While we're at it...

[LMNO]

Yup.

The Machine,Ñ¢ loves to polarize situations in their favour (us/them...good/evil etc) but
immediately reverts to obfuscation & smoke screens the moment someone notices.
People are a fundamental component of the Machine,Ñ¢. The degree to which they are
a component is variable, but essentially being alive and part of a society inducts one
into Machineship,Ñ¢.
Governments are collections of people, regardless of whatever means they were
assembled (democracy, military dictatorship etc etc). so as long as people are
involved, then there must be a potential for Machinist,Ñ¢ features to arise.
When have governments NOT done the things that you isolated as being too specific?
I think an underlying problem is that within the Machine,Ñ¢ are the desires for power
& control for their own sake and the attending problem of holding on to that power
for as long as possible. The points I listed maybe specific manifestations but their
motivation are, I believe, very much part of the greater apparatus that we think is 'the
Machine,Ñ¢'.
-Pope T. Mangrove xvii

[Mangrove]

well fack me ol' boots.

it's twoo! it's twoo!

ok...groovy.

[Triple Zero]

> I have five boners for Douglas Hofstadter.

FINALLY!!!

someone on this forum who read the damn book!

IT WAS ABOUT FUCKING TIME

[LMNO]

I read it too.




Just saying.

[Triple Zero]

what?

oh.

oh, because when posting about it on the old BIP forum, i had kinda like the feeling i was talking about something nobody heard of before.

good! very good!

i think it's one of the better mindfucks i ever read, though i must say i'm having a hard time enjoying it just as much the second time i'm reading it.

[Mangrove]

i've read some of it.

[Cramulus]

Soon, even weird shit that shouldn't make any sense at all will only reinforce the Machine (TM), even if it isn't intended to sell Product.

I've been chewing on this quote all day and it occurred to me that there's an awful lot of absurdity that's creeping into the mainstream. YTMND, for example. Or viral internet things ("All your base..."). Or the Chuck Norris phenomenon. Or so many crazy tv commercials.

maybe
Ten years from now a man will walk down the street in a gorilla suit, rubbing his crotch or something, and it'll blend in with the background, fading into the whirring machine hum. People will write it off 'cause rather than being shocked by random incomprehensible shit, they're numb to it.

So what rebellion comes after that? How do you shock people that are bored of being shocked?

[AFK]

1)  I'm not sure I would consider the examples you give to be "absurdity"

2)  You don't have to wait ten years, IMO.  But I think it has more to do with a proclivity to be detached from your surroundings than being numb to absurdity.  It's similar to someone seeing someone broken down on the highway and not having the thought of stopping to offer help ever entering the mind. 

[B_M_W]

Soon, even weird shit that shouldn't make any sense at all will only reinforce the Machine (TM), even if it isn't intended to sell Product.

I've been chewing on this quote all day and it occurred to me that there's an awful lot of absurdity that's creeping into the mainstream. YTMND, for example. Or viral internet things ("All your base..."). Or the Chuck Norris phenomenon. Or so many crazy tv commercials.

maybe
Ten years from now a man will walk down the street in a gorilla suit, rubbing his crotch or something, and it'll blend in with the background, fading into the whirring machine hum. People will write it off 'cause rather than being shocked by random incomprehensible shit, they're numb to it.

So what rebellion comes after that? How do you shock people that are bored of being shocked?

With as xtian and theocratic as the US is becoming, there will continue to be many things that shock people. Hell, they can't even deal with two men kissing.

[Jenne]

...or a woman's nipple slippage.

[Thurnez Isa]

we have abolished our topless laws in this city a few years back
so women have the same rights as men to go topless
sadly no one has taken advantage

[B_M_W]

we have abolished our topless laws in this city a few years back
so women have the same rights as men to go topless
sadly no one has taken advantage

You just wait till the Xtians get up in Canada. 

[Thurnez Isa]

ohhhhh we got em
the thing is i live in a pretty french town
and it used to be mostly French Roman Catholics, which were pretty laid back (other then those sadistic, crazy, teacher nuns  )
unfortunately in last about 10 years other freaky Christians like the Jehovah's, Borne Agains, Conservative Babtists, and other Fundamentalists have more of a presence
and the Roman Catholics are dwindling, churches are merging, ect.
Kind of unfortunate really
I used to like the days when i knew my local priest, could talk to him on the bus, and he WASN'T judgemental
but such is progress, or degress, or what have you

I don't miss the crazy french canadian teacher nuns though
my baby sisters is just 4 years yonger then me and they were more or less all gone by the time she reached mid-grade school

[Triple Zero]

I've been chewing on this quote all day and it occurred to me that there's an awful lot of absurdity that's creeping into the mainstream. YTMND, for example. Or viral internet things ("All your base..."). Or the Chuck Norris phenomenon. Or so many crazy tv commercials.

maybe
Ten years from now a man will walk down the street in a gorilla suit, rubbing his crotch or something, and it'll blend in with the background, fading into the whirring machine hum. People will write it off 'cause rather than being shocked by random incomprehensible shit, they're numb to it.

So what rebellion comes after that? How do you shock people that are bored of being shocked?

i think this implies that simply shocking people is not the way to go. it's not the shock that does the mindfuck that causes the thinking that opens the door.
like mooing in a public transport (sorry kaouusu, but i sorta agree with PVS on that -- though that doesn't mean it isn't fun!)

to RWHN: doesn't the fact that you don't think those examples are really absurd, sort of prove the Prof's argument? also, even though All Your Base is oldest hat as anything, if you don't think it's completely absurd to carry a mistranslated japanese text so far, then i think we're talking about a different definition of absurdism

speaking about absurdism. i could give a lot of examples of more subtle, not-quite-but-seemingly-non-sequitur absurdism that appears in Dutch and Belgian humouristic cartoons (to name a few, Kamagurka, Gummbah, Spekkie Big, Het Stomme Beertje ..).
they often take the shape of "intensely bad jokes", kind of like the link of unfinished jokes i passed in another (or this?) thread to LMNO.
I have organized "the International Day of the Bad Joke" event/party a few times at my students-association (edition 1, 2 1/2 and of course 33 1/3 .. because Bad Jokes aren't supposed to be funny). the main running feature of the event was "the interruption microphone". when somebody had a Bad Joke to share with the audience, they would get on the stage, the music would be stopped, and in utter silence the joke would be told, followed by utter silence (if there was any laughter instead of some painful groaning, obviously it was NOT a Bad Joke and the person would be honed away by the audience "NO PUNS!!!").

An example of a typical Bad Joke (which survives translation rather well):

At his office, an accountant opens the safe. He finds a naked woman inside. Says the accountant "WHERE IS THE MONEY??!"

as preparation for this event i took the task upon myself to let no possibility for a Bad Joke go untold. after practising this a few weeks before the event, I never got rid of the habit afterwards. I enjoy the groaning of utter despair way too much in a sadistic kind of way to not bother people with. (ok I admit, they usually turn out to be incredibly bad far-fetched puns)

[LMNO]

Triple Zero is now my new short-term personal savior.