WHAT I USE DISCORDIA FOR

[Pæs]

Before Discordia I was a mess of bad signal and conflict. I didn't know why I wanted truths, but I wanted them, and I was looking for them in all the usual places, by gathering up armfuls of books at my local library and then reading Carlos Castaneda in the parking lot while zonked out of my mind. The truths I found undermined my search for truth, questioned the utility of learning further and I didn't have the tools to give a good enough answer. This left me unable to justify further investigation. Solipsism set in and every day was absurdity, though I didn't have a name for it then. I had a little bit of Eris but I was suffering from a failure to grok and so could only unlock the most trivial functionality of Discordianism: word salad and tinfoil hats.

The world, as a whole, was overwhelmingly indifferent to me and my every action was a futile gesture that the world gave no acknowledgement to. On the hardest days, I couldn't recognise myself in the mirror and was distracted from sleep by how dissociated from myself I felt.

Starting in September 2007, through PD, I learned a series of lessons which I came to collectively consider "Discordia". The Black Iron Prison put the responsibility for maintaining my memeplex back on me. Still stuck on hippie shit and nihilism, I stepped sideways by adopting parts of Buddhism, addressing the misery of "nothing is real" by making it more peaceful than distressing. "Nothing is as it appears. All suffering is based on illusion". It's not quite right, but it was a step closer to being a functional person again.

PD introduced me to Areté and the idea of virtue. Some of the introductions PD was responsible for were as simple as book recommendations but the PD commentary has always been critical to my process for determining how to apply new information and models. This concept really resonated with me and through Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, this was tied in quite nicely to Eastern ideas about virtue which I had already been exposed to. It reinforced the idea that I was responsible for my own evolution, finding balance.

PD also introduced me to Camus and Absurdism, which further reinforced the Areté meme through Camus' exploration of "men of measure" who beyond above all know their own limits. It also offered a bit more of a scientific background to these ideas, providing resources on the biological source of happiness and how that is informed by perception of social hierarchies, status and success.

Because of Discordia, which is the product of my interactions with all of you, I have the tools to recognise whatever status hierarchy is most useful for me to recognise in order to coax happiness out of my brain. In the early stages of my escape from bad signal, Discordia let me subscribe to a "whatever fucking works" set of beliefs and patch this as I outgrew these systems. These specifics were lessons Discordia taught me on top of the usual suspects of TFY,S and similar.

Despite the truth of every testimony we add to the newsfeed, this is really the healthiest and most rewarding community I've ever been a part of and my being a functioning person can be attributed to associating myself with the people that make up this Discord thing, even if sometimes it was only as a lurker.

[Reginald Ret]

Fuck yeah! Though this is the most diseased form of healthy i know of.
You all are a bunch of sick baboons.

[Cramulus]

here's to your Areté, Paesior.

straight up
no chaser
hail eris

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

[tarod]

Despite the truth of every testimony we add to the newsfeed, this is really the healthiest and most rewarding community I've ever been a part of and my being a functioning person can be attributed to associating myself with the people that make up this Discord thing, even if sometimes it was only as a lurker.

I feel the same way. BIP changed things for me too.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Personally I find Discordia™ to be a highly effective way to remove pigeon shit from the hood of my car. Just fire up "TOOLS FOR TOOLS LIKE YOU," and aim face in the general direction of my automobile. 5-10 seconds later, bird dung has been removed.*










*along with at least the top layer of paint.

[McGrupp]

Great post, Paes. I totally identify with your journey. I found PD.Com because I typed 'what the hell are my beliefs' into google and kept clicking randomly until somehow I got here. It's been odd, but definitely a positive experience.

Also Discordia is useful for propping up uneven tables and getting out tough grease stains.

[Pæs]

here's to your Areté, Paesior.

Cheers, man. And cheers for being behind the introduction of some of these concepts I'm working with.

Seeing as I have this thread going, I figure I might as well mention some of the other notable parts of the Discordia I've built. I'll add to the bullet point list as I think of things, to document what my Discordia is doing.

• A move from observing/placing stock in any externally defined morality to simply acting with integrity, which though it often amounts to the same actions (because, y'know, doing socially acceptable things makes life easier and nobody likes an asshole) is an important distinction.
• A recognition of the utility of "chunking" without forgetting that this process is taking place and that the model being used is fast and imperfect.