Tough Little Nut

[Salty]

Ok, so at some point somebody said that we might be focusing too heavily on the horror and not enough on the mirth.

I would like to take the time to say that that is
ABSOLUTE HORSESHIT

The horror isn't going to go away if we focus on mirth, and we aren't going to feel better about ourselves or the world if we do that. Not to mention YOU CAN'T.

You cannot IGNORE the horror. I mean, you can, but then you'd be just another asshole, and there's plenty of them. The mirth comes when the horror is so much that you realize for a second that it is EVERYWHERE all at once. We are living in weird times and the horror is just a part of it. The mirth is just the bonus, the sweet meat nestled inside the putrid, barbed, crusty nut that taunts you because it knows it has what you want. You want that joy, the laughter that rises from your gut unbidden and unasked for as you lie puking up shells trying to figure out when it all went wrong. You laugh and laugh and laugh and you're not sure you're screaming or not.

You know about horrormirth. It's not just a package deal. It's the only deal Eris is going to make. So let's not bullshit ourselves any more than absolutely necessary. Kay? Kay.

[Phox]

The horror is never going away. We deal with it everyday. In every slight, every malicious thought, every disapproving glance. Every time you walk by the church down the street and see the fifty foot billboard with a looping video of a head-first partial birth abortion. Every time you take your wage slip to the wagemaster and receive your pittance that's $6.00 short, and so you have to go with out milk for the ninety-fourth week in a row. Every time they look at you with their eyes, and you can hear their thoughts in the back of your head. Every time you see the smiling visage of the President smiling that knowing, warm smiling. It's comforting to know that he's up there, over every doorway, smiling down on you with benevolence and love, as he has been for the past fifteen election cycles... and you always tell little Jenny to wave to him, because you know that he can actually see you there, and you really don't want the Peace Corps coming and knocking on your door. Not after they got those splendid white uniforms with the shiny silver buttons and the patches showing a hand grasping the globe, clearly in a gesture of unity and peace.

Don't forget, your VR kit has pre-downloaded all of your favorite programmes, so that when you come home from your ten hour-shift, you can just pick what you are in the mood for, and watch until you fall asleep. But make sure that you have time to go to that faith-healing service at that church, because the hospitals won't admit you anymore, because you've already used all your insurance credits for the year on Jenny's abscessed tooth. But at least you had enough saved up for that when it happened, right? Thank God for small miracles, as your polite, not-at-all annoying neighbor always says. And she's going to a good school at least. Well, as good as you can afford, at any rate.

But hey, the real horror isn't even here yet. I mean, at least there aren't anymore wars. The radioactivity in the eastern hemisphre has almost receded completely and there are no more humans rights issues to deal with. Oh sure, the National Guard is still in Zaire and Chad, and there are sorties in the Balkans and those Russians are STILL up to no good, even though Volgograd isn't the city it used to be. But you don't have to worry about that anymore. Jenny's got eight more years before her mandatory service, and by then it will all be resolved, the nice man on the TV keeps saying so.

Sometimes you have to wonder whether or not the roving gangs in the wastelands are full of those old Holy Men^TM that you used to know. Whether they are out pursuing freedom like you imagine, or whether they really are just bloodthirsty killers with no regard for anyone like you keep hearing. Maybe in a couple years you can take little Jenny out there and try to make it...

But that's just wishful thinking. Oh look, Jersey Shore.

[Triple Zero]

The horror isn't going to go away if we focus on mirth

I don't believe that anyone (worth listening to) said it would.

and we aren't going to feel better about ourselves or the world if we do that.

Well I know I would.

Not to mention YOU CAN'T.

Of course I can. Up to a point, of course.

You cannot IGNORE the horror.

Again nobody worth listening to said that you should.

The mirth comes when the horror is so much that you realize for a second that it is EVERYWHERE all at once.

That's not exclusively where mirth comes from. You're not seriously suggesting that you can't have fun if it's not grown from horror do you?

Second, as been pointed out before, it is not for everybody. Not everybody can sustain their needs for shits giggles and FUN on a diet of just horror. Some of us here can, and that's great, because others can learn and glean a bit of that fruit. I suppose it goes the other way around as well. Where do I get my fun? Where does Cram get his fun?

We are living in weird times and the horror is just a part of it.

No disagreement there.

The mirth is just the bonus, the sweet meat nestled inside the putrid, barbed, crusty nut that taunts you because it knows it has what you want. You want that joy, the laughter that rises from your gut unbidden and unasked for as you lie puking up shells trying to figure out when it all went wrong. You laugh and laugh and laugh and you're not sure you're screaming or not.

Go for it, man.

You know about horrormirth. It's not just a package deal. It's the only deal Eris is going to make.

I'm getting a different deal, maybe I'm paying with different coinage.

So let's ot bullshit ourselves any more than absolutely necessary. Kay? Kay.

Kay! Then let's not be bullshitting ourselfs into believing that everybody's Discordia is exactly alike, kay?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Once you know about the horror, and I mean REALLY GRASP IT, what are you going to do?

We talk about the horror for a reason. People need to know. They need to have the crushing burden of understanding exactly how fucked we actually are, because if you don't KNOW, you can't do anything at all.

But if, knowing, you think that your role is to just sit there and soak in it, you're missing the fucking point, bucko.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

\
That's not exclusively where mirth comes from. You're not seriously suggesting that you can't have fun if it's not grown from horror do you?

Mostly, you can't.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

So this morning after I posted in this thread I met Hollis Watkins, a Mississippi Civil Rights activist who was first arrested at age 17 for walking up to the lunch counter at Woolworths and trying to order a cup of coffee. He was jailed for 34 days, during which he lost 18 lbs due to inedible food, was cuffed to his jail cell's bars for days at a time, and was threatened with hanging. Back then, being sent to jail was nearly considered a death sentence for black people, because most of those who went in didn't come back out alive. You could be imprisoned for "disturbing the peace" for trying to buy a bus ticket, for drinking from the wrong water fountain, or for failing to step off the sidewalk when a white person was walking in your direction. If you were a man, making eye contact with a white woman could get you killed for "eyeball rape". He joined the Civil Rights movement at the age of 17, when it was just beginning and the "mass meetings" would consist of three or four people. For helping register black people to vote, he was beaten, imprisoned, put in a 6x6' cell with 13 other activists, put on a chain gang, and had his life threatened many, many times... but in the end, he, and those working with him, won.

I asked him for advice, which he gladly gave. At the end of his talk I asked if I could shake his hand, and he gave me a hug.

So, you know, shit. If anyone here just wants to simply wallow in horror, rather than using their understanding of the full scope of horror as a motivator and using mirth as a tool to preserve our humanity while we ACT and SPEAK and FIGHT, well... I don't know. I don't think I can respect that though, and I have no intention in joining in. If you let the horror immobilize you instead of motivate you, you are giving Them exactly what they want.

[AFK]

Give Horror a whip-cream pie to the face and seltzer down its pants!