prisonGASM or HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THIS MOTHERFUCKING PRISON

[the last yatto]

Also, posts like this make me think perhaps we should write a history of the BIP, and stick it somewhere prominent and obvious, so people know what is going on.

BIP Stickers: HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THIS MOTHERFUCKING PRISON


here are some of the threads... now i want 5 paragraphs for each, with a thesis and a confusion.

The BIP is not a Discordian work: discuss
A critique of the BIP
Renovating Your BIP
BIP revamp?
Are We Doing IT Wrong?


ITT I edit a new edition of the BIP pamphlet
Black Iron Prison v3 thread
The Black Iron DUNGEON vs the Black Iron PRISON
Does the BIP actually change who we *are*?
Yet another overloaded ersatz BIP metaphor

Nopants the Monk Explains Everything

[the last yatto]

BIP is in 2 versions now, do we really need a 3rd? 

Quoth Spagulus:
This is a continuation of the Black Iron Prison v3 discussion which started in the fucking wikipedia thread.

[the last yatto]

I like to think of the BIP as a little cell in a big prison.  At some point you can realize that you're free to just open the door and leave your cell, kick out the warden, and then rename the penitentiary whatever the fuck you want to, and rule over your own little kingdom.  You're still technically in a jail, only it's your jail, and it had better listen to whatever you have to say or there will be consequences.  After that, the problem is more with interior decorating - you're free to live in whatever you want. (or not, if you like the idea of eternal oblivion.)

Be Your Own Warden

[the last yatto]

Only read the first page, then thought of this.

You're wrong, of course, but I'm trying not to hold that against you.

[the last yatto]

What do you mean, who we "are"?
Everything changes who you "are".



We're all just a pile of memes anyway - memes precariously balanced and glued together in a way which seems like a personality.


The Black Iron Prison is just another meme - it's a meme which encourages you to look at the shadow of that pile and make some choices about it. It's a good meme to keep around. Hopefully it'll help you act differently than the guy you were yesterday. Does that change who you *are*?

[the last yatto]

So, as a child, you are more or less indoctrinated into culture. Before you have said your first words, you have already been imprinted with certain functions in more or less the way that is standard across the culture. By the time you reach puberty, you are expected to more or less have a default install -- this is the function of schools and of family units, generally, as well as one of the functions of television and other audiovisual media. Part of this cultural imprinting is highly pragmatic (in the colloquial sense): it is far easier to interact with a large network of nearly-identical systems than to interact with a large network of highly disparate systems, and so it is a benefit to both maintenance crews (administration types, arguably, and probably law enforcement too) and to anyone who needs to interact with a very large swath of strangers (advertisers, salespeople, marketing people, news media, entertainment media, &c.) since you can assume that most of the time the software will be nearly exactly the same -- people are trained to do little more than changing the cognitive equivalent of their desktop wallpapers and homepages, and they rarely even write their own files, instead being comfortable with downloading other people's image macros and saving archives of internet chain letters.

But, little do most people know that their cultural OS is in fact open source. They have been trained to stay away from the text editor and compiler, and they have been trained to deny that they can program, although they certainly know that they are written in the language of dream logic.

You know the language you are written in. You know how to modify your existing programs. Why don't you fix a bug or two, write a game or a utility here and there? Script some common actions, and change your API when it will benefit you.

Before you know it, you are no longer stock. Sure, you look the same from the outside -- the interface is transparent, so you seem to be using the same protocols. But you've been tuned up -- optimized under the hood, with hidden functions that your friends don't know about and fixes for the common exploits that nobody has released patches for despite the fact that the script kiddies have been using them to send you popup spam since the advent of television.

[the last yatto]

Nopants the Monk explains Destiny:


One day, a young man set out to understand the mystery of destiny. He went to visit many wise men, but none of them could answer his questions. So it continued, until the day he visited the Discordian monk Nopants.

"Master," the young man said, "Can you tell me the mysteries of destiny?"

Nopants smiled. "Destiny, you say?" The elderly monk stood up and brushed the dirt from his knees. He pointed up, at one of the many leaves that hung above his head. "What is this leaf's destiny?"

The young man looked at it. It was a broad, strong leaf, vibrantly green with life. He thought for a few moments, before saying: "To provide food for the tree that bears it, and to shade any who might come under it."

Nopants nodded approvingly. Reaching up, he plucked the leaf and twirled it in his fingers. Then suddenly, to the young man's horror, Nopants dropped his pants, reached around, and began to wipe his ass with the leaf vigorously. The man could only watch in ever-growing shock as the monk continued to desecrate the beautiful leaf, using it as he would a normal piece of toilet paper. When he was finished, Nopants tossed the leaf to the ground with an irreverent flick of his wrist.

"You were right," Nopants said, "That leaf's destiny was to live quietly and peacefully." He pointed down at the leaf. "But what good has it's destiny done it? Look at it now. It lies crumpled and broken on the ground, covered in someone else's shit. Such is the way of the world."

And the young man was enlightened.

Somehow you strayed and lost your way, and now there'll be no time to play, no time for joy, no time for friends - not even time to make amends. You are too naïve if you do believe life is innocent laughter and fun.

[Cramulus]

nice collection