Principia Discordia

Principia Discordia => Think for Yourself, Schmuck! => Horrorology => Topic started by: Doktor Howl on April 10, 2012, 05:37:31 PM

Title: Messages
Post by: Doktor Howl on April 10, 2012, 05:37:31 PM
Human society is all about information, the sending of messages.  Most of these messages are obviously advertisements, but they're a little outside of what I want to talk about now.  What I'd like to discuss is the messages you get from day-to-day interaction with other humans.

Example 1:  The police. 

In the 1950s, the police wore a hat, a belt, a gun, and a nightstick, and travelled in pairs.  The message was "We are here as representatives of the law.  If you misbehave, we may arrest you.  If you really misbehave, we may be forced to club you.  If you go completely batshit, we will shoot you.  Let's not let things get out of hand, okay?

By the 60s, the riot shield was added, for dealing with flower children.  The message there was "We are the legions of order.  Submit."

In the 80s, police carried radios.  The message there was "you can't outrun this radio."

In the 90s, tasers became available.  The new message was "Go ahead and fuck around.  I'm DYING to try this thing out.

By the last decade, the police look like nothing so much as infantry.  The message the police at the WTO and OWS protests sent was "You People are The Enemy, and you will be treated as such.  Submit now, or quit the field...Or we'll make you wish you were never born."

A far cry from "We are here as representatives of the law.", right?


Example 2:  The democratic party as the "opposition" to the republican party.  "We'll do the same things, but we'll do them better!  Change!"

I don't think I have to explain that one...The dems openly agree with whatever batshit ideas the GOP comes up with, having already taken those ideas as valid.  The message, of course, is "The Fix is in."

Example 3:  You are waiting for a one on one meeting with your boss.  He keeps you cooling your heels while he does things that could have been done outside of the agreed-upon meeting time.

The message here is, "I'm an important guy, and the things I do are more important than your time."  If he's taking a call from HIS boss, not unreasonable.  If he's playing Farmville on his computer, get a new job.

A little more on this later.
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Nephew Twiddleton on April 10, 2012, 05:44:57 PM
Looking forward to more. Will see if I can think of some examples.
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on April 10, 2012, 05:58:02 PM
So true, regarding the militarization of the police. If they are an army, WE are the enemy.
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Doktor Howl on April 10, 2012, 05:59:29 PM
Quote from: Nigel on April 10, 2012, 05:58:02 PM
So true, regarding the militarization of the police. If they are an army, WE are the enemy.

Yep.  The message changed with the times, though...It didn't drive the times.  That was done by an indoctrinated public.
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Anna Mae Bollocks on April 10, 2012, 06:15:56 PM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on April 10, 2012, 05:59:29 PM
Quote from: Nigel on April 10, 2012, 05:58:02 PM
So true, regarding the militarization of the police. If they are an army, WE are the enemy.

Yep.  The message changed with the times, though...It didn't drive the times.  That was done by an indoctrinated public.

There's always been a moron faction, but at some point they started to be taken seriously...I mean come on, holy rollers? FFS.

There's still a fair percentage that hates this shit. We just get ignored and marginalized. This got over a thousand shares on facebook and a bunch of "YAY" and mounted police jokes. I didn't see any complaints, even though nobody knows if these were shitty cops or not:

(http://i524.photobucket.com/albums/cc322/fennario99/n.jpg)

(This would make a great HIMEOBS pic, BTW. If HIMEOBS existed. Which it doesn't.)
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Doktor Howl on April 10, 2012, 06:17:43 PM
Quote from: Anna Mae Bollocks on April 10, 2012, 06:15:56 PM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on April 10, 2012, 05:59:29 PM
Quote from: Nigel on April 10, 2012, 05:58:02 PM
So true, regarding the militarization of the police. If they are an army, WE are the enemy.

Yep.  The message changed with the times, though...It didn't drive the times.  That was done by an indoctrinated public.

There's always been a moron faction, but at some point they started to be taken seriously...I mean come on, holy rollers? FFS.

They've been with us since day 1.  Hell, their heyday was 1945-1965.  This is just the backwash.
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Anna Mae Bollocks on April 10, 2012, 06:27:39 PM
Hopefully they're on the way out, then.
The hairspray alone put a gaping hole in the ozone.  :p
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Doktor Howl on April 10, 2012, 06:29:51 PM
Quote from: Anna Mae Bollocks on April 10, 2012, 06:27:39 PM
Hopefully they're on the way out, then.
The hairspray alone put a gaping hole in the ozone.  :p

Naw.  They'll always be with us...Not out of religious belief, but out of the need - that many primates have - to tell other primates what they can and cannot do, rationality be damned.
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Anna Mae Bollocks on April 10, 2012, 06:35:18 PM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on April 10, 2012, 06:29:51 PM
Quote from: Anna Mae Bollocks on April 10, 2012, 06:27:39 PM
Hopefully they're on the way out, then.
The hairspray alone put a gaping hole in the ozone.  :p

Naw.  They'll always be with us...Not out of religious belief, but out of the need - that many primates have - to tell other primates what they can and cannot do, rationality be damned.

Yeah, that's what it REALLY takes to be a christian. Not John 3:16.
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Doktor Howl on April 10, 2012, 06:39:57 PM
Quote from: Anna Mae Bollocks on April 10, 2012, 06:35:18 PM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on April 10, 2012, 06:29:51 PM
Quote from: Anna Mae Bollocks on April 10, 2012, 06:27:39 PM
Hopefully they're on the way out, then.
The hairspray alone put a gaping hole in the ozone.  :p

Naw.  They'll always be with us...Not out of religious belief, but out of the need - that many primates have - to tell other primates what they can and cannot do, rationality be damned.

Yeah, that's what it REALLY takes to be a christian. Not John 3:16.

Yeah, well, that's undeniably a good chunk of the US population, like it or not.
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Cardinal Pizza Deliverance. on April 10, 2012, 07:29:39 PM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on April 10, 2012, 06:39:57 PM
Quote from: Anna Mae Bollocks on April 10, 2012, 06:35:18 PM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on April 10, 2012, 06:29:51 PM
Quote from: Anna Mae Bollocks on April 10, 2012, 06:27:39 PM
Hopefully they're on the way out, then.
The hairspray alone put a gaping hole in the ozone.  :p

Naw.  They'll always be with us...Not out of religious belief, but out of the need - that many primates have - to tell other primates what they can and cannot do, rationality be damned.

Yeah, that's what it REALLY takes to be a christian. Not John 3:16.

Yeah, well, that's undeniably a good chunk of the US population, like it or not.

^ Truth.
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Phox on April 10, 2012, 10:55:17 PM
I too am looking forward to more insight into this. I agree with all of yuor examples, but I think the last speaks to me the most. Definitely something that you get to see a lot of when you're the small town kid in the big city for the first time.
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Cainad (dec.) on April 11, 2012, 04:17:38 PM
Sometimes it seems like all that extra grey meat in our heads only really got there as an adaptation to increasingly subtle primate messages. Many of us don't need to consciously think about what message we're getting; the messages Dok spelled out above are ones we've probably all received and processed without really thinking about it. All of this crap can be handled on autopilot, but that may not be the best solution; in fact it probably isn't.

The fact that all of this extra headmeat can do things like mathematics, scientific analysis, music, and artistic expression is merely a side effect of all this extra processing power. It adapted to survive in a complex primate society, and it will default to that "mode" if we don't pay attention and watch what it's doing.
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Doktor Howl on April 11, 2012, 04:24:37 PM
Quote from: Cainad on April 11, 2012, 04:17:38 PM
Sometimes it seems like all that extra grey meat in our heads only really got there as an adaptation to increasingly subtle primate messages. Many of us don't need to consciously think about what message we're getting; the messages Dok spelled out above are ones we've probably all received and processed without really thinking about it. All of this crap can be handled on autopilot, but that may not be the best solution; in fact it probably isn't.

The fact that all of this extra headmeat can do things like mathematics, scientific analysis, music, and artistic expression is merely a side effect of all this extra processing power. It adapted to survive in a complex primate society, and it will default to that "mode" if we don't pay attention and watch what it's doing.

Memetic false consciousness is no substitute for a life.
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Cainad (dec.) on April 11, 2012, 04:33:21 PM
Ahhh I forgot about that term. I'm not in a position to do it now, but I'd like to see that thread again. I have some ideas that I'd like to gel into an essay, but I'd also like to see what's already been written to help the ideas advance.

Probably ought to go get my windshield fixed first, though :lol:
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Doktor Howl on April 11, 2012, 04:41:20 PM
Quote from: Cainad on April 11, 2012, 04:33:21 PM
Ahhh I forgot about that term. I'm not in a position to do it now, but I'd like to see that thread again. I have some ideas that I'd like to gel into an essay, but I'd also like to see what's already been written to help the ideas advance.

Probably ought to go get my windshield fixed first, though :lol:

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php/topic,29003.0.html
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Cainad (dec.) on April 11, 2012, 04:47:45 PM
Thanks. I've got some time to kill and this is a hell of a lot better than "Bejeweled" on an iPhone.
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Doktor Howl on April 11, 2012, 04:48:20 PM
Quote from: Cainad on April 11, 2012, 04:47:45 PM
Thanks. I've got some time to kill and this is a hell of a lot better than "Bejeweled" on an iPhone.

Well, at least I have that going for me.   :lulz:
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: LMNO on April 11, 2012, 04:52:01 PM
Dok Howl: "Better than a free smartphone app."
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Doktor Howl on April 11, 2012, 04:55:29 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on April 11, 2012, 04:52:01 PM
Dok Howl: "Better than a free smartphone app."

Mother will be so proud!
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Cainad (dec.) on April 11, 2012, 06:08:02 PM
 :oops: Well if it makes you feel any better, it's also better than the Glamour magazines they have here... Wait, fuck :x I'm not very good at this.
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Doktor Howl on April 11, 2012, 06:08:32 PM
Quote from: Cainad on April 11, 2012, 06:08:02 PM
:oops: Well if it makes you feel any better, it's also better than the Glamour magazines they have here... Wait, fuck :x I'm not very good at this.

Doktor Howl:  Now better than Tiger Beat!
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: LMNO on April 11, 2012, 06:12:26 PM
Wait.  Better than Tiger Beat?

:cn:
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Doktor Howl on April 11, 2012, 06:13:38 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on April 11, 2012, 06:12:26 PM
Wait.  Better than Tiger Beat?

:cn:

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php/topic,32153.15/msg,1163926.html
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: LMNO on April 11, 2012, 06:14:30 PM
But... One Direction (http://www.onedirectionmusic.com/us/home/) is dreamy!
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: LMNO on April 11, 2012, 06:15:30 PM
It occurs to me I'm acting like Apple Talk in Horrorology.  Apologies for the threadjack.
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Doktor Howl on April 11, 2012, 06:16:37 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on April 11, 2012, 06:15:30 PM
It occurs to me I'm acting like Apple Talk in Horrorology.  Apologies for the threadjack.

S'ok.  We're all equally guilty.

Let's just keep this as our dirty little secret, shall we?
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Anna Mae Bollocks on April 11, 2012, 06:20:52 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on April 11, 2012, 06:14:30 PM
But... One Direction (http://www.onedirectionmusic.com/us/home/) is dreamy!

Ugh, now I know who One Direction is.  :lol:
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Danny Muffin on April 12, 2012, 08:33:39 PM
This is interesting. There are a lot of messages being sent to us that people are unable or unwilling to hear. But there are also messages being sent that people want hear.

Some coworkers were talking (loudly and near my desk) about how much they loved the show Storage Wars and I started thinking about why reality TV is so popular. Aside from the fact they are relatively cheap to produce and people have been trained to gobble them up, they must be sending a message that people want to hear.

That message is a simple one: you can apply a narrative to life. Reality can be dramatized. The more mundane and commonplace the lives depicted on these shows, the more we are encouraged to creative a narrative for our own lives. Sure it takes a bit of creative editing- snip little bits here and there, give more weight to this or that, re-order a few events and ta-da! You've created the story of your life.

The problem is that given how prone to self-delusion people are, the narrative they create for themselves rarely resembles the reality they live in.
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: LMNO on April 12, 2012, 08:35:06 PM
Danny, you may want to thread dive and check out a thread called "Cressing".  I forget who wrote the OP, but I think you might dig it.
Title: Re: Messages
Post by: AFK on April 12, 2012, 08:54:37 PM
It was Placid Dingo:  http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=27369.0

Title: Re: Messages
Post by: Danny Muffin on April 12, 2012, 09:16:36 PM
This looks really interesting, thanks!