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[Cramulus]

who's the target audience of this one? I am, I guess. Just trying to get myself grounded on a Monday morning....

How to Change the World

1. We agree that there are issues in the world, yes yes? The world we live in is less than ideal.

2. We can envision a perfect world with none of those problems. But this world can only live in our heads. Most Utopias are a form of utopia for a few, tyranny for others. And the measures you need to take to end at Utopia are often incongruent with that utopia. For example: I can imagine a world where there's no (just off the top of my head) homophobia, but to arrive at that, we'd probably need to shoot or brainwash a bunch of people, and that's not a desirable world I want to live in either.

3. Alright, let's talk about changing the world in terms of scope. In my experience, it's easy to change the super-local world. Really easy, actually. Affecting a change withing your family unit, your group of friends, your house - all it takes is a little willpower and a push. As you scale up - your community, your town, your state government, your country ... things get harder.

4. And this is basically because any sustainable system is self-reenforcing. It nourishes itself. It defeats outside attacks. When a part of the system stops working, the system contains a method of selecting a new part. As we talk about larger and larger systems, the self-reenforcing mechanisms are larger and better at resisting individuals.

5. This means that in order to change a larger system, you need a group of people. Essentially, the group of people needs to be able to operate as an organism - a smarter, faster, more robust organism than the one they wish to change.

6. The human body is a very good metaphor for how memetic systems work. The body has its own internal communication system, it's own form of media. Somehow, as blood sugar falls, the body's systems organize themselves to seek new nutrients. The motion and direction of the entire body is a result of multiple interrelated systems passing signals to each other about what they are doing and what they need. Understanding the res publica in terms of memetics is like understanding human behavior in terms of chemistry. We are looking at tiny causal events which result in the motion of a larger organism.

7. So in our metaphor, we're like little beings living inside the body, trying to make the body move more efficiently. But we can't control the whole body, we can only control a very limited set of signals and responses.

8. There are systems whose nature is to pass signals into a higher level of representation within the body. We'll call these amplifiers. You may feel pangs of hunger before your body catches onto the idea that it needs food. The most interesting moment is the tipping point at which you get out of your chair and make a sandwich. This impetus is the result of millions of chemical events. But somewhere, there was a single chemical event that acted as the "straw that broke the camel's back." Somehow, that tiny little chemical event changed the fate of the whole body.

9. Media is the most visible amplifier. It's specifically a system designed to inform the greater organism about tiny little events which happen locally. If you can understand what signals the media is REALLY transmitting, you can pull off some interesting experiments. The Internet is another really visible amplifier -- we're still figuring out exactly how it works, but it's not TOO different from Mainstream Media -- it's just a bit more democratic, and it isn't victim to production schedules and editorial control.

10. Let's do away with all this metaphor. Here's a concrete example of how it works: Both the Mainstream Media and the Internets are obsessed with FAIL. They are especially interested in their enemy's FAIL (btw - that is one of those status-quo re-enforcing systems I mentioned in point 4). Rick Santorum was an outspoken homophobe whose name got branded - by the gay community - with something disgusting... essentially a form of information warfare used to undermine his attempts to gather new followers. Santorum wants desperately to correct this, but, as we pointed out, an individual has a hard time resisting the actions of an organized group. To those of us who don't like Santorum, the narrative we'd like to read is about him FAILING to correct his google problem.

10a. "Fixing Santorum's Google Problem"... Our very own Pastor Mulla Zapathrustra (or Precious Moments Zalgo... or whatever name he's using this week) ran an excellent False Flag operation capitalizing on the Streisand effect. The gist is that trying to hide information only makes media systems more interested in it. And the media loves FAIL, right? So PMZ created a facebook group which tried to appear like it was created by Santorum's followers. He resisted the temptation to make it into satire, and just focused on creating a believable front for the movement. It, of course, failed. It only got like 20 followers. AND THAT WAS THE POINT! This FAIL was actually picked up by a number of newspapers. From there, it was reblogged and tweeted and passed through the interwebs.  Can you understand what he did in terms of signal analysis? He provided a FAIL signal which the media systems were poised to pick up on. From there, the signal was passed into higher orbits and levels of exposure.

11. That's a great example of how a small action became a "thought" present in a larger organism. As Santorum tries to whitewash his image, PMZ's experiment is one fiber of the muscle working against him.

12. Peedy dotcom is excellent at forming "mastermind groups". A Mastermind group is an organism which is able to create signals for larger organisms than we can communicate wtih as mere individuals. In order to work as a mastermind group, we must be able to do a few things. When somebody like PMZ has an idea for a project like this, we have to workshop it and give feedback until it WORKS. Then we need to support that effort - in the Santorum example, we needed those 20 people to join the facebook group.

12a. The PD community resists attempts to organize it or impose marching orders. Ideas have their own chemistry for attracting followers. The idea has to be good enough ON ITS OWN to gather support and action.

_{from http://blackironprison.com/index.php?title=Golden_Apple_Seed_Mission#What_makes_a_GASM_work.3F}
What makes a GASM work?

So you've got an idea for a jake or prank or project, and you want help. Here are some tips to make your idea take off:
- Keep it simple. If your GASM can't be explained in a paragraph or two, most people won't have the attention to follow.
- Make it FUN. Participation in the Mission should be rewarding in of itself.
- Make it easy for people to participate. Don't make people generate their own material or do their own research. Make it Discordianproof.
- Expect to do most of the work yourself. Sad fact: It's not enough to build the funwagon, you've got to drive it too. Sometimes this will involve pushing it through mud and rain and harpies towards Funtown.

13. The hardest task, I think, is coming up with ideas which will actually make the world better in some way. If we can come up with a few of those, we can experiment with passing those ideas up into higher levels of representation, until - we hope - the whole organism changes its behavior.

[Doktor Howl]

Last time I tried to get PDers involved, I was called a Nazi.

Given that not even the Discordians want to do shit about the state of the species, I'm kind of happy just to watch the world burn.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

Last time I tried to get PDers involved, I was called a Nazi.

Given that not even the Discordians want to do shit about the state of the species, I'm kind of happy just to watch the world burn.

Does that include water tower - high powered rifle fantasies?

[Doktor Howl]

Last time I tried to get PDers involved, I was called a Nazi.

Given that not even the Discordians want to do shit about the state of the species, I'm kind of happy just to watch the world burn.

Does that include water tower - high powered rifle fantasies?

Naw.

I tried to pull one direction - to be left to the group as to which direction, I was called a Nazi¹, and quit.  Then CU ran with it and filled it full of fucking fail.

Fuck the humans.


¹ Two of my more vocal critics, Liam & Bella, both also quit PD.  Liam has decided to believe the absolute worst about me since, on any subject.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

Last time I tried to get PDers involved, I was called a Nazi.

Given that not even the Discordians want to do shit about the state of the species, I'm kind of happy just to watch the world burn.

Does that include water tower - high powered rifle fantasies?

Naw.

I tried to pull one direction - to be left to the group as to which direction, I was called a Nazi¹, and quit.  Then CU ran with it and filled it full of fucking fail.

Fuck the humans.


¹ Two of my more vocal critics, Liam & Bella, both also quit PD.  Liam has decided to believe the absolute worst about me since, on any subject.

I remember!  I'm actually, with you, I'm good with just watching it all burn!!

I was just being a bit snarky, it being Monday and all 

[Cramulus]

I'm experiencing a burst of energy and motivation - which may be temporary - the point of this thread is to help me crystallize it and ground myself in meaningful action before that energy is eroded by inertia and cynicism.

We've all had our ideas shat on before, we've all tried to motivate people here at PD and failed - I don't want to dwell on that, it's discouraging, and a waste of energy. PD did something really really cool last week (PMZ's false flag op), I'm more interested in his success than I am our previous failures. So I would appreciate it if we could bypass the predictable narrative about this forum can't be used for productive or progressive causes, it's not worth doing, etc etc



What I'd like to talk about:

• What ideas, expressed in their simplest form, would actually help make my world better?
• Those "amplifiers" -- media systems -- what do they actually report on? What is the narrative behind the narrative? For example, the "Fixing Santorum's Google Problem" news articles were superficially about his failure on facebook, but the story behind the unspoken story is that the public has rejected him and he's incapable of regaining approval. Can we break this down into a general rule about media? IE, FAIL is more interesting than success? I'm interested in studying how exactly these systems work. Optimally, I bet we could come up with a flow chart to examine whether or not an event is "media worthy".

[Doktor Howl]

We've all had our ideas shat on before, we've all tried to motivate people here at PD and failed - I don't want to dwell on that, it's discouraging, and a waste of energy. PD did something really really cool last week (PMZ's false flag op), I'm more interested in his success than I am our previous failures. So I would appreciate it if we could bypass the predictable narrative about this forum can't be used for productive or progressive causes, it's not worth doing, etc etc

No problem.  I was just saying, somehow when I said something similar, I was a fucking goose-stepping control freak or some shit.

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=28204.15

Dok,
Was just saying.

[trix]

We've all had our ideas shat on before, we've all tried to motivate people here at PD and failed - I don't want to dwell on that, it's discouraging, and a waste of energy. PD did something really really cool last week (PMZ's false flag op), I'm more interested in his success than I am our previous failures. So I would appreciate it if we could bypass the predictable narrative about this forum can't be used for productive or progressive causes, it's not worth doing, etc etc

The "false flag op" was clever.  I liked it, but it's not really the kind of thing I personally would participate in.

That said, I definitely wouldn't mind participating in projects I find interesting if and when time and chaos permits.  I already have a folder on my laptop of good posterGASM images I stole and am going to pepper a few choice spots with.

[---]
I had a huge post here about what discordianism is to me and how people play roles and bullshit each other blah blah blah, but I killed it for being self-indulgent bullshit.  If you want the rant, see George Carlin's "It's all bullshit" stand up, he said it way better then I ever could. Wall of text aside, the point is, YES I'm down for some chaos mongering shenanigans!  Bring it on!! 

So in response to Cram:

What ideas, expressed in their simplest form, would actually help make my world better?

Well, as I personally think subtlety is key, I think a lot of the smaller PosterGASMs were a very good start at tricking/surprising people into thinking outside of the box.
After giving the question some thought, it occurs to me that a distinction should be made as to what you mean, exactly, by "make my world better".  I mean, the world is going to shit.  Do you mean, slow/halt/fight the coming destruction, or, spreading PDish thoughts/ideas, or, letting more people in on the joke in the meantime, or, things we can plant on the stairs to make it funnier when they fall?

Those "amplifiers" -- media systems -- what do they actually report on? What is the narrative behind the narrative? For example, the "Fixing Santorum's Google Problem" news articles were superficially about his failure on facebook, but the story behind the unspoken story is that the public has rejected him and he's incapable of regaining approval. Can we break this down into a general rule about media? IE, FAIL is more interesting than success? I'm interested in studying how exactly these systems work. Optimally, I bet we could come up with a flow chart to examine whether or not an event is "media worthy".

The media seems very fickle. Unpredictable.  Look at what kind of youtube videos go viral and what doesn't.  I mean, how the hell is the Foxxxxxxxy or whatever the annoying kid's nickname is, e-famous, while some truly amazing videos "slip through the cracks" or go unnoticed?  How is some kid falling in a well and having to be dug out (and being just fine) a nation-wide news story, while some guy down the street from me shooting six people including his mom and shooting at police only makes local news?  Besides the awful porno, why is Paris Hilton a household name?

Maybe I'm just dense, but the workings of news and what is media worthy or not seems far beyond my ability to decipher.

[Cramulus]

What ideas, expressed in their simplest form, would actually help make my world better?

Well, as I personally think subtlety is key, I think a lot of the smaller PosterGASMs were a very good start at tricking/surprising people into thinking outside of the box.
After giving the question some thought, it occurs to me that a distinction should be made as to what you mean, exactly, by "make my world better".  I mean, the world is going to shit.  Do you mean, slow/halt/fight the coming destruction, or, spreading PDish thoughts/ideas, or, letting more people in on the joke in the meantime, or, things we can plant on the stairs to make it funnier when they fall?

I don't mean anything in particular; it's a subjective question. 

speaking for myself --
When I was making a bunch of those postergasm images, I was operating on a few "memes which will make my community better". The evil I was trying to fight was that I lived in a pretty rough neighborhood in Yonkers, New York. Lots of violence, people were afraid of the cops, it was a tense place. Everybody was scowling all the time. And that wasn't just what it was like on the street, everywhere you went, it was shitty. Yonkers has consistently bad service at every one of its restaurants. Nobody there gives a shit. About anything.

If I'm in a good mood, I'm much more likely to be nice to people, to chat up the other guy in the elevator, to not snap at somebody if they cut me off in traffic.

So my thinking was that MY world would be a lot better place if everybody I saw had heard at least one joke that day. If everybody took a second to quit their shit and laugh about something stupid.

I'd always see people laughing at my posters, taking pictures of them, pointing them out to their friends. That shit really made my day. Even if I didn't dent the overall negativity of the neighborhood between Yonkers and Mt. Vernon, I did definitely enjoy my neighborhood more because I put jokes all over the goddamn place.

Those "amplifiers" -- media systems -- what do they actually report on? What is the narrative behind the narrative? For example, the "Fixing Santorum's Google Problem" news articles were superficially about his failure on facebook, but the story behind the unspoken story is that the public has rejected him and he's incapable of regaining approval. Can we break this down into a general rule about media? IE, FAIL is more interesting than success? I'm interested in studying how exactly these systems work. Optimally, I bet we could come up with a flow chart to examine whether or not an event is "media worthy".

The media seems very fickle. Unpredictable.  Look at what kind of youtube videos go viral and what doesn't.  I mean, how the hell is the Foxxxxxxxy or whatever the annoying kid's nickname is, e-famous, while some truly amazing videos "slip through the cracks" or go unnoticed?  How is some kid falling in a well and having to be dug out (and being just fine) a nation-wide news story, while some guy down the street from me shooting six people including his mom and shooting at police only makes local news?  Besides the awful porno, why is Paris Hilton a household name?

Maybe I'm just dense, but the workings of news and what is media worthy or not seems far beyond my ability to decipher.

I think there is a formula to it. Maybe that's post-hoc reasoning.... like when you hear an Urban Myth, you can often pick out the narrative that makes that story so popular (ie - the Obama Birth Certificate story -- you can see how that narrative is very attractive to a certain population - so attractive that the meme has developed its own self-sustaining defenses). But the factors which make things "catch" and go "viral" are a bit harder to intentionally evoke.

I don't know what the formula is, but I'm pretty sure of one thing - it's not random. If you hear two stories, you can usually guess which one will be more salient.

Controversy. Support of existing narratives. Breaking news. These are the top three things that come to mind.

We actually used to have a group here called the Adam Weishaupt Society. The group's game was to come up with fake news, then award themselves points when they found instances of other people treating that misinformation as if it was real. There was a lot of trial and error, but in the end we definitely learned a thing or two about media hoaxes.

Joey Skaggs is also the king of making news through hoaxes - he's definitely worth a read too.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Posting to help find later.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Why the hell would you want to make the world better? It's much much easier to make it worse. And funnier too

[Cramulus]

I like the world - I keep a lot of my stuff there

[Freeky]

Making the world a better place is a good thing to do.  Everyone needs to have hope once in a while.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

Making the world a better place is a good thing to do.  Everyone needs to have hope once in a while.

There is no hope, to have hope inplies that there is a chance that something can be accomplished.

[Cainad (dec.)]

Why the hell would you want to make the world better? It's much much easier to make it worse. And funnier too

Because everyone else has been doing that for a zillion years, better than any of us ever could, and they haven't even been trying.

That said, a lot of what has made the world worse has been in an attempt to make it better... maybe the trick is to pull reverse psychology on the world?