Off the Tracts

[LMNO]

1: We look for patterns in the world outside our heads.
2: When we find patterns, we call it order; when we don't we call it disorder.
3: The ability to find patterns comes from within ourselves.
4: So order and disorder only exist dependent on how much we want it to be there.
5: To realize that Order and Disorder are subjective, and that all is Chaos, is to find Eris.

[nurbldoff]

What would be neat is to somehow put as many of these awesome ideas as possible together, so that the thing could be read on lots of different levels. Like a multi layered allegory something. Even if you don't get it all it would still seem profound

[LMNO]

Yeah, that's pretty good idea.

Ok all: 5 lines about what the fuck you get out of this Discordia thing, anyway. I'll do crappy layout/formatting when I think we have enough.

There's a 47% chance I'll have to end up writing most of it myself. I'm ok with that.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I like it. I'll try my hand at it.

[Cramulus]

found this while looking for content...

BA-BUMP

[Reginald Ret]

another angle....

Page 1: This pamphlet was thrusted into the chaos of modern living, and somehow it found its way to your hands. This is the work of Eris, the Ancient Greek Goddess of Confusion. She symbolizes a return to balance, but her method is disorder.

Page 2: Most of mankind's problems come from the Curse of Grayface. All the suffering you experience can be resolved by mental shifts. To grow past these problems, you must recontextualize your life. After all, you're just a shmuck.

Page 3: You suffer from the Curse of Grayface, and soon you will be free of it. Go partake of a hotdog on a friday, and understand that this is a symbolic act of rebellion. Kill your idols.

Page 4: Discordian monks don't have monasteries. Unlike other monks, they don't isolate themselves or abstain from anything. They live just like regular people, but they laugh an awful lot more.

Page 5: Welcome to the Legion of Dynamic Discord!

(1) again, AWESOME beginning, but the ending is less to my taste. A reference to the golden apple can be smart because it's a recognizable symbol that many people already know without knowing it's Discordian. Going on about ancient greek gods and a return to balance will only get us wiccans and their ilk, and frankly there are better monkeys in this bucket. (all this only imho duh)

(2) seems solid

(3) GREAT

(4) this makes me think "huh? monks?!"

(5) THIS. again ties into the concept that if you're reading this, you're probably already a discordian, just not aware of it yet.

(1) This seemed particularly suited for a wiccan audience. Audience specific pamflets are a good thing.

(2) seems like it could use a rewrite but i'll be damned if i know how or even in what direction to take it. as you said: solid.

(3) lessee reference to former text, new and strange idea, reference to pop culture.   perfection. ending with reference to a dominant cultural meme should be done more often.

(4) this inspires a little paranoia. this will keep the pamflet in the back of their heads. excellent.  @VERB: it only makes you think of monks 'cause you already know alot about the discordian society.

(5) agreed.

[Reginald Ret]

I'm going to be as critical as I can about all of these because I think this is a great idea. Plus, I don't feel like going to sleep because I'm in a bad mood.

Page 1: The Information Age has changed some fundamental stuff about society. We now assemble our identities from stuff way outside our local sphere. We call this the Strange Times, and it marks an era where "normality" is not just an illusion, not just a viscious trap laid by popular consensus, but the enemy of growth.

Page 2: Humans are, for the most part, irrational creatures. This means that it's a waste of time to try and build a rational world order - some jackass is just going to screw it up! Rather than be dismayed by this, we try to find the humor in it.

Page 3: Strife and Confusion are the essence of living in an irrational, strange time. The Ancient Greeks, who were trying to build society out of nothingness, saw Eris as the enemy. In today's context, she is the force which will dismantle bureaucracy and show us how to assemble an identity out of hilarious parts, rather than the boring grayfaced crap we see everywhere. The modern Discordians use her as a symbol for Disorder, which is ultimately a tool for balance.

Page 4: Discordians have been around since the late 50s. Their religion venerates humor and takes nothing (especially the self) seriously. They have impacted culture in numerous subtle ways.

Page 5: Having read this pamphlet, you are now a pope, able to define what is good and bad in your personal slice of the cosmos.

I like (1) a lot. I think it's very powerful and effective at this point in time. No further comment.

(2) seems to me to start off really well and then get less appealing... "Humans are irrational" is a strong point because it's so easy to confirm. The stuff about building a rational world order seems irrelevant. Not to mention, the jackass that's gonna screw it up is part of our target audience! This could be reworked somehow, but I'm too tired to do it at the moment.

(3) emphasizing strife and discord is great. Emphasizing the Greek stuff...I personally don't like it so much. It can be a turn-off. Referring to She What Done it All as an ancient symbol for strife can be enough to insert her into the discourse, then you can focus on strife, discord, and fun.

(4) this is good, but you do it better in one of the later versions (where you say "look for the numbers 23 and 5")

(5) this is also great.

Here's a bit of text that was supposed to be a one-sentence thought for insertion but came out as more (written after I saw (5) above):

You may not realize it now, but you're a Discordian and always have been one. You're not one of those monkeys, you're better than that. You're still one of us, one of the humans, and by goodness you will NOT slide back down that evolutionary scale and turn back in to MUSH. You are a human, damn it, and we humans do not just lay back and let mere CIRCUMSTANCE victimize US! FUCK THAT! WE HUMANS VICTIMIZE THE CIRCUMSTANCES RIGHT BACK! It's what we climed out of the primordial sludge for, and it's how we have all these cities, all these INTERNETS. It may seem tempting, oh does it seem tempting, to sit back and let others run your internets, run your cities... But sitting back and eating lice is for MONKEYS! DONT LET THEM TAKE OUR INTERNETS!

(Like everything I post here, this is 100% yoink-certified, and I will never resent anything you do with it unless the usage is intentionally designed to make me look really bad IRL and does that effectively somehow. That's the only situation where I could possibly give a fuck about what you do with this.)

(1)  perfection. seems a more intellectual aproach, good for universities.

(2) rework attempt:
Humans are, for the most part, irrational creatures. This means that it's a waste of time to try and build any rational organization - some mere-hume is just going to screw it up! Rather than be dismayed by this, we try to find the humor in it.

(3) another rewrite!
Strife and Confusion are the essence of living in an irrational, strange time. The Ancient Greeks, who were trying to build society by adding order to the world around them, saw Eris as the enemy. Today's world has become too orderly, Eris is the force which will dismantle bureaucracy and show us how to assemble an identity out of the more hilarious parts, rather than the boring grayfaced crap we see everywhere. The modern Discordians use her as a symbol for Disorder, which is currently a tool for balance.

(4) this reads as a research asignment (go find the  ubtle influences), a pattern most students easily follow.

(5) agreed, great.


heh, good rant. well suited for a net neutrality meeting/discussion/protest. delivered in full discordian pope outfit.

[Reginald Ret]

5 page pamflet for promoting discordia.


(1)  All Hail Discordia! Those who wish to join the church of discord must read on.
(2) Why are you still reading this shit? You're interested in how other people think?
(3) Have you no shame? Act Normal, Go Back Home, Turn On The TV and Stop Thinking For Yourself!
(4) still here? damn.
(5) sigh, fine. We believe: all is chaos; chaos is order + disorder; how much order you find is dependent on how much effort you put into finding patterns; disorder is what is left; the distinction between order and disorder is subjective and irrelevant; in having fun.

[Cainad (dec.)]

found this while looking for content...

BA-BUMP

Good bump! I forgot all about this.

[MMIX]

see also:
http://23ae.com/index.asp?post=256
http://23ae.com/index.asp?post=37

a little more on the surreal/absurd side

have these gone with the wind or are they reclaimable?

[Cramulus]

good question. do you remember what they were?

[MMIX]

good question. do you remember what they were?

No I don't think I ever managed to find them even when they first went up. I would have tried harder if I'd known 23AE was going to die and get resurrected. If you can't find them its cool I was just after a bit of surreal inspiration really.





eta AAArrrgghhh punctuation

[Halfbaked1]

Eh, I tend toward pinealism when I do things like this, but I will give er a go.  Please note that I have taken some thoughts from others and put my own bend to them.

1. You have just found a clue to something that you probably didn't think you wanted to know.  Now put it down and walk away before you realize different.

2. Still here?  Okay then, the fact is that everything you have ever experienced and the situation of your life is dictating how you see what you call REALITY.  Where you were born, how you were born, what you were born are things you cannot change.  Your personal experiences, how you react to those experiences and the experiences that you will encounter in the future are the things that you can do something about.  The world, and all the other monkeys in it, will try and tell you how you are supposed to react to things, THINK FOR YOURSELF SCHMUCK!  You cannot escape the prison that is built from your biological circumstances, but if you can think for yourself then you can remodel the cell.

3.  The world is a mix of order and disorder.  We look through the frameworks of our situations and our experiences and we see patterns, we call the patterns ORDER, and the things that fit no pattern we call DISORDER.  Now if you could see the world through the next guys framework then you would see that his idea of ORDER and yours are, more than likely, fundamentally different.  You might have known this stuff, you might realize that the world is all just a mish mash of order and disorder.  Even if you didn't, you do now, so welcome to the ranks of The Discordian Society. 

4.  What's a Discordian?  Not a stupid question, but the wrong one.  Discordian is just something that a group of people call themselves and have been doing so since the fifties, it's a name and therefore not relevent to what it means to think for ones self.  The right question is, "How did I become a Discordian, and how do I think for myself?"  The first answer is simple, you were probably always were.  The second answer is alot more interesting, and no one can give it to you.  This humble pamphlet can tell you to think for yourself, but in the end, how to do that is up to you.  It is freedom that we speak of here, you can use it, or ignore it.  but if you were going to ignore it you would have stopped reading by now.

5.  Now you realize that the world is a crazy, mixed up collection of personal viewpoints and opinions that are being inflicted upon you by people who see reality a certain way.  Here's the way to cope with the situation.  Realize that you are a human being, and cannot possibly see reality as a whole.  Go off someplace on a Friday and eat a hotdog by yourself, think about why you MUST have a hotdog bun.  Listen to what all the clambering monkeys around you have to say, then decide what you REALLY THINK, and don't change it just because the noisy ones don't agree.  Or don't.  I just told you that you were free, don't give the writer of this pamphlet the power to tell you how to think.  Never give that to anyone, in the end it's all you have.  Or maybe I am completely insane and this has been a supreme waste of time.

[Iron Sulfide]

If anyone wants to use footsteps in the sand, go right for it. I like fliers and tracts as a form of discordian evangelism, but we don't really have enough that use other peoples' faiths to expound the glory of discordia.

I'm for brainstorming Christian, Jewish, Islamic and Buddhist discordian pamphlets. unfortunately, i don't get to the board often enough, so i'll have to just deposit what i come up with.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

If anyone wants to use footsteps in the sand, go right for it. I like fliers and tracts as a form of discordian evangelism, but we don't really have enough that use other peoples' faiths to expound the glory of discordia.

I'm for brainstorming Christian, Jewish, Islamic and Buddhist discordian pamphlets. unfortunately, i don't get to the board often enough, so i'll have to just deposit what i come up with.

Gin?