LDD Sermon 6: Going Viral

[Cain]

LDD Sermon 6: Going Viral

When something goes viral, it means that people start to pass it along to their friends, and they to their friends, until ultimately everyone's talking about it.
- Alex Shifrin

"Nonviolent actions are almost completely useless when deprived of media exposure."
- Antonio Negri


So I've laid out the plans and shown you all how Discordianism could become even more decentralized and effective.  I've talked at some length about how subversion is our ultimate tool and should inform any strategy the activists among us intend on.  What I haven't done is told you how to get to this stage.

Quite simply, Discordianism needs to go viral.  It needs to be springing up like weeds, everywhere with no sign of how it appeared, with self-starting Cabals becoming more and more common.  Of course, this process is already underway, thats how Discordianism works.  Someone reads the book, passes it onto their friends and the next thing you know they're a cabal.  What I propose is a refinement of the process, to speed it up.

The first thing is that there need to be numerous sources on it.  As things stand, there are about 5/6 professionally done Discordian sites and the rest are largely personal pages.  Now, this isn't too bad, except that most of the dissenting and differing opinions are on a few big sites and nowhere else.  To lay the foundation for what I suggest, everyone should probably create their own site (look up Geocities and other free hosting places) and put a few of their own interpretations on there, as well as a links page to the rest of the sites and the larger forums.

Thats the base.  The next stage is where it gets tricky.  The next stage would be to gain media coverage, to draw attention to Discordianism.  Unfortunately, the most effective example in going viral in recent history is Al-Qaeda.  Once a unified terrorist organization, in the space of 5 years it has become a bona fide movement, with self starting cells being set up in over 60 countries.  Say what you like about their aims, but from a marketing point of view, thats a huge success.

Of course, I don't suggest something as retarded as blowing up a building.  Thats just stupid.  What I am thinking of, however, would be some sort of massive jake.  Something that would embarrass the powers that be, that is distinctive, but most importantly something that can then be linked to Discordianism.  I'm sure if we thought about it, we could think of something.  A video of whatever it is would be good too, maybe a follow-up one as well, a sort of mock statement from so-and-so of the Something or Other of the Discordian Society.

Step three would then be to make sure that the media coverage was backed up with our own spreading of the event, via things like MySpace and YouTube.  People see what happens, get interested and check it out via the web.  And what do you know, there are all these sites all over the place....I would suggest it happened in the USA, however.  The USA has the largest concentration of cable channels and media outlets in the world and so is the obvious place to stage anything.

From there on in, it is most likely out of our hands.  We will have created some runaway monster of some description.  This should be no problem for us.  We should be naturals at this.  Look how Banksy's stock went up after one trick. Hell, look at Fathers4Justice, they took one gimmick of dressing up as superheroes and mounting protests and ran with it for as far as they could go and still got national coverage up to the bitter end.  We really should've done stuff like this a long time ago.

[LMNO]

In regards to this, I need lyrics.


I have beats, I have music, but I have no flow.


Consider this a formal request for Discordian lyrics*.


From there, the songs can be handed off to a video artist & then it can be posted on YouTube.

PM me.






*Please, no "LOL23Pineal555LULZ" lyrics.  I am not interested in making "joke" music.

[Cain]

Thats one avenue of attack, definitely.  Have you considered KLF-esque tactics to get your stuff noticed?

And I'll see what I can do.  I don't normally write anything but prose, but I'll give it a go.

[P3nT4gR4m]

What exactly are the objectives here? I'm not trying to come the cunt I just think you would benefit from some kind of mission statement sort of outline and clarify the goal.

[LMNO]

Worldwide jailbreak.

[Cain]

More people interested in Discordianism.  Straight up marketing for Discordianism.  I like to give people options, especially ones they may not otherwise know exist, for I am a kind and giving person.

Edit: And what LMNO said.

[Thurnez Isa]

I don't suggest something as retarded as blowing up a building.  Thats just stupid.  What I am thinking of, however, would be some sort of massive jake.  Something that would embarrass the powers that be, that is distinctive, but most importantly something that can then be linked to Discordianism.  I'm sure if we thought about it, we could think of something.  A video of whatever it is would be good too, maybe a follow-up one as well, a sort of mock statement from so-and-so of the Something or Other of the Discordian Society.

I think i was slightly hinting at something when i was talking about Plantard
in that everyone likes conspiracies
what about one, made from a joke, but treated as real
it would be tricky, take time, but i dont think its entirely impossible

[Cain]

Thats one way (and part of a longer term project I started this summer, coincidentally) but unfortunately isn't...high profile enough.  Even the Priory of Sion is at the fringes, hell Neurocam, its modern day successor (in terms of marketing) still doesn't have that same impact.  It may be a stance to take, a pose to continue interest, but I don't think its enough of a hook on its own.

[LMNO]

Thats one avenue of attack, definitely.  Have you considered KLF-esque tactics to get your stuff noticed?

And I'll see what I can do.  I don't normally write anything but prose, but I'll give it a go.

Well, if someone gave me a million dollars, I'll burn it in a field.


I promise.


Really.


Srsly.

[Cain]

I have other ideas.  Or would do, after a decent nights sleep.  I shall consult The Manual and think on options.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Viral marketing works best with a strong hook. You need an awesome 30 sec vid clip of a kid hacking up his granny with a lightsabre or someone drop kicking a baby. Most of these have very little to do with the product, more to do with motivating the transmission. Viral marketting is all about making it impossible for the person who's seen it not to forward it to all their contacts with a 'holy fuck you've got to see this' subject line.

What I'm basically saying is the discordian element of the message need be no more than a url that pops up at the end. It's been tried and tested - a high enough percentage of viewers will type that url into their browser. You already have their attention the hard bit is keeping it once they get there.

[Cain]

True.  Thats why I want a mindfuck though.  Media attention.  Normal media, then online, mostly because its more effective.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Might it be worth demonising discordia? I'm thinking that we could send screeds of emails and letters and the like to our local priests and whatnot, from "concerned parents/ family members" who's children have been indoctrinated into this heinous cult, which is spreading like wildfire on the internet. All the usual culprits will be wheeled out, subliminal tracks in popular music, chatroom grooming, playground touting.. etc.

The clergy already have the media in their pocket so we can capitalise on this by fuelling their paranoia enough to get the tabloids on our case. Once the gutter press decide theres a story there they'll latch on to it and, as is their wont, blow the whole thing out of all proportion. Then a couple of our younger viewers can step forward with all sorts of horror stories about what discordia has done to them, sparking outrage and, with a bit of luck, pressure on goverment to nip this baby sacrificing, animal raping cult in the bud.

If we make it to this stage it would be quite easy to turn the tables by exposing the whole thing as an elaborate hoax.

[Cain]

I've actually done that, to a degree.  A couple of us have mockup letters knocking around and its a good campaign.  If it could be linked into a wider media presence, it could yield very interesting results, but I think that prior media would be necessary for an optimal result.

[LMNO]

Might work, if it's big enough.

Please refer to Negativland's "Helter Stupid" album.


http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/FIST2001-1/subnews/X0022_Shelter_from_Helter_.html