Yeah, LMNO, so this Patrick Henry freak...

[The Good Reverend Roger]

...once said "Give me liberty or give me death", which was the origin of "Or Kill Me".  But what's really interesting is that it really IS a binary solution.  You're either free, or you're dead.  The dead part can mean they killed you for demanding your freedom, or the living death that is slavery.

He was a freak and a mutant, and he vehemently opposed the federalists...and he was right.  Whereas the articles of confederation were too weak to govern, the current constitution set up a plethora of tyrants, and not just the ones who live in Washington.

There's nowhere you can go to get away from it.  They're in your teevee and your internet and your doctor's office.  They arrest 6 year olds for felony charges for acting out in class, and they do anything they damn well please, as long as they use the right words to describe it.  National Security.  Too Big to Fail.  You know what I mean.

Any movement to curb this is instantly co-opted, repackaged, and sold as a conspiracy product.  By the time you've heard of it, it's shrink wrapped and stamped with a UPC.  Alternative music, for example, was alternative for about 5 minutes.  The hilarious "tea baggers" went from a couple of pissed off bloggers to a Fox News/Health Insurance Company production inside of a week. 

They don't even need a pair of jackboots to pull it off, either.  They have 99% of the population convinced that what's happening is what the founders intended.  And this wasn't really difficult, was it?  No, the population as a whole has tired of the idea of self-governance, and is more than happy to sit back and let their lives get run by the very same people who produce COPS and The Big House, and other Pink-taming shows.

Patrick Henry also said "If this be treason, let us make the most of it", and he was right about that, too.  I'm not talking about treason against a country, because I no longer recognize my country (or anyone else's) as a legitimate - or even real - entity.  I'm talking cultural treason.  The enemy isn't some fat bastard in the house of representatives, the enemy is right in your living room.  See that television set?  It isn't a television set, it's a giant fucking elephant, which we have been trained not to see.

Because it's not just a glowing box, is it?  No, it's a means by which The Conspiracy is brought to you, day after day.  It is the million-ton shit hammer that they use to pound us all into their round holes.  It is their weapon, the vector by which they spread their disease.  Do you think it's any accident that during the worst economic disaster in 80 years, the "government" allocated money to insure that even (especially) poor people could get the digital converter boxes required to keep their TVs functioning?

No, that was no accident.  It was an offensive, or rather a containment effort, meant to ensure that as few people as possible fell through the cracks.

So here's my question:  What do we do about this, without becoming the next "lone nut" they'll shriek about on Fox and CNN?  And we're going to have to do something, and do it soon, because tomorrow never comes.

Sound a little radical?  Okay.  I'm feeling a little radical.  I'm fairly certain that Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson would not have considered the term an insult...and they make better company than the pasty fucking drones that surround me every day.

Or Kill Me.

[Cramulus]

The TV is only the prow of the boat, man. The power behind the throne is the strength and prevalence of culture itself. The notion that all these fads and rituals and public issues are things we should value. The idea that we need to have these common experiences and reactions in order to be a member of the Group.

Our brains are wired for tribal survival. None of us would be here if we didn't have an ancestor that knew how to stay in the tribe's good graces. Well now survival isn't the primary issue, and those systems are in the way of our raw untapped individuality.

So don't just smash the TV. Smash everything that's on it, too.


Individuals of the world, don't unite!

[LMNO]

It's a tough call, Roger.  When I calm the hurricane of my life down enough to start paying attention to what the hell the bastards are trying to force down our throats, every cell in my body screams for a violent smashing of heads.  Heads of state, heads of corporations, heads of ministers and the yammering heads on the screen who give us their interpretation of "news".

I want to run through the streets with a bullhorn and a flare gun, aiming at power transformers and phone lines, acting like an alarm clock the size of King Kong, and tell people to WAKE THE FUCK UP!

But then I think of Cool Hand Luke.  And I think of Nice Guy Jesus (Version 1.0).  And yeah, I think of Patrick Henry.  And you know what?  Nails that stick out get hammered down.  It's not a question of "they got the guns, but we got the numbers."  They clearly have both the guns and the numbers.  Look at Patrick.  He was able to get an entire group of rich white guys to agree to kick England's ass, but in the end, he was alone.  They didn't want to abolish tyrants, they just wanted smaller tyrants... and a chance to become one themsleves.  Revolutions aren't won by revolutionaries, they're won by the bleating masses revolutionaries manage to convince to their side, who then revert back to bleating masses as soon as it's convenient.

So, where's the escape?  How can you wrest liberty from the hands of death?  We've seen what happens when you boldly stand in front of the Machine™, with one finger on each hand up.  Crunch, crunch.  That's not the way to go, unless you want a quick exit, stage right, being chased by a mechanical bear.  

Here's a thought: Instead of being that nail that sticks up, why not stop acting like a nail, at all?  Maybe it's not about fighting the State, maybe it's about not being around when the State shows up?  You're not ignoring the existence of the State and going off the grid (which quickly gets picked up by the Satellites), it's more like you don't have anything they can point their guns or their numbers at.

The country's going to hell, Roger, and Brave Women and Men are in short supply.  Maybe it would be best if we stayed out of the line of fire, and try to get more humans to stand on their feet.  And then, maybe, one day, we'd have enough numbers.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

The TV is only the prow of the boat, man. The power behind the throne is the strength and prevalence of culture itself. The notion that all these fads and rituals and public issues are things we should value. The idea that we need to have these common experiences and reactions in order to be a member of the Group.

Our brains are wired for tribal survival. None of us would be here if we didn't have an ancestor that knew how to stay in the tribe's good graces. Well now survival isn't the primary issue, and those systems are in the way of our raw untapped individuality.

So don't just smash the TV. Smash everything that's on it, too.


Individuals of the world, don't unite!

I have to disagree.  First off, if the TV existed without the cultural garbage that comes with it, we'd invent more garbage to fill it.  Hell, we did the first time, right?  Also, the TV is the keystone of the Conspiracy.  

But I'm perfectly willing to hear ideas on how to smash everything that's on it, as well.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

But then I think of Cool Hand Luke.  And I think of Nice Guy Jesus (Version 1.0).  And yeah, I think of Patrick Henry.  And you know what?  Nails that stick out get hammered down.

We're being hammered down anyway.  Just slowly.

Here's a thought: Instead of being that nail that sticks up, why not stop acting like a nail, at all?  Maybe it's not about fighting the State, maybe it's about not being around when the State shows up?  You're not ignoring the existence of the State and going off the grid (which quickly gets picked up by the Satellites), it's more like you don't have anything they can point their guns or their numbers at.

Sure.  I'm not saying that we should barge into peoples' houses with hammers, destroying their televisions.  What I AM saying is that the key part of the problem has been identified, and now we need to find a way to deal with that problem.  Obviously a direct approach is doomed to failure, for the very reasons you mentioned.  But there has to be a way, because no system is perfect.  We just have to figure out a means by which to exploit the flaws in the system.  It took 60 years to get into this trap, it's not like we're going to solve it in a week...but there must be a way.

The country's going to hell, Roger, and Brave Women and Men are in short supply.  Maybe it would be best if we stayed out of the line of fire, and try to get more humans to stand on their feet.  And then, maybe, one day, we'd have enough numbers.

Never gonna happen.  They were given the means to stand on their feet a long time ago, and they sat the fuck down.  I'd just as soon let them wheeze their way to their doom, but they're gonna take us with them.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

I think the TV is just a symptom... look at how many spags have completely escaped into the Internet instead of the television... people not going to work, not feeding their kids because they're too busy with their 'second life'. People being 'addicted' to the Net, or their Blackberry or SMS text messages...

Fo Erissake, just count the number of humans staring into the tiny screen of their cell phone, thumbing through letters while they're visiting friends, going to eat, watching a movie etc etc etc

The PROBLEM, in my opinion... is bored monkeys. Monkeys that are bored because they have nothing they MUST do... food, survival, shelter are all easy to get... You just go sit in a tiny box for 8 hours and magically the tribe will give you bio-survival tickets. Those tickets will provide you with food and shelter and something to distract you from your lack of a life. No hunting or gathering, no exercise required, no thinking... hell you don't even have to actually cook your food... you can give someone a couple tickets and they will cook it and bring it to your house. Or you can just throw a frozen block into your microwave and magically have a hot, tasteless pile of stuff that technically counts as food.

If not television, then the Internet or cell phones or naughty magazines or bad books and romance novels... anything to distract the monkey from his boring, meaningless existence.*


* Cause of the Drug 'Problems' too (IMO)

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I think the TV is just a symptom... look at how many spags have completely escaped into the Internet instead of the television... people not going to work, not feeding their kids because they're too busy with their 'second life'. People being 'addicted' to the Net, or their Blackberry or SMS text messages...

That's an additional vector, yes.  But the mosquito isn't a symptom of malaria.  Also, the internet actually has uses other than to let Beck/Olbermann/Oprah/Etc tell you what to think, or what pills to take, or who to hate.  So, yeah, the internet may be dangerous, but it isn't JUST that.  And yeah, Blackberrys and cell phones are a curse.

The PROBLEM, in my opinion... is bored monkeys.

Okay, that's an interesting thought.  Any solutions come to mind?

[LMNO]

It's like the man said, "Hell is Other People".  This world of Reality TV and Easy Answers and Force-Fed Pablum and Instant Dinners and 76 Beers On Tap... All Coors and Nutrition Free Calories and Busywork and Insurance Payments and Mortgages and Rent and Motorized Department Store Wheelchairs and Celebrity for Celebrity's Sake...


It's EASY.  And it's COMFORTABLE.  All you need is a slow rotation to avoid bedsores.  


It takes a lot to make a human chafe when faced by the silken smooth texture of artificial aloe vera.  You need something that's going to throw you off balance, to grind the rotation to a halt.

How the hell do you compel curiosity?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

How the hell do you compel curiosity?

Fear (of the unknown), humor, or greed.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Hey.

Maybe the trick is to make the bed uncomfortable.  Speaking in general terms.  I have no clue yet as to how to do that.

[LMNO]

To stretch it to the breaking point, I suspect we must become bedbugs.

[LMNO]

How the hell do you compel curiosity?

Fear (of the unknown), humor, or greed.

Interestingly, Discordia gives us two out of three... and Subgenius provides the third.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

To stretch it to the breaking point, I suspect we must become bedbugs.

Okay.

Now, can we get this out of metaphor and into something approaching a practicible plan?

(Also, should I move this to BIP?)

[Cramulus]

I think that when you've imprinted a group of 3 billion people as your tribe, rather than a local group of peers, you start to internalize all these weird mixed messages about how you should act, how you should look, what kind of expectations you should put on other people. These aren't the demands of your immediate peers, they're the vague tastes of your 3 billion peers distorted by commercial and media filters. It is the Machine^TM itself.

I think of teenage girls who learn that attractiveness is in magazines and on the red carpet and not in the minds of the horny teenage boys who don't give a flying fuck if they're "overweight" (whatever the fuck THAT means these days). And conversely, I think of the teenage boys who are convinced that their significant other must be blonde and blue, with big tits and a slutty disposition. It's a product of taking culture too seriously, we've internalized all this garbage and now we expect it.

also,

[The Good Reverend Roger]

How the hell do you compel curiosity?

Fear (of the unknown), humor, or greed.

Interestingly, Discordia gives us two out of three... and Subgenius provides the third.

Equally as interesting, those two haven't yielded results (yet).

Well, maybe that's not exactly true.  I mean, this place started with 4-6 people, and now it has hundreds.

But the rate of growth is too slow.

I have an idea, something similar to Safaris, with a touch of HIMEOBS, that might be worth using as a test bed.  While the internet might not be the same as IRL efforts, it makes a great sounding board.  Lemme think this through and propose it.