The Rogue Discordian Collection, v 2.0

[Cain]

(I can't be bothered to remember and find the original files I uploaded as part of the first collection.  It wouldn't be as good as this one, anyway)

So here we have the second edition of the Rogue Discordian collection!  What exactly is this collection, you may ask?  A good question.  It helps if you break down the word somewhat.  Discordian...well, lets not go there, so we can avoid another multipage flamewar.  Lets just pretend we all know what we mean by Discordian, and ignore the fact our own private defintions will never match up even more than, say, 70% with any other given person.

However, with rogue, we are on more certain ground.  According to the Princeton wordnet, a definition for rogue is "a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel."  OK, good start.  But we cannot go by just one definition.  What else have we got?  Multiplayer notepad for geeks Wikipedia says that "The word rogue, a cultural icon of villainy and criminality, was first recorded in print in Thomas Awdeley's Fraternity of Vagabonds (1561), and then in Thomas Harman's Caveat for Common Cursitors."  Another one is "a dishonest person; a playfully mischievous person". 

So hopefully we're on some clearer ground here.  A rogue is someone who is somewhat untrustworthy, unpredictable and has criminal implications, if not precisely meant.  The above definitions also returned this: "The Thief or Rogue is a character class in many role-playing games, including Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft and many others", again from Wikipedia.  So lets see what they have to say.

According to the Complete Scoundrel, a Guide to Player Trickery and Ingenuity, being a roguish personality is a state of mind, not a matter of skills or class.  Apparently, here is a common list of traits:

They break rules
They think on their feet
They avoid fair fights
They know their enemies weaknesses
They don't restrict themselves legally or ethically
They get dirty
The apply themselves, they are motivated by strong passions
They rely on instinct as much as planning and foreknowledge
They are not necessarily corrupt

Now, to me, that's not a bad list.  Not fighting fair and breaking rules have always been high on my list of priorities in any given endeavour.  Knowing who you are dealing with is pretty much common sense and sometimes things go crazy and you have no choice but to get involved and hope luck and a silver tongue will resolve any problem.

Now, why would any of this be necessary?  As you may have noticed, things are not wonderful, currently.  They may, and in my opinion almost certainly will, get worse.  When they do, tribalism and old boys networks will close ranks and you will be stuck out in the cold with whatever you have on you and little more.  Furthermore, the options left in such a situation may not be brilliant ones.  Do you really want to spend all day in a factory line or, at best, dealing with obstructive and useless paper-shifters in order to get a trickle of cash that will barely sustain you until next week's ritual humiliation?

No, thought not.  If the world goes to hell, the best thing to know is how to rise to the top in the times of crisis.  And I hope this collection will help.

Part one is dedicated to theory.  Namely, ideas about how things work.  These things may be as large as states, how they occupy countries, loot material wealth or organize social groups.  Or it may be as simple as how to manipulate the mind's own tendencies to notice patterns and create heuristic devices to deal with day to day life.  This stuff is not of immediate value, though I hope its long term wealth is noticeable.  Knowing how datamining systems work, or understanding the cultural role of the media is not as exciting as any of the bookts in the second part, but it may give you ideas how to apply the knowledge from the later section.

Part two is about practice.  What you can learn and put into effect.  Negotiation, sleight of hand, encryption, how to interrogate someone, defending yourself against identity theft, con tricks,  hidden compartments and the art of public performance are all for your reading.  You may question the prevalence of humour and writing in the guide, but it should be remembered that satirists and journalists can often get away with a lot that will get a lesser person into trouble, while making their point quite clearly.  Would you rather be a court jester, or Cicero?  Precisely.

Of course, I don't necessarily agree with all ideas within a particular book.  But they were not collected for moral certitude, only effectiveness.  Those you decide to reverse-engineer to your own purposes are entirely up to you.  I present them in the hope you will know which ones are best to do this with, in relation to your particular situation, and which are not feasible.

Onto the book listings.

[Cain]

Part One, theory:

Madsen Pirie - How to win every argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic (2006)
Global Trends 2025: A transformed world
Otto von Busch and Karl Palmas - Abstract Hacktivism: The making of a hacker culture
Peter L. Berstein - Against the Gods: The remarkable story of Risk (1998)
Robin Andersen and Jonathan Gray - Battleground: The Media, Vols 1&2 (2008)
Robert A. Hinde - Bending the Rules: Morality in the modern world from relationships and politics to war (2007)
Francis Fukuyama - Blindside: How to anticipate forcing events and wild cards in global politics (2007)
Thad Dunning - Crude Politics: National resource wealth and political regimes (2008)
Christopher Westphal - Datamining for Intelligence, Fraud, & Criminal Detection: Advanced Analytics and Information Sharing Technologies (2009)
The DCDC Global Strategic Trends Programme 2007-2036
Walter A. Davis - Death's Dream Kingdom: The American Psyche since 9/11 (2006)
Kathleen M Carley, Ju-Sung Lee and David Krackhardt - Destabalizing Networks (2001)
D Miller, M Rowlands and C Tilly - Domination and Resistance (1989)
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri - Empire (2000)
Michel Herson - Encyclopedia of Psychotherapy
William Ian Miller - Faking It (2003)
Loch K. Johnson - Handbook of Intelligence Studies (2007)
Reporters without Borders - Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents (2005)
Michael Billig - Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Humour (2005)
James O. Finckenauer - Mafia and Organized Crime: A Beginners Guide (2007)
David Turnbull - Masons, Tricksters and Cartographers (2000)
Steven Rosefielde and D. Quinn Mills - Masters of Illusion: American Leadership in the Media Age (2007)
Michael I. Handel - Masters of war: Classical Strategic Thought, 3rd Edition (2005)
Eric Carlton - Occupation: The policies and practices of military conquerors (1992)
Che Guevara - ON Guerrilla Warfare (1961)
Harry Levin - Playboys and Killjoys: An essay on the theory and practice of comedy (1987)
Ken Binmore - Playing Game Theory for Real: A text on Game Theory (2007)
Ugo Mattei and Laura Nader - Plunder: When the rule of law is illegal (2008)
Luis A Fernandez - Policing Dissent: Social Control and the Anti-Globalization Movement (2008)
E.A. Rees - Political Thought from Machiavelli to Stalin (2004)
Mary Chayko - Portable Communities: The dynamics of online and mobile connectedness (2008)
Dan Ariely - Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions (2008)
Everett Carl Dolman - Pure Strategy: Power and Principle in the Space and Information Age (2005)
Eric S. Knowles and Jay A. Linn - Resistance and Persuasion
Ivan Molloy - Rolling Back Revolution: The emergence of Low Intensity Conflict (2001)
David E. Hawkins and Shan Rajagopal - Sun Tzu and the Project Battleground: Creating Project Strategy from the Art of War (2005)
Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in the Markets and in Life (2004)
A.J.S. Spawforth - The Court and Court Society in Ancient Monarchies (2007)
Niccolo Machiavelli - The Prince (1515)
Edward Wilson and Wes Unruh - The Art of Memetics (2008)
Janice E. Thomson - Mercenaries, Pirates and Sovereigns: State-building and extraterritorial violence in early modern Europe (1994)
Shishir Nagaraja and Ross Anderson - The Topology of Covert Conflict (2005)
Donald Laming - Understanding Human Motivation: What makes people tick? (2004)
Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui - Unrestricted Warfare (1999)
U.S. Government Counterinsurgency Guide (2009)
Charles Tilly - War Making and State Making as Organized Crime (1985)

Links forthcoming, so you can sample the books before purchase, of course.

[Cain]

And you will have to buy the books, sadly. 

[whatc]

Thanks, this looks interesting + i got plenty of space still.

[Cain]

Part Two, Practice.

Collection - 38 Magic Books: Cards and other tricks
Michael C. Donaldson - Negotiation for Dummies 2nd Edition (2007)
Michael W. Lewis - PGP and GPG: Email for the Practical Paranoid (2006)
Recoil/Eutronix - The CIA Book of Dirty Tricks #1
Unknown - The Thirty-Six Strategems
Stanley Bing - 100 Bullshit Jobs...and How to Get Them (2006)
Nancy Worman - Abusive Mouths in Classical Athens (2008)
Simon Lovell - Billion Dollar Bunko: How to Cheat At Everything (2003)
US Army Field Manual - FM-20-3 Camoflage and Concealment (1990)
Central Intelligence Agency - The Freedom Fighter's Manual/Nicuragua Sabotage Manual
Central Intelligence Agency - Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual (1983)
Central Intelligence Agency - Lock Picking: Field Operative Training Manual
Kevin Hogan and James Speakman - Covert Persuasion: Psychological Tactics and Tricks to Win the Game (2006)
Michal Piotrowski - Dangerous Google: Searching for Secrets
David Satter - Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State (2003)
Jo Jo Gonzales - Death by Deception: Advanced Improvised Booby Traps (1992)
Derren Brown - Tricks of the Mind (2007)
R.R. Brooks - Disruptive Security Technologies with Mobile Code and Peer-to-Peer Networks (2005)
Robert D. Kaplan - The Ends of the Earth: From Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia, a Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy (1997)
Federal Bureau of Investigation - Guide to Concealable Weapons (2003)
Marc Roessler - How to find hidden cameras (2002)
Marc Blake - How to be a Comedy Writer: Secrets from the inside (2005)
Special Operations Executive - How to be a Spy: the SOE WWII Training Manual (2004)
Kirstie Ball and Frank Webster - The Intensification of Surveillance: Crime, Terrorism and Warfare in the Information Age (2003)
Kevin Mitnick and William L. Simon - The Art of Intrusion: The real stories behind the exploits of Hackers, Intruders and Deceievers (2005)
Eric Maiwald - Network Security: A Beginners Guide, 2nd Edition (2003)
Johnny Long - No Tech Hacking: A Guide to Social Engineering, Dumpster Diving and Shoulder Surfing (2008)
Office of Strategic Services - Simple Sabotage Field Manual (1944)
Michael Connor - How to Hide Anything
Richard K. Betts and Thomas G. Mahnken - Paradoxes of Strategic Intelligence: Essays in honor of Michael I. Handel (2003)
Peace Corps - Remote Areas Development Manual (1964)
Robert Greene - The Art of Seduction (2001)
Robert Greene - The 48 Laws of Power (2000)
Yegor Gaidar - Collapse of an Empire: Lessons for Modern Russia (2007)
Eric Tagliacozzo - Secret Trades, Porous Borders: Smuggling and States Along a Southeast Asian Frontier, 1865-1915 (2005)
Thomas Tegg and Son - Sketches of Imposture, Deception and Credulity (1937)
Ira Winkler - Spies Among Us: How to stop the spies, terrorists, hackers and criminals you don't even know you encounter every day (2005)
Russ Rogers, Jay Beale et al - Stealing the Network: How to Own A Continent (2004)
Raven Alder, Jay Beale et al - Stealing the Network: How to Own an Identity (2005)
Ryan Russel, Tim Mullen et al - Stealing the Network: How to Own the Box (2003)
Nassim Nicholas Taleb - The Black Swan: The High Impact of the Unexpected (2006)
Christopher Kee - The Art of Argument: A Guide to Mooting (2006)
Michael Backman - The Asian Insider: Unconventional Wisdom for Asian Business (2004)
Peter Collett - THe Book of Tells: How to read people's minds from their actions (2003)
Thomas S. Kane - The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing (2000)
Matthew Goodman - The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Duelling Journalists and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth Century New York (2008)
Susan Young and David Aitel - The Hacker's Handbook: The Strategy of Breaking Into and Defending Networks (2004)
Vincent H. Gaddis - The Art of Honest Deception
RAND Project Air Force - Ungoverned Territories: Understanding and Reducing Terrorism Risks (2007)
Bernadette Schell and Clemens Martin - Webster's Hacker Dictionary (2006)
David Werner - Where there is No Doctor: A village healthcare handbook (1992)
W. Brad Johnson and carol A. Mullen - Write to the Top!: How to become a prolific academic (2007)

[Urraco]

This list is great. Tack 

[Cain]

Amazon is your friend

[Soylent Green]

Why do you always post links as hxxp instead of http?

Is it just to screw with people?

[Cain]

1.  I don't.

2.  No, its to stop the site showing up in Megaupload's referral logs and having Faust dragged over hot coals for illegal filesharing here.

[A.N. Other]

Cain, I love you, as much as one person on PD.com can love another.

[fomenter]

thanks Cain  for great books as always

[Xooxe]

Yeah, thanks. These are great.

[bds]

Cain, infinite love for this.

Thanks!

[LMNO]

Uploading into Kindle.


LMNO
-Will not have to buy another book until 2037.

[Iason Ouabache]

Uploading into Kindle.


LMNO
-Will not have to buy another book until 2037.

Not to jack this thread too much, but how easy is it to upload PDF files into the Kindle.  That is the one selling point that has kept me from buying one so far.