Is Discordianism postmodern?

[Lord Quantum]

Over the years, I've heard Discordianism referred to as a lot of things but until I happened to stroll by Wikipedia's Discordianism entry a few weeks ago, I had never seen it classified as a "postmodern religion". If anything I would say that postmodernism is Discordian. Obviously, some really clever cabal somewhere is responsible for selling academia on this idea, but until the real culprits are found, I guess we'll keep pretending that the official history is true. So anyway...I just thought it'd be interesting to get some opinions on whether or not Discordianism is postmodern.

[LMNO]

[hooplala]

Over the years, I've heard Discordianism referred to as a lot of things but until I happened to stroll by Wikipedia's Discordianism entry a few weeks ago, I had never seen it classified as a "postmodern religion". If anything I would say that postmodernism is Discordian. Obviously, some really clever cabal somewhere is responsible for selling academia on this idea, but until the real culprits are found, I guess we'll keep pretending that the official history is true. So anyway...I just thought it'd be interesting to get some opinions on whether or not Discordianism is postmodern.

Yes.

[MMIX]

  maybe . . .

[Golden Applesauce]

no.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Discordianism is post-modern in some sense, modern in some sense, pre-modern in some sense and senseless in some sense.

[Cain]

There are elements of Discordianism which lend it a postmodern (well, strictly speaking post-structuralist) flavour, which could no doubt be built on by someone that way inclined.

Equally however there are elements of Existentialism, Absurdism, scepticism, relativism, critical theory, Epicureanism and several others I could list.  It all depends what elements of Discordianism you give most weight to.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

There are elements of Discordianism which lend it a postmodern (well, strictly speaking post-structuralist) flavour, which could no doubt be built on by someone that way inclined.

Equally however there are elements of Existentialism, Absurdism, scepticism, relativism, critical theory, Epicureanism and several others I could list.  It all depends what elements of Discordianism you give most weight to.

A veritable Chaoucopia....

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Discordianism is from the 60's.
The 60's were definitely not modern. Nobody even had cell phones back then.
Therefore Discordianism is not post-modern.

Besides, if something is post-modern doesn't that mean we haven't got there yet?


vex,
never went to college.

[Cramulus]

"Modern", in philosophy jargon, is referring to the period right before world war II.

the "moderns", being the philosophers of the time, shared a few ideas. One of them was that history is going in this definite direction. For example, Germany felt that the events it had suffered through primed it to be the world power. History is a narrative that emerges in hindsight -- the moderns felt that by examining history, we can also predict roughly where it's going.

After the atrocities of world-war II, a lot of people (particularly the French) felt like, wow, look where modernism took us. It justified a lot of destruction, but did not improve life. Postmodernism (and existentialism) was born from the ashes of world war II. The post-moderns wanted to express that the narrative is mutable. Meaning is subjective, not something granted by history.

The Post-Modern movement (as far as art and philosophy is concerned) technically ended decades ago, though its influence is still felt in culture. The idea of "creating a narrative" (the bread and butter of journalism) is very post-modern -- previously, journalists though they were just "reporting what's going on". The idea that a film / event / book can have multiple interpretations is post-modern. So yeah, I'd say that the Principia Discordia, which pushes you to embrace the universe's total subjectivity, is filled with post-modern energy.

[MMIX]

If I ever work out a satisfactory answer regarding what Discordianism IS then I might try to construct a serious answer. or maybe just ^ all of the above - YMMV

[tyrannosaurus vex]

If I ever figure out exactly what the hell Discordianism is, I'm quitting. For good this time.

[hooplala]

If I ever figure out exactly what the hell Discordianism is, I'm quitting. For good this time.

Better yet, I will fire you.