Messages

A child isn't born a racist, someone programs that into them.  A child is born with what he or she needs to survive and be themselves.  It's as the child develops and grows up that they are instructed to "be a good boy", "don't make that noise", "you should use your right hand not your left", "you should go to college", "you should become a doctor to support mommy and daddy", etc., etc.  This is where people get fucked up.

To toss in my two cents,
You said that children aren't born racists, people program that into them... I think they're in sort of a "mu" state at birth, neither 0 nor 1, neither racists nor not racists.

but that's neither here nor there.

[Tools and Tips for Culture Jamming]

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The City of White Plains is gonna get it today. The kids were hoping for a snow day, and they're gonna get a blizzard. A blizzard of nonsense.



update: POSTERGASM materials here:

Tools and Tips for Culture Jamming
Postergasm: Volume Aleph
Postergasm: Volume Dingus
Postergasm: Volume Calvinball
Postergasm: Volume Butts
Postergasm: Disinfomercials
23 things to Amuse Yourself While You Wait
101 Ways to Make Everybody's Day Weirder
Why I Put Up Posters

Very interesting. I'll have to take a lurk through there/then.

Soon, even weird shit that shouldn't make any sense at all will only reinforce the Machine (TM), even if it isn't intended to sell Product.

I've been chewing on this quote all day and it occurred to me that there's an awful lot of absurdity that's creeping into the mainstream. YTMND, for example. Or viral internet things ("All your base..."). Or the Chuck Norris phenomenon. Or so many crazy tv commercials.

maybe
Ten years from now a man will walk down the street in a gorilla suit, rubbing his crotch or something, and it'll blend in with the background, fading into the whirring machine hum. People will write it off 'cause rather than being shocked by random incomprehensible shit, they're numb to it.

So what rebellion comes after that? How do you shock people that are bored of being shocked?

[Page 2]

All in all, I'd say this is a really good pamphlet. A few of my comments about the BIP apply here - mainly the question of Audience and the need for some graphics to break up the text. The graphics are a tough issue though, because this pamphlet is already really dense. As is, I think a lot of the text is too small, and it would have to shrink further to make room for stuff. The font changes and the full page graphic on page 6 actually do a nice job of making the whole thing easier to read. So maybe it doesn't need graphics.

The goal of this pamphlet, to conceptualize The Machine, is a noble cause. I'm 100% behind you in hoping that people will snap out of it if we can only get them to realize that they're in it. Or that they ARE it. This is also something that can be done in a fairly small amount of space, so this pamphlet is brimming with potential.

This pamphlet is a lot more obviously directed at random people on the street. As such, some of the Discordian or obscure topics should be fleshed out or elaborated on.

A lot of the essays are clearly copy & pastes of board posts. I think that's okay because it gives the pamphlet a sort of conversational tone... if it were more formal, it might make some of points (particularly p5) too dense to grasp. Still, I think some of the posts should be edited so that they address the public instead of other board members.


Page 2

Pope Mangrove's text is quite good. In paragraph 2, the word Must is unclear - I think it should either be "should" or "is".

Paragraph 3 can use some overall cleanup: (relating to presentation, not content)

The line "When have governments NOT done the things that you isolated as being too specific?" is confusing - not sure what he's referring to there.

The second sentence runs on and should be broken into two or more sentences.

The word Maybe (in the last sentence) should be "may be".


The Little's Ubermensch's essay refers to the Aneristic principle and the Principia - could use a better explanation to make it accessible to the public.


Page 3

Vexaph0d's rant is real cool. I love the opening line where he expresses his fear that even arbitrary weird shit will one day be a part of the Machine, even if it isn't intended to sell Product. Yikes!

Paragraph 3 has the audience problem - the public doesn't know what the Aneristic vs Eristic shtick is.

The "crazy talk" paragraph is full of potential but I can't help feeling that it fizzles somewhat at the end. The talk about the Machine waking up is a really intriguing thought (which will be built upon later in the pamphlet), but Vex doesn't follow through... the paragraph ends by basically saying "if it happens, we're fucked but I don't know why." Luckily there's an immediate follow up which expands on his point.

The discussion below Vexaph0d's section (between LHX and 000) is thought provoking. I had a thought regarding this manner of discussion... (though not specifically related to this pamphlet) In other documents, this type of dialogue could be used to illustrate to the reader how to "think outside the box". Like for example, one person argues for liberal things, and the other argues for conservative things. If both arguments are essentially straw men, a sharp reader might realize that it's not a matter of choosing the best side. The real point we'd be making is that people should draw their own damn conclusions instead of just jumping behind the safest label. (end tangent)


Page 4-5

Both of these essays are very well written and make some excellent points. The top half of p4 is a really great crystallization of the BIP project, and it's a perfect setup for the point made at the bottom of the page: we're trapped in the machine, but if you keep your head up, you can avoid some of its snares.

p5: I have five boners for Douglas Hofstadter. I think he was a good choice to cite and the quote is very relevant.

At the bottom of the page, 000 references Discordian Chaos / OM, which will be lost on the public. There's probably a short phrase which could be plugged in to get the point across. perhaps "absurdity"? "pranks on the public"? Eh, I'm not sure.


Page 6-7

I love this spread. This is exactly the kind of humor that the pamphlet needed. I think the memo is an acceptable place to put in all those lunatic fringe references like Fnord and Subgenius. Anyone that's followed the pamphlet so far may be intrigued by these silly words... they allude to the larger conceptual framework which gave birth to this pamphlet.

The article "is the machine a conspiracy?" is the perfect follow up to the Illuminati memo.

The graphic at the bottom of 7 needs to be sharper - I can't read it.


Page 8

I LAWL'd at this page. Really well put together. I love that you get a little certificate for being enlightened by the pamphlet, but then the certificate says its worthless.





so that's my $0.02

I had an idea once to start a religion (yeah you can mock) Part of the mission was to produce an annual bible, a concept I always thought the mainstream religions could benefit from adopting - "If your ideology hasn't produced anything new this year then your god is dead, please step down from the pulpit."

That's a really cool idea. It's like, what's Discordia about this year? Sort of a holy periodical.

It'll also help decrease reliance on old jokes and memes. That way when n0bs come into the board and are like LOL HIMEOBS (or whatever) you can point at last year's journal and say "Dude, HIMEOBS is so 3172."

I am now referring to the pages in the text, not the actual pages in the PDF.

Print the following page combinations together as double sided:

1/28 + 2/27
3/26 + 4/25
5/24 + 6/23
7/22 + 8/21
9/20 + 10/19
11/18 + 12/17
13/16 + 14/15

Okay I see what's going wrong here. I can't print it all in one pass because the proper pages aren't adjacent to each other in the pdf... for example page 10/19 is on page 3 of the PDF and page 9/20 is on page 6 of the PDF, so they're not going to print correctly naturally. In a perfect world, they would be on adjacent pages.

I believe it would work if they were formated like this:

PDF page 1: p 14+15
PDF page 2: p 16+13
PDF page 3: p 12+17
PDF page 4: p 18+11
PDF page 5: p 10+19
PDF page 6: p 20+9
PDF page 7: p 8+21
PDF page 8: p 22+7
PDF page 9: p 6+23
PDF page 10: p 24+5
PDF page 11: p 4+25
PDF page 12: p 26+3
PDF page 13: p 2+27
PDF page 14: p 28+1

Then you wouldn't need to assemble anything, just fold it in half.

Prof, I just re-printed and compiled the PDF of the BIP in my signature, and the pages do go together.  Pages 14 and 15 are the exact middle of the booklet, 14 on the left, and 15 on the right.  Now, you can arrange the rest of the pages, making pages 16 and 13 a double-sided photocopy with 14 and 15.  Go on down the line with 12/17 + 11/18, etc.  It should work.

I'm confused... should I print like half of it and then feed in the paper in for the second side? I've been using my printer's "2 sided printing" option and it almost works fine.

PS - you're now at 51 posts.  Good luck.

Bring it on, bitches!

[edit:]

So Prof, just so I can do some editing,Ķ

1.  Is it that you don,Äôt like the pg 2 essay, or that it shouldn,Äôt be first?  I can clear up some of the Goth-ish poetry, but it,Äôs kind of hard to describe the bleakness of the Prison without a little, you know, bleakness.  It,Äôs true, it could be the most metaphor-driven piece in there.  Perhaps a bit more clarification on how one,Äôs life is their prison?

I think its major problem is that by paragraph 2 its trying to sympathize with the reader's frustration, but it hasn't yet explained why the reader should be frustrated. Paragraph 3 ("feel that?") is really strong, and describes the prison pretty well. I think it should lead the page.

This is a matter of taste, but I dislike being addressed as "kid" by a pamphlet.

The fifth paragraph ("Whats that?") sympathizes with the reader's panic and claustrophobia, but I'm not sure the reader has yet figured out what you mean by the prison, much less had time to react to it.

I agree about the bleakness - the intro needs to be a little bleak to set the tone for the rest of the pamphlet.

2.  With the Nature of Reality essay, would it go easier for you if the title was changed?  Also, a clarification could be made to point out that I,Äôm not talking about feeling your toes, but that we,Äôre tuning out really important stuff, as well.

Yeah I think if the title were changed it would be solid gold. To be more accurate, the passage isn't talking about the nature of reality, it's talking about perception of reality, or reality filters or tunnels or whatever.

edit: On page 15, second paragraph ("And this 'reality' is what we base...") could use a concrete example of how Authorities define reality for us. The risk is if you use a really concrete example, like evolution vs creationism, you risk refocusing the discussion on that specific type of reality. ...did that make sense?

[My Report on the Black Iron Prison Project]

Preamble: This was a difficult review to write. Warring in my head are three points of view,Äî

• The Discordian who wants to Wake Up and to Wake Up everyone around him
• The random guy on the bus who found the pamphlets I left him
• A devil,Äôs advocate that dissects things on principle. Toro! Toro!

These guys disagree on just about everything, so my opinions may not appear fully consistent. I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but I wanted to be thorough as a service to the project.



My Report on the Black Iron Prison Project
by Cramulus, Professor Emeritus, basically some guy

Abstract:
Overall, the BIP pamphlet carries a strong message, which is extremely useful to those trapped in sleepwalker mode. However, it suffers from poor packaging - its ideas are presented in a way which may repel the casual reader or random pedestrian. Overall, I am hopeful that this, and future incarnations of the project will be effective in shaking the public.

In short:
If people could just realize how stupid they are, they,Äôd stop being so stupid!

Article:
I love the Black Iron Prison pamphlet. With the assistance of the OBNOXIOUS JERK CABAL, I've spent years putting together and passing out subversive / enlightening pamphlets, posters, and public performance. I've handed out my own stuff (total crap), and a great deal of stuff that other people have created. (most of it total crap) The BIP pamphlet succeeds where many other Discordian / Illuminating tracts fail - it felt like a slap in the face, even to someone who thinks he's got a toehold on figuring out this fractillian merry-go-round. And I thought I WAS awake!

But I think the BIP suffers from poor packaging. The format in which these ideas are presented, unfortunately, make them less palatable. I understand that you're trying to be really open and translucent about what the motivation of the pamphlet is. I can smell the lack of manipulation, and it smells good - the intent seems to be to give people the tools and let them figure out reality on their own. That rocks. But the tone is often condescending, intentionally offensive, cynical, and in many places shows contempt for the reader. There are likely people who were digging the pamphlet, or were on the border of getting the "point", until it got really Righteous. At that point, it's easy to classify it as the same sort of propaganda Jehovah,Äôs Witnesses hand out. Citation?

• Page 16-17 sets up the same "us" versus "them" mentality that mainstream religions and cults use to foster an in-group mentality. Midway down page 17, the author refers to "them" as "these beings"... Personally I react very negatively to dehumanizing the opposition. It's very Holier-Than-Thou and it stinks. More Us v Them on page 26. Are "they" the enemy or the people you're trying to "wake up"?


• page 21-22 is a lot of seething contempt for the general public, which presumably includes the reader and friends ("What is it with you people?"). I understand that this particular passage is trying to shake people into making their own decisions about pop culture et al, but if the target audience is people who do like QPCs and American Idol (the sleepers), you,Äôre not going to crack the ice by shouting the word sheep at them over and over again.


• Page 5 suffers from the same problem. It,Äôs like ,ÄúYou people, OR SHALL I SAY SHEEPLE might learn a thing or two if you listen to me. Stop being such comatose slugs!,Äù The implication is that the writers have it all figured out (even if they later say that they don,Äôt). If the reader agrees with the writers and does what they tell him, he,Äôll become a higher class of being too. Evangelical? Perhaps. Does this read like goth poetry? At times.

Certain parts of the pamphlet are pure gold. Among them:

The anecdote on page 3-4 reminds me of (sorry) a Hagbard Celine quote  "You're still trapped in thinking of it as left versus right. We're up versus down!" Hell yeah! (Unfortunately this point is almost sacrificed by appealing to liberals against conservatives on p25)

Page 7 is also really well written. It explains WHY you,Äôd want to see the BIP. The 7th-8th paragraphs are the real meat here. ,Äú,Ķthe more people are able to think for themselves, the less willing they become to exhaust themselves at someone else,Äôs command,Ķ,Äù Its either rare or well done, depending on how you like your meat.

Page 9 says ,ÄúThe time has come for you to start thinking for yourself.,Äù That,Äôs kallisti-gold on the page and couldn,Äôt be printed bold enough.

The description of the nature of The Machine,Ñ¢ on page 10 makes me want to stand up and shout HELL YEAH. I showed this to a Discordian friend while stinking drunk, and days later, this is the only paragraph he could remember about it. Particularly the part about focusing on the component parts rather than the whole picture.

Page 12 has a line: ,ÄúThe notion that some nebulous group is out there subverting people with imagery and printed words designed to alter moods and behaviors is simply science fiction of the wildest, most escapist variety.,Äù This is some delicious self-reference.

As I read, I wondered,Ķ If it,Äôs worth it to be self-liberated and self-aware, why do the writers sound so pissed off and frustrated? I mean, you,Äôre trying to sell us freedom, but the tone of the pamphlet sounds like the authors are a bunch of brooding, bitter, cigarette smoking, echoes of Tyler Durden. Is that the reality I want? Well the longer paragraph at the bottom page 15 addresses the question Why Bother. That Why Bother is a big selling point and shouldn,Äôt be ignored.

The way page 16 ends in a couplet (,ÄúWe call it pollution, toxicity. It takes many forms and it,Äôs increasing rapidly,Äù) is really tight. It has a sort of lyrical quality to it which resonates well with me.


Page 19 ends with ,ÄúIf you accept that as truth, I wonder what you will believe when you are eventually convinced that it is a lie.,Äù BaBAM, kickass finishing move. I think p 18-19 is a really great spread.

The Herman Hesse quote on 23 is seriously hot shit. I think it,Äôs the most important part of the whole pamphlet. p23-24 is pure poetry. I especially like the line ,ÄúPissing all over someone else for doing something you don,Äôt personally approve of is MORE pointless than how pointless you think what they,Äôre doing is!,Äù

Page 25-26 is really tight. It,Äôs really nice to see a concrete example to support all the metaphor.

Inconsistent Audience:

I had trouble figuring out who this pamphlet is addressed to. If it,Äôs addressed to random people on the street who pick up the pamphlet, it should omit the stuff aimed specifically at Discordians and SubGs.

The target audience is definitely ,Äúthe public,Äù on page 8.
The target audience is definitely ,ÄúDiscordians,Äù (and their ilk) on page 12.
The target is People on the Web on page 23 (,Äú,Ķhere on this website, talking about this goddess,Ķ,Äù)

Generally the tone flips between adding nuance to already established Discordian issues (like the Machine and the Con), and trying to shake up people who are pinned to their sofas. These are two different audiences, two slightly different messages, and I think they should be approached in separate (but equal) ways. Trying to cover the whole spread in one pamphlet decreases the effectiveness of both. For example: Most Discordians feel (perhaps incorrectly) that they,Äôve left the couch. Maybe you can convince them otherwise. But be clear ,Äì when I first read the pamphlet I (in part) thought ,Äúoh, they,Äôre talking to fingerlicking mouthbreathers, not me. I already hate American Idol.,Äù




Miscellaneous Stuff I Don,Äôt Like
The introduction on page 2,Ķ I don,Äôt like it. I don,Äôt think it does a good job at describing exactly what the prison is. ,ÄúIt,Äôs your life, it,Äôs the cold trap of your existence.,Äù (that line made me hurk a little ,Äì I think it reads like teen goth poetry). So how exactly is that a prison and why should I hate it? Note - I think I understand what you,Äôre talking about, and I,Äôm not asking for an answer ,Äì I,Äôm just pointing out how the guy on the bus may feel about this vitriol. The first page of text is the make-it-or-break-it page of the whole pamphlet, and it,Äôs basically only frustration and metaphor. It needs something concrete to anchor.

It,Äôs possible to explain the two man con on page 4 without making the reader feel stupid for not having read American Gods. Likewise page 26 references Kant, Hume, and Locke, who are probably strangers to those people on the train.

The ,ÄúTUC,Äù mentioned on the bottom of page 5,Ķ what does that stand for? I,Äôd either spell it out or delete it. Same with SSOOKN.

This may be purely a matter of taste,Ķ
Page 14 begins by attempting to describe TEH NATURE OF REALITY. I hurk a little bit every time someone else tries to ,Äúexplain,Äù reality to me. That passage goes on to very effectively argue that we ignore / are unaware of most of reality. But then the consecutive point on p15 is that there might be great fun in exploring the reality that,Äôs currently invisible to us. Though I,Äôm hip to the metaphor that,Äôs been set up, the passage literally suggests that there,Äôs great fun in being aware of my feet inside my shoes, and being aware of the post-it note barely visible in my peripheral vision. It,Äôs plausible that the dude on the bus missed the point with all the metaphor.

We all have a little chunk of brain at the top of the spine called the Reticular Formation which filters out unnecessary information, like the temperature inside my shoes, the sound of the fluorescent lights, the entire world when I,Äôm asleep, etc. I trust its decisions. Yeah, it,Äôs filtering out a LOT of information, but is that information relevant?

That big Why Bother question is answered several times throughout the pamphlet by demeaning the people who don,Äôt ,Äúget it,Äù. Citation: page 4, ,ÄúNot wanting to beat the shit out of very stupid people is hard work.,Äù The authors must be pretty smart to see all this stupidity! In answer to the question ,ÄòWhy bother?,Äô Because I want to be smart like you, can I send you a membership fee and jump behind your smart rebel label? :-P


Page 20 is mostly metaphor. I think the point gets lost without something concrete to anchor it.

Appearance:

There,Äôs a bit that can be done to make this pamphlet easier to read.

Page 6, paragraph 2. Should begin with ,ÄúYou,Äôre,Äù, not ,ÄúYour,Äù. Page 8, paragraph 2, I think it should be ,Äúensure,Äù not ,Äúinsure,Äù. Page 21, the SSOOKN quote should drop the word ,ÄúFor,Äù. I know, I know, that,Äôs really anal. But since its in print it should matter.

Some of the leaves are out of order. Maybe I,Äôm printing it wrong, or doing something dumb, but I tried a zillion different ways, and no matter how I paginate it, p18-19 is followed by p12-13, and p8-9 is followed by p16-17. Luckily, it doesn,Äôt really seem to matter.

I think the large blocks of text (read: the entire pamphlet) need to be broken up with some graphics or quotes or what-have-you. This is your opportunity to punch the reader right in the limbic system. Some lighter images could go a long way to soften the austere bitterness (unless you really like the bitterness ,Äì personally, I think it,Äôs unattractive). I know that this commutiny has no shortage of hysterical graphics.



Conclusion:

I,Äôm equally impressed by the BIP pamphlet as I am with the PD.com community. You guys have shaken off the mummy-wrappings of ancient Discordia and created a new episkipos which is, perhaps, even more radically free than previous incarnations. It was really refreshing to realize that there are people who are putting a new spin on Discordia, even though sometimes some seem to be a bunch of elitist, cantankerous, endearing assholes (you what I mean). Likewise the BIP perfectly reflects the commutiny ,Äì it,Äôll enlighten you ,Ķif you,Äôre tough enough to stomach it.

In My Humble Opinion it can use a bit of levity. What attracted me to Discord when I was something like 17 years old was that it was the first time someone tried to convince me of something important without cramming it down my throat. It tasted good so I swallowed it on my own. The humor and lack of self-importance is what (according to The Prankster and The Conspiracy) Greg and Kerry thought would save Discord from Dogma. And I don,Äôt just mean LAIL dada humor.  Maybe absurd silliness doesn,Äôt have a place in this document, but I for one would be able to take it more seriously if it didn,Äôt take itself so seriously.

And on that note I acknowledge that I am also quite full of shit. All of this long wind emanates, perhaps, from a narrow, stubborn mind. I sure couldn,Äôt do any better than you guys have done, but I,Äôm hoping that all this jazz will somehow help. Looking back on this post, I find it pleasantly absurd that my report on the BIP is approaching the length of the pamphlet itself. But whatever.

Um, I shall leave you with a llama,


A llama

YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY

I think the booklet itself needs to be slightly more "consumer friendly", more easy for the random stranger to pick up and resonate with. I've been wrestling with this pamphlet for a few weeks now. If you guys care, I'm working on a big post about it, and some suggestions.

Dude, this is an awesome pdf. Definitely worth hanging on my wall. All my Cabalmates are getting color copies too.  (*kisses the office printer*)

It's an amusing twist that on a normal calendar I have to pen in all the Discordian Holidays, but on this calendar I have to pen in all the normal holidays.

This threat is starting to smell pretty Righteous. Sounds like "people who think like us are better / more evolved than people who don't think like us."

Assuming he's talking about the same kind of stupidity as LMNO, SillyCybin's suggesting that people who don't "get" the BIP are less than human?

[[stupid people have]] apparent immunity from doing things wrong... They never feel lonely or in doubt either.

If that's the case, then I've never met a stupid person.   :-P


But the pamphlet itself - is it designed to be read on the web by Discordians who think they've got it all figured out? Or to be left in public to startle the sleepwalkers? Or is wondering that not part of the picture?

edit: Rev. answered the above question, thanks