 'onioning' one layer of weirdness, behind which is another and then another. (It's onions all the way in!) It may just be me, but I was actually kinda disappointed in one way that it was so easy to find PD. The modern need for immediacy is something I think a lot of the people we'd like to have would reject (or would like to, anyway). The more work it is to figure out what's going on, the better. As long as we have a tempting enough 'hook' to draw them in in the first place.

-Existing Disordians, leadership. Really, we already do have a significant network. Most of us work in small groups or individually on a local level. It's our immediate every day environment that we're concerned with really, so we are bound to be focused on that. The various places where we can meet up and throw some ideas around such as PD give us a sense of community and are fun, but perhaps we fail to exploit opportunities for larger scale work, which would if done right give us greater exposure. I'm not saying we need a "Leader" of any kind of course. Most of the best Projects we've embarked on have been led principally by a good idea first and foremost (Intermittens*, various GASMs etc**). If 'something' happens in one locale, it's dismissed as a blip in the larger world, if it happens at 5, 10, 15 different areas at the same time it's news or at least interesting. This doesn't dismiss, of course, the impact on the immediate area.

*Intermitens: Was a great idea started up by Cram, and took on a life of its own. Now it's not happening any more, I hear, because of some kind of server problem or some such. It's STILL a good idea though, and I am forced to ask why no one else is still running with it? Cram didn't this server to make the first issue after all.

** Also to note that Cram is one of the greatest advocates of cooperative effort and ALSO seems to come up with most of the best 'Idea-Led' projects we come up with. I know that the more individualistic of us ALSO come up with just as highly effective and useful projects that take lace on a smaller, more local, scale. If the wish is to create something larger and more noticeable, we may need more Crams.