Brief Manifesto of an Erisian Tzaddik

[Efrim]

A Tzaddik is a righteous and saintly person, a spiritual leader of a modern Hasidic community...There are 36 complete tzaddikim. However, there are many, many tzaddikim and good people, who, although they have not reached the lofty heights of the complete tzaddikim, are still considered righteous individuals. There is also the one tzaddik in every generation, who is likened to the Moses of that generation, and merits to receive the Shechinah every day. This tzaddik is the foundation of the world in his time. The simple Divine service of all of these tzaddikim, and of every person, brings G-d much Nachat Ruach (pleasure).
-Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh

and they say that the truth will set you free
but then so will a lie
it depends if you're trying to get to the promised land
or you're just trying to get by
-Ani Difranco

We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.
-Bill Hicks

First Statement of the Erisian Tzaddikim -

And so it came to be that the buildings all fell in on themselves. In their place stood only the billboards which leered down on a nation of stumbling drunkards and grinned; showing off their vicious fangs. Our wallets are full of blood and our cars are powered by war-mongering. We own nothing. What we believe to own is an illusion meant to bind our hands to a shackle of materialism. These things of ours lead us deeper and deeper into it as we come to accept them as natural. We do not need a house in the suburbs. We do not need white picket fences. We need very little, yet we strive and fight for our wants as though they were our needs. WANT is an idea that someone, somewhere, put into your head. If you had never been told about a Playstation 2, if you had not been subjected to a well-crafted ad campaign, would you want one? Of coarse not. What we need is basic to our survival, what we want in our natural state is so limited that it is practically non-existent  and certainly not hard to fulfill.

The tzaddikim are the righteous of Judaism. Some believe that their good-deeds and suffering redeem the whole of mankind. Some believe that when the proper number of tzaddikim is lacking the world is thrown into destruction and chaos. I am not Jewish, but I have come to know this information.

Our world has fallen deep into an abysmal pit of unecessary order and destructive chaos. The world as it is can be considered deeply opposed to the most basic ideals of Discordianism. I have come to speculate that the balance of our world has been lost due to a lack of tzaddikim. Not those of the Jewish variety however. I have come to believe that the lack of balance can be restored by us, the not-yet blind. We have come to be enlightened, we have come to realize what is necessary to our lives and more importantly, what is not necessary.

I come here today to tell you that you are all Discordian tzzadikim. You are all good men and women who have found part of your truth and continue to search for the rest of it. But are you true tzzadikim? To be elevated requires suffering and work and endurance and how many of us are willing to stand up and try to open the eyes of others?

how many of us can stand against what is- all the while realizing that what we are attempting is no more likely to succeed than a man who throws his body underneath tire treads trying to stop a tank?

We can suffer and we can struggle and we can die never seeing the least bit of change during our lifetime. So why should we take this task upon ourselves? We could be happy amongst ourselves and forget the worries of others. It is easy enough to just get by, why struggle for the promised land?

Yes....pessimisim grips us like a vine and those in houses of grey smile at this and spread fertilizer around our necks. They want us to forget what has been done and we can still do. Consider that today we lament our poor health care system and our bosses who so often deny us it. Remember that 100 years ago workers struggeled and died for rights so basic we take them for granted. Consider that we were unable to stop the Iraq war though our numbers were many and our voices were loud. Remember that the cries to end that war began months before it had even started. Remember that the Vietnam war carried on for years with hundreds of casualties before any significant protest mounted. These things are easy to forget because the struggles we fight never end and it often seems that nothing has improved because we are still fighting. Each generation hopes to reach the promised land, but in reality all we can hope for are tiny, clumsy steps in that general direction.

It is my belief that these tiny steps are the value of our lives. The road to the present has been paved with the souls of tzzadikim who suffered so that we could continue the fight. We see farther by standing on the sholders of giants and we may never see the promised land, but each of us has the ability to bring us just that much closer to it. You will always be small, an individual can only accomplish so much in the way of good. Indeed, even if you reach the level of a true tzzadikim your biography may still seem small and insignificant. Tiny steps add up though and your accomplishments take on a greater meaning when looked at as part of a struggle for betterment that has gone on longer than any of us can know.
I have no advice on how to get there. I have no advice on what action must be done. There is no strategy I can offer you. When the moment(s) come that decide who you are, you will know. I can't tell you what your struggle will be.

We do not need what we have. We have come to want what is unnecessary and meaningless. We forget the suffering of others in the name of our own comfort. Look around you and see what tiny things can be done to help. It is not hard. Consider the effects of your actions.  If you want to create positive change, if you want the title of tzaddikim, then all you can do is live your life never forgetting what you are sworn to when you have an option.

I am interested now in how many there are among us who will take this upon themselves. Needless suffering for the slight betterment of the future. Perhaps noble, perhaps foolish. All I know is that I am either noble or a fool because I will do all that I can when I know I must.

Of coarse,  This is all a choice: You can throw your body on the machine or you can just get by. Either way, I'd understand. I leave the question entirely up to you. If it must be, then I will stand as the only Erisian Tzaddik. A tiny step will be the measure of my life.

[Colonel Failure]

HAIL YES!

Ok, well, I already toldja that was my first thought.

I think the real important point here is casting The Big Picture vs. The Details in the correct light.

When you look at the Big Picture, it's hard not to see Roger's Grey Monolith lurking just over the horizon. And it's easy to consider the idea of getting in its way to be pointless.

(chuckles)

For some reason, I am reminded of something from The Imperial Sourcebook (for the Star Wars RPG by West End Games). While discussing Grand Moff Tarkin's (if ever there was a greyface...) Doctrine of Fear, he is attributed with the following statement (mangled as best I can from memory):

"The common person is defeated by scale. When presented with a Star Destroyer, and then with the weapons which may be used to oppose it, the common person will dismiss the idea as suicide rather than approach the situation tactically."

I think that's generally true. But the devil, as they say, is in the details. This is why that sentiment doesn't apply: There is no Star Destroyer.

There's no Grey Monolith.

There's no Evil Empire.

There's just people.

In the words of St. Durden, "Our war is a spiritual war." We're not jumping in front of tanks. We're not setting ourselves on fire (I hope - Jake safely, people!). Our mission is to enlighten the Thuddites, one at a time, or in small groups. This is a personal conflict, between each one of us and each one of them - individually.

There is no US.

There is no THEM.

There's you, and me, and that guy on the street you hand a pope card to.

Categories are the tools of Greyface, and we can use them (like I just did), but we can't forget that they're not real. They're just a semantic convention. I think you've made an excellent point about keeping this in perspective. Our daily goal should not be the destruction of the Grey Monolith (though obviously that's the point), but the liberation of one mind at a time; individual acts of enlightenment will constitute the vast majority of the struggle.

Now, like I said to the Rev, I'm all for a Really Big Prank. Just can't think of a really good one. But I keep my mind open (or try to), and keep looking for one... maybe an Idea will pop in thru my pineal gland one of these days.

For now, I will continue to fnord my money and deface it with discordian koans before returning it to circulation.

And I will keep an eye out for opportunities to do more. As you aptly pointed out, baby steps may be all we can hope for, but they'll get you to your destination just the same as long as we stay the course.

And finally:

All I know is that I am either noble or a fool because I will do all that I can when I know I must.

Both perhaps, and there is nothing wrong with either. I can think of nothing better than to be called a noble fool.

-CF

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Of coarse,  This is all a choice: You can throw your body on the machine or you can just get by. Either way, I'd understand. I leave the question entirely up to you. If it must be, then I will stand as the only Erisian Tzaddik. A tiny step will be the measure of my life.

VERY good.  Very good, indeed.  But there is a third option to be added to the two listed above.

[Colonel Failure]

VERY good. Very good, indeed. But there is a third option to be added to the two listed above.

Would that be: throw a cabbage into the machine?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

VERY good. Very good, indeed. But there is a third option to be added to the two listed above.

Would that be: throw a cabbage into the machine?

Nope.  

Burrow into it, and come busting out of its torso like Alien.

[Horab Fibslager]

i don't belive in teh no-win situation
-capt. james t. kirk

in any given instance there may be several ways to kill a man, by headshot, by knife attack, by gently filling his body with so much lead that it can no longer prevent it's innards from spilling out of it's new found holes. in the kali yuga only the natural laws of physics and the imagination may limit one pursuit of pwnage.
-the ninth diretivo of beermonster.plus

[Colonel Failure]

VERY good. Very good, indeed. But there is a third option to be added to the two listed above.

Would that be: throw a cabbage into the machine?

Nope.  

Burrow into it, and come busting out of its torso like Alien.

Hmmm... Can we throw a couple cabbages into the works as a distraction first?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

VERY good. Very good, indeed. But there is a third option to be added to the two listed above.

Would that be: throw a cabbage into the machine?

Nope.  

Burrow into it, and come busting out of its torso like Alien.

Hmmm... Can we throw a couple cabbages into the works as a distraction first?

Why ask ME?

Rev Roger,
Is NOT in charge.

[Horab Fibslager]

he's right- i am. where is my harem of sexy naked slave girls to bow before my every whim and beckon before my every desire?

FOR GREAT JUSTICE SET US UP THE HOT CHICKS!

[Colonel Failure]

VERY good. Very good, indeed. But there is a third option to be added to the two listed above.

Would that be: throw a cabbage into the machine?

Nope.  

Burrow into it, and come busting out of its torso like Alien.

Hmmm... Can we throw a couple cabbages into the works as a distraction first?

Why ask ME?

Rev Roger,
Is NOT in charge.

DAMN! Touche' again... I gotta watch that...

[Kaokibilixi]

*applauds*

I like this.

I believe there is some kind of positive morality behind all this..... and what you said pretty much reflects what I feel.

Suferring and slow struggling evolution for the sake of making for a better future... is what it comes down to fairly often, though occasionally... there comes a time for shoving the beat-stick sideways up the agents of stagnation's collective arse.... whenever and however the opportunity comes.

Either way, methinks we should be fighting the good fight, no matter what weapons/farming machinery we use to battle the forces of evil/idiocy/what-not.

[Bella]

I like it, too.

Seems to me it all comes down to the fact that this life is a balancing act. We have to live for the day, while at the same time taking into consideration the fact that our current actions are shaped by what has come before and will have an effect on the future, and on the lives of others.

It is my belief that these tiny steps are the value of our lives.

It is my belief that there are no tiny steps.

[gnimbley]

It is evening in the forest. All the gathered forest creatures crane their necks and peer to see what gneslie, the cutest gnome, has found on the floor of the forest.

It is a buff envelope.

Could this be a message from the overdue gnimbley who has yet to return from his pilgrimage to The Land of the Azelias?

She eagerly tears the edge of the envelope open and extracts a yellow card on which can be seen carefully scribed words in a flowing script.

The animals hold their breath.



She reads.

















"We have met the enemy, and he is us."       Pogo

[Guido Finucci]

"We have met the enemy, and he is us."       Pogo

Is that the Pogo that is called Isaac?

if so:

Basically, my freedom to swing my fist ends where your nose begins. And if I can't work out where your nose begins on my own, I think the law should have a modicum of control over how I swing my fist.

[gnimbley]

"We have met the enemy, and he is us."       Pogo

Is that the Pogo that is called Isaac?

No, Pogo lived in the Okefenokee swamp.