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An interview with you

Started by Peterson Silva, September 16, 2007, 02:04:20 AM

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tyrannosaurus vex

we are all known and noted for something.
Quote from: Rev. Peterson Cekemp on September 17, 2007, 10:23:06 PM
Here in Brazil I know a lot of discordians in Rio and I read a lot about a discordian movement in Curitiba. Unfortunatelly, I live in Florianopolis, at south.
Actually that isn't unfortunate at all.  It's fun to be a Discordian, but it's you don't actually want to meet one.

QuoteThing is: Do you have a notion about how big is discordianism in US/UK/outer space?
and the followup question: what are you trying to do now and what did you do to spread discordianism around? Have you ever did something biiig or nearly big, or just ninja tactics, breaking prisons one by one?

I have no idea how many Discordians there are, but something tells me there are more Southern Baptists.

As for spreading Discordia, I think that's a bad idea.  Spreading discord (without the -ia) is a lot smarter.
Evil and Unfeeling Arse-Flenser From The City of the Damned.

PopeTom

I had never before heard of Discordianism, but I was doing Eris' work regardless.  In the early 90s I had founded The Church of Gumby.  The purpose of the CoG being nothing more then to give myself and friends silly titles and have a common moniker when we posted weird stuff to local BBS systems.

Then one day while shopping in my local neighborhood game store the cute redheaded girl working the cash register*, after checking out the items I was purchasing, suggested a book just published by Steve Jackson games.  Yep it was the black covered Principia.  I added it to the pile of books that had already been rung up and it was the first thing I read when I got home.  Over the span of two or three days I read the Principia from cover to cover and I'll be damned if it didn't speak to me at all.  What a pointless stupid book, was mostly my general reaction.  It languished on the floor of my bedroom, where many of my books found a home for years at a time.  Eventually one day desperately needing something to read prior to going into the toilet for an extended poop break I grabbed the Principia again.  I sat there on the crapper randomly flipping through the book reading bits of this and bits of that, never reading two consecutive pages in order.  Then all of a sudden it all made sense.  I then converted the CoG to a Discordian institution and used my new wily knowledge of the universe to meet hot women.

I eventually let the CoG wane when it was no longer that funny to me, but I did go out on a high note, getting a cease and desist order from the holders of the copyright to the character Gumby.  The first certified letter I ever sent was my response to their lawyer as to why I would not turn over the ChurchOfGumby.com(not there any more) domain to them.

I eventually moved onto Discordian Piracy, I have yet to figure out exactly what that means, other then occasionally wrestling with hot ninja chicks, but I have an emblem that I turned into patches.  If I ever have a flag pole I'll make a flag too.

I still sometimes use Discordianism to meet hot women.

*I had never seen her working at the store prior to this encounter and never saw her there again after purchasing my copy of the SJ Principia, make of that what you will.
-PopeTom

I am the result of 13.75 ± 0.13 billion years of random chance. Now that I exist I see no reason to start planning and organizing everything in my life.

Random dumb luck got me here, random dumb luck will get me to where I'm going.

Hail Eris!

Triple Zero

Quote from: Rev. Peterson Cekemp on September 17, 2007, 10:23:06 PM
Thing is: Do you have a notion about how big is discordianism in US/UK/outer space?

no.

i tried looking for them, traditionally, discordians seem to be quite active on the internet. but as for Dutch discordianism, all I found were one or two remnants of some old, inactive, and "23 pineal fnord" style cabals.
someone pointed me to an active (at least, i think so) dutch chaos-magick, as i might be able to find more "chaotes" there, but i didn't go see and check. possibly i should, some day.

i know one french discordian (maybe ex-discordian) with a mixed "group", there's some in germany, austria, the UK, belgium, australia.
we had some visitors here from portugal, russia, switzerland .. i'm 99.9% sure there are discordians active in the scandinavian countries, although i never spoken to any.

conclusion, discordians are spread far and wide geographically. but as for their numbers, i think they're small.

Quoteand the followup question: what are you trying to do now and what did you do to spread discordianism around? Have you ever did something biiig or nearly big, or just ninja tactics, breaking prisons one by one?

as far as i've seen (meaning there's more, because people should know to Keep Their Fucking Mouths Shut):

- spreading the message to various general religious / spiritual / philosophy oriented messageboards
- producing loads of flyers, texts and such, specifically meant for printing out and redistributing
- minor acts of graffiti/culture jamming stuff
- HIMEOBS
...
- there are probably a few more that i forgot to mention here

as far as big .. the tale of the history and wars around this messageboard is pretty big, but i think you're looking for discordia -> outside world stuff. .. i dunno, i'm not aware of any that comes to mind right away, but it would probably again fall under the KYFMS-advice. (real good advice, that)
Ex-Soviet Bloc Sexual Attack Swede of Tomorrow™
e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

INFORMATION SO POWERFUL, YOU ACTUALLY NEED LESS.

AFK

Quote from: Rev. Peterson Cekemp on September 17, 2007, 10:23:06 PM
Thing is: Do you have a notion about how big is discordianism in US/UK/outer space?
and the followup question: what are you trying to do now and what did you do to spread discordianism around? Have you ever did something biiig or nearly big, or just ninja tactics, breaking prisons one by one?

I really don't have a clue as to how big Discordianism is in the U.S.  I don't even have a really good grasp of how big it was when the books originally were published.  You don't really ever hear about Discordianism in the media like you do a relgion like Scientology.  However, I tend to think that some of the core ideals and philosophies do resonate with lots of people, they just don't see or recognize them as Discordian.

As far as spreading it, I guess the most immediate thing that comes to mind is the Black Iron Prison pamphlets.  Being one of the authors and distributing it to people I know and people I don't know.  I've also done a couple of the POEE casts that are online in a couple of different places.  But nothing really BIG I suppose. 
Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

LMNO

Chronologically, I guess:

In 1985, I decided I wanted to find the "rune of confusion".

In 1990, I was given Illuminatus!

in 1991, I found the Principia, and realized it didn't just exist in Illuminatus!.

Been a card-carrier ever since.


Does this mean I've been a personal failure the longest?

the dreadful hours

i found the book in a bathroom stall
i read it
then i flushed it
the end

tyrannosaurus vex

Discordianism: Where you prove your loyalty by making a big stink over how disloyal you are.
Evil and Unfeeling Arse-Flenser From The City of the Damned.

Cramulus

Quote from: vexati0n on September 18, 2007, 08:54:33 PM
Discordianism: Where you prove your loyalty by making a big stink over how disloyal you are.

:lulz:


well let me counter that by describing myself as what one might consider a typical Discordian.

*waits for the chuckling to stop*

ho ho ho

I ended up walking out of my own episcopalian confirmation because the whole show smelled bad to me. These people had good intentions, but they pursued their goals too straight faced. I had a lot of Important Questions that the church didn't have satisfactory answers for. Among them
-if we can never really know Gods will, how do we know he wants us to do good?
-If esoteric tools like occult practices actually get results, why is it evil to use them?
-if God loves all his creations, why did he nuke them all with the Great Flood?
-Why do people who have never even heard of Jesus go to hell for not believing in him?


etc

But my slide into atheism left me with a lot of neat answers (where do you go when you die? nowhere), but a distinct lack of purpose and passion.

I reckon it was somewhere around 1996. The internet was young. Tons of fascinating information was out there and it was getting bigger every day. I was really interested in Chaos Theory, Fractals, and Chaos Magic. I had been meticulously numerically charting and graphing my moods in an attempt to find some formula for how I worked.  During a search for essays on hyperspace and the 4th dimension, I discovered the Principia in its classic rough HTML format. Despite parental discouragement, I printed the whole thing out and carried it around with me, showing it to people, doodling on it, getting more and more attached the more I read it.

When my dad (who was very uptight about my curiosity in the occult) found out that messy stack of paper I'd been carrying around was religious in nature, he gave me a long, stern lecture about cults and why to be careful of them. I tried to explain Discordia but he just ignored me. I tried to turkey-curse him but it just pissed him off. I eventually shut my mouth and let him be wrong, but also secretly hoping that Discordia was a big evil brainwashing cult. So in part, I became a Discordian as some sort of teen rebellion against my dad.

In 1998 I went book shopping and randomly picked Illuminatus off the shelf. When it started involving Discordia my mind was blown clear out of my skull. I devoured that book, mostly during a vacation to England where a series of synchronicities convinced me that the Illuminati were actually out to get me right now.

The Fairfield Cabal of the Disoriented Chicken was formed to pass out pope cards. (you substitute a different word before chicken every time you say it) To this date, people still approach me and say "Dude I've still got the pope card you gave me back in the 90s!". A friend of mine's Dad met the catholic pope and ALMOST gave him one. Damn!~

My personal approach to Discordia has gone through three or four phases, including all combinations of joke, religion, performance art, and excuses to perform crazy rituals to change my universe. Whatever that means.

Over the years, I've "converted" a lot of my agnostic, atheist, or Christian friends, but I think they were Discordians at heart to begin with. I do believe that to some extent, like attracts like, and crazy people tend to find their kin. To that end I've met dozens of Discordians who I didn't originally welcome into the fold.

Then in 2006 I moved into Apartment 5E with two other Discordians. The OBNOXIOUS JERK CABAL was formed from five of us who enjoyed being ...really loud and obnoxious. That was a year of absolute mayhem and nonsense which included me working full time for a LARP (which was a life dream of mine when I was younger but didn't end up being what I'd hoped), having some really intense personal religious experiences, and reading as much Wilson as I could get my hands on. I thought I had Discordia pretty much figured out.

Then in 2007 I found this message board and you asshats turned me on my head. The Black Iron Prison metaphor made me reconsider a lot of stuff I had taken for granted and reevaluate my attitudes towards a lot of things. Over the coarse of this year I've been slowly reassembling what I consider my religion.

hmmm this post is getting a bit tl;dr so I'll truncate it here. CHAO

The Littlest Ubermensch

Well, as an extremely atypical Discordian (considering I could very well be the only non 23FNORDPINEAL Discordian below 16), I'll give my story.

Age 10 - Gave up on Christianity (wasn't hard with my parents being very liberal about religion). Figured out it made no sense, so I dropped it.

Age 11 - Read a fair bit of Plato. Was a self important atheist. Got into the somewhat sparklier magikhque systems (without accepting any particular religion)

Age 12 - Realized how much of a douche I was. Sank into a deep depression, and was Buddhist. Depression and Buddhism are a natural combo for me. Any belief system saying that everything is suffering and illusion goes nicely with a mode of "I hate myself, everything sucks". When I was happier, I started getting into chaos magic. Struck me as really interesting, though I took what I read with some pretty big grains of salt. Started to develop an awareness of my more spiritual nature, and was searching through pagan routes for some sort of higher awareness. Looked into Dionysus, Pan, and various other dieties for some sort of guidance. Liked the symbolism, but never could really get into the religions based around them (mostly because I never believed they existed outside of being memetic constructs.)

Age 13 - There began the bipolar, and with it, some extreme spiritual turbulance. Around this time the chaos magic (which I was studying rather intensely, though I don't remember most of it now) led to Discordianism. Rather liked the idea, made me laugh, made me think, and I read a shitty text version of the Principia a fair bit. Joined up on the forums, and made my place as a quiet newbie. About 6 months in, I mostly stopped coming (mostly because I was in a medication induced haze, followed by being made very boring by medication.)

Age 14 - Bipolar came (mostly) under control (without meds), came back to the forums, and have been keepin on keepin on since.

Edit: I'm 15, by the way.
[witticism/philosophical insight/nifty quote to prove my intelligence to the forum]

LISTEN TO MY SHOW THURSDAY 5-7 EST

THEN GO TO MY MYSPACE

hooplala

Quote from: LMNO on September 18, 2007, 05:26:25 PM
Chronologically, I guess:

In 1985, I decided I wanted to find the "rune of confusion".

In 1990, I was given Illuminatus!

in 1991, I found the Principia, and realized it didn't just exist in Illuminatus!.

Been a card-carrier ever since.


Does this mean I've been a personal failure the longest?

I'm pretty sure V still beats you.
"Soon all of us will have special names" — Professor Brian O'Blivion

"Now's not the time to get silly, so wear your big boots and jump on the garbage clowns." — Bob Dylan?

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
— Walt Whitman

PopeTom

Quote from: LMNO on September 18, 2007, 05:26:25 PM
Chronologically, I guess:

In 1985, I decided I wanted to find the "rune of confusion".

In 1990, I was given Illuminatus!

in 1991, I found the Principia, and realized it didn't just exist in Illuminatus!.

Been a card-carrier ever since.


Does this mean I've been a personal failure the longest?

If you calling is to be a card carrier then you will only be a failure if you drop the card.

-PT
-PopeTom

I am the result of 13.75 ± 0.13 billion years of random chance. Now that I exist I see no reason to start planning and organizing everything in my life.

Random dumb luck got me here, random dumb luck will get me to where I'm going.

Hail Eris!

Cain

Quote from: Rev. Peterson Cekemp on September 17, 2007, 10:23:06 PMThing is: Do you have a notion about how big is discordianism in US/UK/outer space?
and the followup question: what are you trying to do now and what did you do to spread discordianism around? Have you ever did something biiig or nearly big, or just ninja tactics, breaking prisons one by one?

1. Not that big, I would suspect.  In the UK, its more had an influence on artists and those in creative industries (like Alan Moore or KLF), but even there it is more at the fringes.  I would think most Discordians are in the USA, but its a big country, so only really in the major cities and a few rogue provincials.

2. Uh, well, alot of what I do is covered by KYFMS (Keep Your Fucking Mouth Shut).  Usually, if I do a mindfuck, I'll leave a couple of signature clues which would lead anyone back to Discordianism fairly quickly.  I nearly managed to get Wimbledon shut down by some clever tactics at the logistics end, but sadly it never came to fruition.  I have apprehensions about large mindfucks, because they draw media attention (which means I am no longer in control of how it is all percieved/presented), so I tend to work lower level than that.  As for recruiting, I talk to people.  If I think they show potential, which I find out via my nearly perfected screening process, I have a little chat with them at some point, one on one.

LMNO


Peterson Silva

Quote from: The Littlest Ubermensch on September 18, 2007, 10:01:34 PM
Edit: I'm 15, by the way.

I'm 14.

Ok, next question: what are your favorite non-discordian books? (for instance, don't put any RAW thing or principia, cause this is obvious =D)
babble babble bitch bitch rebel rebel party party sex sex sex and don't forget the violence blah blah blah get you lovey-dovey sad and lonely stick your stupid slogan in and everybody sing along

LMNO

Quote from: Rev. Peterson Cekemp on September 19, 2007, 02:10:20 PM
Quote from: The Littlest Ubermensch on September 18, 2007, 10:01:34 PM
Edit: I'm 15, by the way.

I'm 14.

Ok, next question: what are your favorite non-discordian books? (for instance, don't put any RAW thing or principia, cause this is obvious =D)


While that may be true, you may very well still act like you're 14.

With all due respect, of course.