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Shrapnel: My thoughts.

Started by LMNO, June 24, 2008, 05:50:16 PM

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LMNO

Needs editing and clarification, most likely.
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Shrapnel.  Something exploded, and a piece of it embedded in your flesh.  Now you have to carry that around with you for the rest of your life.

It affects you.  In changes the way that you behave, you take the experience of being hit by that shrapnel with you in every decision that you make.  Even if you remove it, the scar remains.  Even in its absence, it informs your decisions.

For the most part, the explosions are essentially random, when taken from a subjective view.  Someone else planted these things, and you walk right into it.  These things may have exploded centuries ago, but the shrapnel is still in the air.  Still able to pierce into the heart of you. 

Often, they tell you where to go.  They push you onto new paths, or keep you going down the one you're on.  They can blind you, they can cripple you, they can make you afraid to continue.  They can accumulate, like scales, like armor, like a lead weight.  Given enough time, they can even render you impervious to other bits of shrapnel.  But not forever.

Shrapnel is not subtle.  It's just that we don't recognize it for what it is.  We get hit full in the face, and we don't even realize what just happened.  We know something just went down, but what? 

You heard a symphony.
You read a story.
You went to school.
You got a job.
You fell in love.
You got into a fight.
You fell out of a tree.
You were mugged.
You got an erection.
You listened to a preacher.
You took drugs.
You got lost in the woods for 3 days.

You lived your life.  And you carry that with you.  Each thing that got the limbic system pumping, every "aha!", all the moments of simmering rage, each instant of bliss... They all left their bits of shrapnel in you.  They all push and prod you in directions you might not even have intended to go.

But you don't have to be one of the walking wounded.  The choice is yours.  Self-surgery is messy, but it's possible.  Search out the bits that got stuck into you, see if they're worth keeping.  Then get a pair of pliers and an exacto knife, and get to it. 

Mangrove

Good stuff.

I think that this is the makings of a 'bare minimum shrapnel'.

There's been a lot of ideas thrown up on this forum since the initial stirrings of the PD06 concept: BIP, The Con, The Machine, Shrapnel, Lollercaust etc.

All of these notions need to be thrashed out to the nth degree and then nicely condensed, hopefully capturing the appropriate essence & spirit of the piece. It's not that I think everything can be reduced & over simplified, but if we're interested in creating & spreading memes, then the ideas need to be short & accessible, yet prompt further thinking & dicussion.

I think part of the success of the original PD (and while we still get LOLFNORDPINEALGLAND) is because the ideas were so easily assimilated. Pretty much any schmuck can read the damn thing, acquire the Discordian subculture's ideolect and then participate (by participation, I mean coming here and annoying the shit out of people...)

For BIP to be sucessful, then we need to collate all of the concepts that we feel extend the original Discordian notions, and present them in a format that is short enough for rapid assimilation but still be thought provoking.

Maybe we need to introduce people to the idea of how the STFUPID's take on is a new extension/interpretation.

In order to establish the individuality & identity of PD.com, we've taken great pains (Paynes?) to disassociate ourselves from the Kerry/Thornley vibe. However, it might not be a bad idea to make the connections and fairly, say: "Ok, this is what we distilled from them and are grateful for - but this is where we're going with it." Perhaps, acknowledge the roots in a fair minded way, but without getting trapped into deifying the past and putting a load of 60's LSD casualties on a pedestal.



What makes it so? Making it so is what makes it so.

LMNO

Thought:  A Discordian Roast.

We eulogize and mock the Old Guard, and announce we're stealing their ideas and running away with them.



This could be funny.

Dysfunctional Cunt

I like it!  :mittens:

I do think however, once we are aware that everything, person, place, experience etc.. leave shrapnel, we can be smart enough to dodge it, unless it is something we need to carry around in us.

Payne

:mittens: for teh OP

Some damn good ideas there Mangrove, also.

Richter

Regarding OP:  Def. liked!  It works for being short and simple, wraps up about as positive and avoids any judgemental tone.

Trimming down the number of examples (in text and in the list) might make it flow a bit smoother. 
Still, if you've gotten your intended audience reading a short essay it's a debatable thing.
Quote from: Eater of Clowns on May 22, 2015, 03:00:53 AM
Anyone ever think about how Richter inhabits the same reality as you and just scream and scream and scream, but in a good way?   :lulz:

Friendly Neighborhood Mentat

Adios


AFK

Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

Cainad (dec.)

ITT, I comprehend Shrapnel for the first time. :mittens:

Mangrove

Quote from: LMNO on June 24, 2008, 06:33:28 PM
Thought:  A Discordian Roast.

We eulogize and mock the Old Guard, and announce we're stealing their ideas and running away with them.



This could be funny.

Pure Lollercaust.

If the 'new PD' (whatever it gets called) begins with Kerry/Thornley being simulataneously praised/mocked, it might make the classic Pinealist a little more open to absorbing some new, extended ideas. Cause let's face it, they're probably going to find The PD first, before they find our shit. At least for a few years/decades.

I have this image in my head of 'original Discordians' on a VH1 special, getting ripped on by various people (real, imagined, alive or dead). Or possibly, a reworking of Dicken's Christmas Carol, with ghost of Discordia past, present and future. Perhaps there's some 23ist n00b in bed and gets visited by the ghost of RAW...
What makes it so? Making it so is what makes it so.

Payne

Quote from: Cainad on June 24, 2008, 07:06:00 PM
ITT, I comprehend Shrapnel for the first time. :mittens:

Oh, thanks, spag.

AFK

Quote from: Payne on June 24, 2008, 07:23:02 PM
Quote from: Cainad on June 24, 2008, 07:06:00 PM
ITT, I comprehend Shrapnel for the first time. :mittens:

Oh, thanks, spag.

I guess our verbosity was our undoing. 
Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

Payne

Quote from: R.W.H.N? on June 24, 2008, 07:36:22 PM
Quote from: Payne on June 24, 2008, 07:23:02 PM
Quote from: Cainad on June 24, 2008, 07:06:00 PM
ITT, I comprehend Shrapnel for the first time. :mittens:

Oh, thanks, spag.

I guess our verbosity was our undoing. 

If that was the case, someone could have SAID, at least before I continued to write all that verbose shit down.

LMNO

If it wasn't for your verbose shit, my slight poomp would have never been squeezed out.

Payne

Oh.

Well that's alright then.

Carry on walking citizen, nothing to see here.