ITT I edit a new edition of the BIP pamphlet

[Verbal Mike]

Okay spags, my insatiable urge to edit anything comprising of or resembling Enlgish has come to a head. ITT you will say what you would like to see in a new, revised and expanded edition of the BIP pamphlet, and I will put it together, at least as far as text (I can do layout pretty well, in total amateur terms - any more serious volunteers, Net?)

I will not be making the pamphlet all that much longer. I might add a few pieces, but the idea is to produce a more complete, more interesting work - not a fucking novel. (For my so-called novel, see that other thread.)

I might however try to edit the current content rather in-depth. LMNO suggested in the criticism thread that the pamphlet should emphasize that each and every one of us is just as fucked and bound as the next cabbage - other ideas of similar nature are welcome.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

I think it might be a good idea to remember that its a metaphor and "each and every one of us is just as fucked and bound as the next cabbage" within that metaphor... but not necessarily in a real sense.

But that's all I'm gonna say, cause I've beat the dead horse too much already on this topic.

[Verbal Mike]

I'm still relatively new here. The corpse is still fresh, to my eyes. Would you mind at least rehashing the argument, briefly?

[AFK]

Well, as I've adeptly portrayed the past couple of days, I'm a behind the times, out-of-touch purist, so take the following for what it's worth:  so my suggestion would be to take that energy you have and put it into Lollercaust instead.  BIP is in 2 versions now, do we really need a 3rd?  

[Cramulus]

I think at this point we need some outsider input. Dolores made some good comments, and surely our clarification of her points is something that should be addressed. I'd like to see more outsiders take a look at the pamphlet and engage in diaologue about it. We used to have a lot of BIP-centric discussion, then after v2.0, it sort of faded off a bit. Does the new version work? Is there stuff it's still missing? It's hard for us to see because we're SO familliar with it. (at least, I am)

I think the points it could use are
--some illustrations of different people's prison bars. For some people it's social, some personal, some political, some economic, some instinct, etc etc. A lot of people think the BIP pamphlet is a political tract. and it IS, but that's only one slice of the pie
--some more concrete definitions of the Machine and the Con, as those are two important metaphors we should probably get to the point about
--an underscore of Think For Yourself Shmuck. As LMNO said:

1.  We didn't offer solutions.  Any blanket solution to an individual's problems other than "think for yourself, schmuck" would be riddled with oversimplifications and non-applicable ideas.

2.  We didn't make it obvious that the pamphlet was also a mirror.  Perhaps on a future edition, we should put "WE'RE IN PRISON, TOO" on the back cover, to fully acknowledge that we're not elitists that have found the solution and are pitying the masses, but that we have merely realized that we're in the same trap as everyone else. 

Is it necessary to have a new version? I'm not sure.
Have you considered putting together a companion edition instead? Like a followup to the BIP? (PD08?)


Be aware that no matter how it goes, you're going to be doing most of the work yourself.  Just the nature of things around here.

[Verbal Mike]

RWHN, I hear you, but I think a little revision, editing and expansion would be nice, and I think the Lollercaust is a much bigger project than what I intend to do here.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Well, as I've adeptly portrayed the past couple of days, I'm a behind the times, out-of-touch purist, so take the following for what it's worth:  so my suggestion would be to take that energy you have and put it into Lollercaust instead.  BIP is in 2 versions now, do we really need a 3rd? 

No yuo.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Truth be told, I was thinking that just adding an appendix consisting of parts of the discussions/critiques already existing in various threads, and perhaps adding some marginalia, would be just the thing.

[LMNO]

I welcome a newer version.  I'm a fan of the editing process, especially considering the way V1.0 got hacked together.

[AFK]

Truth be told, I was thinking that just adding an appendix consisting of parts of the discussions/critiques already existing in various threads, and perhaps adding some marginalia, would be just the thing.

Well for that sort of thing I suggest checking out this page of the BIP Wiki:

http://www.blackironprison.com/index.php?title=Literature

The lower section contains subject matter from some of the discussions we had post-BIP.  Now I think a lot of them are pretty much just copy-pasta, so you'd need to boil them down some, but at least you have a collection to start from and won't have to do a lot of thread archaeology. 

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

I'm still relatively new here. The corpse is still fresh, to my eyes. Would you mind at least rehashing the argument, briefly?

Well, for me, I find a heavy difference between the BIP that existed in some of the early essays and the BIP that has been widely discussed afterward.

In the BiP, there's a lot of talk about being trapped in your cell, and getting a chance at a jailbreak. This I find extremely useful and thoughtful.

"Look around you. Look at these cold, black bars. The colorless ceiling. The hard ground. That's your universe. That's the world you're going to be living in for the rest of your life here in Prison. You're going to live out your life in quiet desperation. Or, not so quiet if you decide to take the rife/bell tower route. Either way, long or short, it'll feel the same. Dead, unchanging.


So, if you're interested, I'd like to invite you to a jailbreak... "

So what's the point of this little lecture? Let me be honest, yeah it's a rare trait honesty. I want something from you, just like everybody else, I want your freedom.

I see that got you confused, not what you think mate. Your all chained up, shackled down and you probably don't even realize it. Cultural conditioning, it's a pain in the arse but we all go through it. We are taught to obey, to listen, to follow the party line. They throw us a couple of freedoms like scooby-snacks to make you toe the line.


I'm not asking for you to fight the system, not asking for you to join some crazy revolution, not even asking you to join a movement. I'm asking you to wake up, think for yourself. You see there are folks who have, folks who have realized what the hell is going on and learned to live their lives constantly questioning the status quo.


Now what do you say? I'm inviting you to a jailbreak mate, all you need is to provide your own lockpick, think you can do it?

What we have observed is that the more people are able to think for themselves, the less willing they become to exhaust themselves at someone else's command. An open-minded person is better able to see past the illusions that have this civilization headed toward what seems to be a fiery demise, and may even do something about it.

If we all effect a change on our own paradigm (this DOES require some effort, being a bliss-ninny doesn't count), there WILL be an eventual overlap, at which point the large scale change which we have hoped to effect all along will be impossible to stop.

However, in later discussions the BiP has morphed into something permanent. The BiP IS what you WILL be TRAPPED in for LIFE and at best, you might be able to redecorate and change a few bars. For me, the two positions don't gel. Either we're trapped forever... in which case, we're wankers for bothering, and half the essays in the pamphlet make statements that are absurd... or this concept that the BiP IS Eternal, needs reworked.

Some seem to argue that since we have physical limitations to our sensory input and thus perception, we are forever trapped in the BiP... However, this seems to make as little sense to me, as those who argue that since we must obey the laws of physics, we have no free will. To me, personally, it seems that a useful metaphor has been stretched beyond its usefulness.

I think most people could be said to be born into a BiP, a very specific worldview, heavily influenced by their society, parents, religion, education and physical makeup. certianly it seems to fit, quite well, the reality I experienced as a kid.

But, for me... I think a jail break is entirely possible. I think it may be quite plausible that we can escape the BiP, we always risk returning to the BiP, maybe for short stays, or a life sentence... but I think we can escape, and if we're thoughtful, I think we can stay out of the BiP.

That doesn't mean I think we can reach some state where our perception is unlimited (though Huxley would argue just that). Rather, I think we can reach a point where we aren't imprisoned by our perception. Huxley used the metaphor of a wall, and having doors which we could go through the wall. PKD, in his original use of the BiP, portrayed it as a social system put in power by the powerful to control the masses... and it was a system, that if you could SEE it, you could escape it.

The BiP can be a very good metaphor for some aspects of the human experience, but its only a metaphor. It's useful to a point, but then I think we need to give it a pass. A Black Iron Prison may very easily and accurately describe the unthinking position of someone who accepts their beliefs as True, their perception as Reality and maintains an unquestioning obedience to the the signs that say "Please don't escape". However, I don't think its a good metaphor to use in explaining that we will always have limited perception. The very knowledge that your perception is limited, if applied, seem to be the PERFECT jailbreak. If you don't allow your perception to limit you, then they're no longer bars or walls... they're simply data collection equipment, that we understand to be limited.

I tried a little parable to fill it out some, but it was met with mixed reviews and other discussions we had around the same time sorta ended the same. Overall, I think that I perceive being trapped in Prison from birth to death, with the best possible outcome being a change to a bar here or there to be unnecessarily pessimistic and somewhat inaccurate in my personal life experience.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

I say we break the BIP down into core concepts and select an article that best represents each concept, then mirror that with using LOLLERCAUST materials, and publish a Yin-Yang version.

[LMNO]

The brief rebuttal to Rat is that even if you change your current reality filter* for another, a filter still exists.  Except for signgular ineffable moments (orgasm, LSD peak, terror et al), you can't live without any filters at all.



The closest you can get is understanding that the cell is there, and that it is mutable.







*Or re-arrange your cell.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

The brief rebuttal to Rat is that even if you change your current reality filter* for another, a filter still exists.  Except for signgular ineffable moments (orgasm, LSD peak, terror et al), you can't live without any filters at all.



The closest you can get is understanding that the cell is there, and that it is mutable.







*Or re-arrange your cell.

And I disagree... the Prison isn't limited perception... but NOT UNDERSTANDING that you have limited perception. If you think that the world you see IS the world, then you're trapped. If however, you recognize that perception is perception and not reality.... if you accept that you don't SEE the Real World, if you no longer base your ideas and judgments on the world from within the BiP, then you're not in the BiP... to me. 

[LMNO]

...and this is usually where we stop.

I say that while knowing you see the world with blinders is better than not knowing you have blinders on, it's still not the same as having no blinders on.