Motivational Survey

[Icey]

I voted for the first one, though it's phrased a little too "bottle half empty" for my taste.  The "bottle half full" perspective would be that it is probably more effective and possible to instill large scale change by affecting local scale change.  That is, of course, assuming there are other localized efforts going on.  I think the cumulative effect of many local operations could have a larger net impact then taking a swing at the macro-Machine. 

Agreed. It's impractical to take a swing at the macro-Machine. It's built to resist such efforts, and it does it's job well. You have to make minor, day to day changes. The sum of which create a small, but notable effect in the macro, over the course of a lifetime or so.

[Sister Fracture]

What I find interesting is that no one has yet picked "I just don't give a shit".

[Don Coyote]

What I find interesting is that no one has yet picked "I just don't give a shit".

I gave enough of a shit to say "I don't give a shit" I suspect that is more shit giving than everyone who doesn't give shit wanted to give.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

What I find interesting is that no one has yet picked "I just don't give a shit".

Discordians tend to give a shit.  What they give that shit for is usually wildly inappropriate, but still, shit is given.

[Sister Fracture]

What I find interesting is that no one has yet picked "I just don't give a shit".

Discordians tend to give a shit.  What they give that shit for is usually wildly inappropriate, but still, shit is given.

Inappropriate or not, it's still better than apathy.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

So of course someone had to be all edgy and vote for not giving a shit.   

[Don Coyote]

So of course someone had to be all edgy and vote for not giving a shit.   

I was doing it ironically.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

So of course someone had to be all edgy and vote for not giving a shit.   

I was doing it ironically.

HIPSTER!
\

[Kai]

I don't want to make things worse, I want to make things /weirder/.

But yeah, The Machine. Isn't THAT a hobgoblin of a metaphor! Who started that little piece of language anyway, not so much in reference to a mechanical device but to a metaphor for society? And why is it driving car? I certainly don't think about The Machine on a day to day basis, and even when I consider Global Humanity as a Superorganism much like an Ant Colony, social parasites and all, it doesn't seem all that mechanical. Sure, there are /mechanisms/, but they're spread out over the whole of the animal, like some kind of CybOrg. It's like those creatures from "They're Made out of Meat", except instead of a meat outside with an electron plasma brain, it's the opposite. In comparison, an ant colony is the pinnacle of efficiency. No, it's no machine, if superorganism it be, it's a hulking flesh mass with a bit of metal here and there, like a tumor train on a metal track. It's a flesh golem, a lurching horror, but also a Portugese Man'o'War, a coral reef. Something beautiful there, just as it is ugly.

But a Machine? No. Too messy for that.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I don't want to make things worse, I want to make things /weirder/.

But yeah, The Machine. Isn't THAT a hobgoblin of a metaphor! Who started that little piece of language anyway, not so much in reference to a mechanical device but to a metaphor for society?

I think it was me, in 2003.   

[Kai]

I don't want to make things worse, I want to make things /weirder/.

But yeah, The Machine. Isn't THAT a hobgoblin of a metaphor! Who started that little piece of language anyway, not so much in reference to a mechanical device but to a metaphor for society?

I think it was me, in 2003.   

Aww, I didn't mean it in a deprecatory way. I just feel like every now and then, we outgrow our metaphors, they don't quite fit anymore, or they get overused to the point where I don't quite even know what they mean anymore. I admit, I had to think for five minutes about the poll because I just couldn't figure out where I stood on the issue. Because, somewhere along the line, I got confused about the nature of The Machine, sorta like when someone says the same word over and over and it stops sounding like a word.

Didn't mean it in a mean way, Roger. Guess this is why I've been keeping my mouth shut recently, cause every time I open it stupid shit pops out.

[East Coast Hustle]

Actually, I couldn't agree more. It's still a useful metaphor, just not for ME.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I don't want to make things worse, I want to make things /weirder/.

But yeah, The Machine. Isn't THAT a hobgoblin of a metaphor! Who started that little piece of language anyway, not so much in reference to a mechanical device but to a metaphor for society?

I think it was me, in 2003.   

Aww, I didn't mean it in a deprecatory way. I just feel like every now and then, we outgrow our metaphors, they don't quite fit anymore, or they get overused to the point where I don't quite even know what they mean anymore. I admit, I had to think for five minutes about the poll because I just couldn't figure out where I stood on the issue. Because, somewhere along the line, I got confused about the nature of The Machine, sorta like when someone says the same word over and over and it stops sounding like a word.

Didn't mean it in a mean way, Roger. Guess this is why I've been keeping my mouth shut recently, cause every time I open it stupid shit pops out.

What?  No.

I still think it applies.  I was just thinking back on 8 years in this pestilential dump...When I could have been doing something useful, like shoving old people onto icebergs.

[Placid Dingo]

While some might argue that it would be nice if we changed the world for the better (and I've said before that I think it's important for people to try in spite of the futility of it; I just never explained why I think it's important), I've come to the conclusion that not only is The Word a zero-sum game, it's a decreasing-sum game. this means that if I want a piece of the pie, it's not good enough to go take someone else's piece of the pie. I have to go take three other peoples' pieces of pie for it to equal out to me having gotten one piece. This rising tide is not lifting all ships because the ships are fastened to the seafloor with a finite length of strong chain. The more people that blissfully sit around on the deck of their own personal ship distracted by shit like "hope" and "change" (hey, sound familiar?), the easier it is for me to go around and steal the lifeboats. And while you drown, I'll be busy building a metaphorical raft with your metaphorical lifeboats and reinventing myself as a metaphorical Dennis Hopper in Waterworld, all unrepentantly self-centered (because let's face it, most of what we call "evil" or "bad" is just that - self-centered) and having a goddamn good time with it.

Enjoy your swim.

Ayn, is that you?

[East Coast Hustle]

Absolutely not.

I would never try to frame my behavior as virtuous.