BASIC CONCEPTS
1. YOU ARE WHAT YOU DO. If you want to be something else, do something else.
2. Belief follows action.
3. You are NOT a Beautiful and Unique Snowflake. Nor are you the Chosen One.
6. Politics, magick, psychology, advertising, propaganda are ALL THE SAME THING – attempts to describe and alter consciousness.
10. Destroy your own icons and enabling narratives. They will keep you safe and neutered. Most people would rather destroy life, limb or property than do this.
THE ENEMY IS LIFESTYLISM
21. If you're entirely hung up on your own "lifestyle", so determined to surround yourself with a fortress of The Right Kind of Stuff that you're incapable of thinking beyond your own self-image, then you're part of the problem.
22. Consumer culture is the opium of the 21st century masses.
23. "I am the Chosen One" is the opium of 21st century niche markets.
CHAOS MARXISM IS MATERIALIST
34. You can stay in your ivory tower and change your own reality infinitely. Until, of course, you need to go to work or deal with anyone but your immediate friends. That's the point where nasty reality cuts in. And nasty reality cuts in more and more the less money and internet access you have.
CHAOS MARXISM IS COLLECTIVIST
47. The more I looked at the mystics and the psychonauts, the more I realised that for them "Question everything" meant "Question everything except the idea that individual consciousness is a thing unto itself which can be worked on in isolation".
48. If you start saying that people are not individuals - that they are created by their upbringing and the role they play in real, nasty, going-to-work-in-traffic society - then you open the door to the idea that only a social revolution can actually solve the real problems with humanity.
51. If the subconscious, unseen and cultural levels of the world are the ocean, then magick is all about being able to dive, swim, and get back on dry land safely. Eventually, we should be able to become psychic and cultural surf-lifesavers – a role that will be integral to a new society.
THE NECESSITY OF ACTION
54. Since you are what you do, you will have to DO to BE. There is no substitute for doing.
THE PAINKILLER OF THE MASSES
65. Religion, like any other painkiller or hallucinogenic, can be used for good or evil purposes. It can encourage you to lie around and stare at the ceiling, or kill your family, or it might take the edge off enough to allow you to accomplish something in the real world.
69. Most people do not base their actions on rational thought related to material reality. They base their action on stories which they partly pick up from their culture and partly make up themselves.
70. People who base their lives in images and narratives expect those images or narratives to be "morally true" – or "truthy" - not physically true or even logical.
71. Even if I know on an intellectual level that X is bullshit, if I act like it's real it becomes real for me at least.
72. People will happily swallow lies if it enables them to maintain the narratives that they live by.
74. Basing your life on images and narratives rather than the hard facts of material existence is much, much, much easier. And it will virtually ensure that you don't ever change anything.
CULTURAL REVOLUTION – A DO IT YOURSELF GUIDE
75. To put it in magical jargon, we start with the memes and thoughtforms which arise spontaneously from anti-corporate activity, transmute them magically to give them the best chance of survival and replication, and then release them back into the infosphere of the activity where they were born.
76. Metaphorical, narrative language can help people understand real although intangible forces better than intellectual jargon.
77. An effective political or advertising slogan has all the same characteristics of a meditative mantra.
78. The most effective advertising does not say "Brand X has qualities Y and Z"; instead, it presents a meme which associates X with Y and Z and leaves it up to the recipients to connect the dots. All the most virally infective memes require that the readers/viewers/listeners do some work to make some sense of what they are given – they are "pull" rather than "push" marketing.
79. Make your memes open-ended in possible meaning.
80. If you're not being misunderstood, you haven't been properly understood.
81. If you're not being attacked, you won't be supported.
83. If you don't have a party, a mystic order or a scene, you have to start one.
84. A meme will spread if it fills a niche in the materially existing noosphere.
85. A successful memetic operation will work backwards in time - in other words, pick a possible future, and attempt to make it a real present.
HACK YOUR OWN PERSONALITY
87. The rationality you were taught to survive in this world is often diametrically opposed to the rationality you will need to change it. Drugs or religion may create the "altered state" necessary to build an alternative rationality. Or they may screw you up.
92. Arguments over what is 'good' rest on arguments about reality, even if they seem not too. 'Ought' does rely on arguments about what 'is'.
THE WORLD AS IT IS
101. The "Green Zone" in Baghdad is the most effective microcosm of the World-As-Is.
102. Less bread means more circuses – the less food and shiny consumer items there are to hand out, the more lies and spectacles must be provided.
103. Corporate politics and management are memetics combined with brute force. Memetics are generally cheaper and have less unpleasant side effects than brute force, but need to be continually updated to remain effective.
104. Corporate (or Black, or brute-force) Memetics works through a barrage of constant mutually reinforcing impressions.
DON'T CONFUSE THE LEVELS
111. The map is not the territory - that symbols are only useful in so far as they serve the actual purpose on the ground. Ideology is an imaginary solution to a real problem – an attempt to "live in the map".
112. If you try to live in the metaphor you constructed, rather than using it as a guide to action, you will at best create just another religion, and at worst, create an internet subculture that people will laugh at.
THE FUTURE
117. Revolutions are not predictable. People don't wear nice colour coded symbols in a real revolution. They get drunk and smash shit up and in all other ways go over the top.
121. Culture-from-below is always free, and often illegal – mainly because it subverts the intellectual property laws. The new world will have different definitions of property and reward.
Are those paraphrased?
I'm not a huge fan of #3, but otherwise I like.
good stuff, that is.
Quote from: Hoopla on February 21, 2008, 01:34:23 PM
Are those paraphrased?
I'm not a huge fan of #3, but otherwise I like.
Nope, that was exactly how they were layed out.
I'm reading a fair bit of the Chaos Marxists writing, and will appropriate anything I think we can make work (because, after all, they are Marxists and many of us here reject a lot of how Marxism thinks society should be).
This is very interesting - where did you find it?
yeah I dig these. Some of them make me uneasy, but I'm intrigued nonetheless. If it's KopyLeft we should yank some of it. Or maybe we should just do that anyway - these people don't believe in property, right? :wink:
http://chaosmarxism.blogspot.com/
One of them's an ex-Subgenius, I don't know about the other.
those be damn cool!
so far i like #54 de mostest
Thanks! Many of these are beautifully relevant, somehow.
thanks for the summary, cain. good stuff.
They yell the same things we do, pretty much.
I'm experiencing cognitive dissonance from identifying with self-styles "Chaos Marxists" though.
Quote from: Cain on February 21, 2008, 12:36:15 PM
72. People will happily swallow lies if it enables them to maintain the narratives that they live by.
I wondered about this when I read that Kerry Thornley had been suspected in JFK's assassination, and that he'd begun to believe Discordianism was a tool of the government to create a school of assassins. I wondered, what if Discordianism WAS a lie? What if it was just a lie we were given to follow so we'd feel like we had somewhere we belonged, so we'd feel we could do something. That we were enlightened.
Then I realized I was high, told myself to shut the fuck up, and went back to playing Halo.
Oh, no, you were right. Discordianism is a pile of crap.
The only thing keeping us from becoming a roving band of patchouli-soaked Chaos Madgickians is a dry sense of humor and half-decent introspection.
And even then.
Plus, according to Thornley's own timeline he and Hill came up with Discordianism before he came into contact with the so-called CIA agents. But it does seem likely they influenced heavily the Law of Fives, which was a later addition to Discordianism. That makes one think.
Anyone know anything about what happened to Thornley during that time? I'd hate to think they stapled a FNORD to his brain or something. Did he still believe Discordianism was falsified by the Machine afterwards, or was it just a minor phr34k0u7 because of his being accused of assassinating someone? I'd hate to think it left him scarred...
Discordianism is in some ways like the Machine's no-good cousin.
Quote from: TheLastLump on February 24, 2008, 01:29:48 AM
Anyone know anything about what happened to Thornley during that time? I'd hate to think they stapled a FNORD to his brain or something. Did he still believe Discordianism was falsified by the Machine afterwards, or was it just a minor phr34k0u7 because of his being accused of assassinating someone? I'd hate to think it left him scarred...
are we talking about after the CIA contacted Thornley?
In The Prankster and the Conspiracy, Gorightly says that Thornley spent many years homeless, wandering from scam to soup kitchen, paranoid as shit. Old friends would take him in for a night, but only to turn him out the next day because he
couldn't stop talking about conspiracy theory. Apparently he had internalized a lot of circular logic about how
they were out to get him, and was pretty much living on the lamb from the illuminati.
Mithtur Professor thur, if I thtay here, will I turn out kwathy like mithtur Thornley did ath well thur?
Quote from: Professor Cramulus on February 24, 2008, 03:37:36 PM
Quote from: TheLastLump on February 24, 2008, 01:29:48 AM
Anyone know anything about what happened to Thornley during that time? I'd hate to think they stapled a FNORD to his brain or something. Did he still believe Discordianism was falsified by the Machine afterwards, or was it just a minor phr34k0u7 because of his being accused of assassinating someone? I'd hate to think it left him scarred...
are we talking about after the CIA contacted Thornley?
In The Prankster and the Conspiracy, Gorightly says that Thornley spent many years homeless, wandering from scam to soup kitchen, paranoid as shit. Old friends would take him in for a night, but only to turn him out the next day because he couldn't stop talking about conspiracy theory. Apparently he had internalized a lot of circular logic about how they were out to get him, and was pretty much living on the lamb from the illuminati.
How is the Prankster and the Conspiracy, btw? I heard the interview Gorightly gave Out There Radio, and saw him plug it on POEE, but its something I haven't got around to buying yet.
Also, yes, some of Thornley's later writing was rather crazy. Vril, Nazi scientists, the hollow earth...you name it he wrote something on it. The Dreadlock Recollections are probably the most cogent and thoughtful of books he wrote about his experiences, and if you decide to read anything, I suggest it be that. Take it all with a pinch of salt, however. Scepticism is a good virtue when it comes to conspiracy theories, one many theorists are sadly lacking in.
Funny thing, I was thinking about exactly the same things as the Painkiller of the masses and cultural revolution part deal with today, I labeled it "metamemetics" (if I try to pronounce it drunk at least people will know not to listen to me). I also finished a short story which I'm ready to throw to the lions. Be gentle, it's my first time :D
One grey morning an Erisian legionnaire named Rupert the Dimwitted was enjoying his monthly shower (an especially unique experience, for the Discordian month has 73 days). He amused himself for a while by arranging his body in such shapes that beams of water would hit the bathroom tiles in funny ways. Satisfied with inventing this wholesome new form of entertainment, he shouted at his pineal gland: "Hey Eris, check this shit out, it's neat." "I'm standing right next to you, sheesh.", replied the disgruntled Goddess. She inspected herself, complaining he had imagined her all wrong; she looked at the shower, noting the stale water from the rusty pipes was probably a hotbed for disease; and finally scanned Rupert, who was standing like a crane, arms outstretched, hands reaching at the beams of water. "It is a metaphor for existence.", she spoke, frowning at his kooky pose. "The water flowing down your body is like reality and your body itself is like your consciousness. If you would have perfect control over your body and knew exactly what the properties of the water are, you would be able to make the water hit the tiles in any way you desire. However, you know only little of your body and the water. The more you learn, the more you are able to control the flow."
Rupert stared at Eris, uttering "I..."; glanced at himself, stammering "..uh..."; and finally peered at the shower, concluding "...hm." He struggled to express something, but simultaneously forgot how to speak and what it was he wanted to share. As Eris' shape faded from him she added: "One more thing: in the shower of life, don't drop the soap."
Quote from: TheLastLump on February 24, 2008, 01:29:48 AM
Anyone know anything about what happened to Thornley during that time? I'd hate to think they stapled a FNORD to his brain or something. Did he still believe Discordianism was falsified by the Machine afterwards, or was it just a minor phr34k0u7 because of his being accused of assassinating someone? I'd hate to think it left him scarred...
Transmissions from Sirius.
Quote from: Hoopla on February 23, 2008, 05:59:09 PMPlus, according to Thornley's own timeline he and Hill came up with Discordianism before he came into contact with the so-called CIA agents. But it does seem likely they influenced heavily the Law of Fives, which was a later addition to Discordianism. That makes one think.
Now, that's just silly thinking...
Of course, if there was some proof that the US GOV'T had some investature in the number 5 then I may admit that you have a possible theory there... I mean, if they built large impressive five-sided structures or something...
*doubletakes on an aerial photograph of WashingtonDC.*
~ Pope Fing Feng III
Quote from: FingFeng on March 02, 2008, 09:19:54 PM
Quote from: Hoopla on February 23, 2008, 05:59:09 PMPlus, according to Thornley's own timeline he and Hill came up with Discordianism before he came into contact with the so-called CIA agents. But it does seem likely they influenced heavily the Law of Fives, which was a later addition to Discordianism. That makes one think.
Now, that's just silly thinking...
Of course, if there was some proof that the US GOV'T had some investature in the number 5 then I may admit that you have a possible theory there... I mean, if they built large impressive five-sided structures or something...
*doubletakes on an aerial photograph of WashingtonDC.*
~ Pope Fing Feng III
Five-Sided Castle, indeed..... :wink:
Quote from: TheLastLump on February 24, 2008, 01:29:48 AM
Anyone know anything about what happened to Thornley during that time? I'd hate to think they stapled a FNORD to his brain or something. Did he still believe Discordianism was falsified by the Machine afterwards, or was it just a minor phr34k0u7 because of his being accused of assassinating someone? I'd hate to think it left him scarred...
Anything you read about or by Kerry Thornley should be taken with a grain of salt. ANYTHING.... In that way he's like RAW, but much, much worse.
nice list :wink:
Quote from: Cain on February 21, 2008, 12:36:15 PM
111. The map is not the territory - that symbols are only useful in so far as they serve the actual purpose on the ground. Ideology is an imaginary solution to a real problem – an attempt to "live in the map".
If ideology is an attempt to live in the map, then realism is ignoring the map (and consequently walking in circles). I'm sick of these so called 'realists' trying to go through life without a goal and trying to convince others that they should also give up their ideals...... Grrrrrrr
And I'm sick of people staring into an imaginary sky of ideals instead of looking where their goddamned feet are leading them. The difference between an upward curve and a circle is theoretical. The territory, unlike the map, never has such perfect forms. All lines are crooked, all circles imperfect.
And I'm sick of the way the two camps grow to despise each other so strongly that anyone in the middle is sneered at and considered an ignorant chump.
Quote from: Cainad on May 10, 2008, 11:24:29 PM
And I'm sick of the way the two camps grow to despise each other so strongly that anyone in the middle is sneered at and considered an ignorant chump.
pffff chump.
you can't control where your feet are leading you if you don't know where you want to go... and for that you need a map, watch the map for planning where you are going and watch your feet to actually get there. happy now?
Quote from: Regret on May 10, 2008, 11:29:56 PM
Quote from: Cainad on May 10, 2008, 11:24:29 PM
And I'm sick of the way the two camps grow to despise each other so strongly that anyone in the middle is sneered at and considered an ignorant chump.
pffff chump.
you can't control where your feet are leading you if you don't know where you want to go... and for that you need a map, watch the map for planning where you are going and watch your feet to actually get there. happy now?
NO, THAT REQUIRES CRITICAL THOUGHT AND SELF-EXAMINATION! :mad: Single-mindedness or GTFO!
REALITY DOES NOT EXIST!
THE GOAL IS EVERYTHING!
ACHIEVE THE IDEAL IN ONE STEP!
NOW GET OUT OF MY IVORY TOWER!
...
happy now?
Regret, what causes you to believe your mind is physically capable of conceiving a realistic future to strive towards? I can hardly conceive what I want to do tomorrow, fuck ideals, fuck maps.
The great thing about the future is that it is fromed by our actions today, there's no need to know what you want to do tommorow, all you need to know is: how your actions right now affect your surroundings and how you want your surroundings to be (today or tomorrow) all you have to do is choose the action that makes the world more like what you want it to be.
example:
you know that smiling is often infectuous.
you want people to smile more.
smile more.
other example:
picking up garbage from the street to put it in the bin is a good idea.
you want clean streets.
do you A) bitch about bad maintenance by the cleaners,
or B) clean your surroundings yourself?
To be honest i don't know for sure if my mind is physically(?) capable of conceving a realistic(idealistic future silly, realism is for dealing with now) future but assuming that it can makes my day better.
Okay, fair enough. But your mind cannot swallow an ideal world, or even a map of one. Don't presume to build a better future whole. You may be able to put in a few bricks, but the house is far too big for your eyes, or for mine.
Quote from: Regret on May 10, 2008, 11:56:26 PM
REALITY DOES NOT EXIST!
THE GOAL IS EVERYTHING!
ACHIEVE THE IDEAL IN ONE STEP!
NOW GET OUT OF MY IVORY TOWER!
...
happy now?
I believe that's as close as anyone can get to making a logical conclusion. Nice job ^.^
But I'm not getting out of your tower til I'm done raiding your fridge and stealing your bathrobe.
Quote from: Cain on February 24, 2008, 03:53:34 PM
Quote from: Professor Cramulus on February 24, 2008, 03:37:36 PM
Quote from: TheLastLump on February 24, 2008, 01:29:48 AM
Anyone know anything about what happened to Thornley during that time? I'd hate to think they stapled a FNORD to his brain or something. Did he still believe Discordianism was falsified by the Machine afterwards, or was it just a minor phr34k0u7 because of his being accused of assassinating someone? I'd hate to think it left him scarred...
are we talking about after the CIA contacted Thornley?
In The Prankster and the Conspiracy, Gorightly says that Thornley spent many years homeless, wandering from scam to soup kitchen, paranoid as shit. Old friends would take him in for a night, but only to turn him out the next day because he couldn't stop talking about conspiracy theory. Apparently he had internalized a lot of circular logic about how they were out to get him, and was pretty much living on the lamb from the illuminati.
How is the Prankster and the Conspiracy, btw? I heard the interview Gorightly gave Out There Radio, and saw him plug it on POEE, but its something I haven't got around to buying yet.
Ooops, missed this when you asked back in February.
It's good. It does a pretty good job of describing the climate that Discordia grew up in, and gives a bit better picture of some of the Founding Fathers than I was previously aware of. (Camden Benares et al) A lot of it is JFK conspiracy talk, but it spends about a third of the time talking about Discordia. It also paints a really interesting picture about just how crazy / sane Thornley was. I give it a B+.
/threadjack
Swote.
When I am not broke, I shall buy it.
Quote from: Verbatim on May 11, 2008, 10:19:45 PM
Okay, fair enough. But your mind cannot swallow an ideal world, or even a map of one. Don't presume to build a better future whole. You may be able to put in a few bricks, but the house is far too big for your eyes, or for mine.
ah.
source of misunderstanding located.
definition of 'world' differed between subjects.
Regret 'world': all that is observed and extrapolated from observations.
Verbatim 'world': all that is, including all that is not understandable.
I'm just trying to improve the quality and placement of the bricks, do that and you have done all you can to improve the house.
Exactly. Educate the monkeys, and they can build their OWN future.
Not that they've ever done well at that, but if they actually think about where they're putting their bricks they might not fall into the wet cement so much.
I think my definition of "world" is more like "all that is relevant to you". For some people this may encompass some of outer space and exclude many areas on Earth. For others the world is really just the neighborhood they live in. No matter how small your world, however, I do not believe you can really make a map of its perfected state. No realistic map can exist without including the time and process involved in its development, and by nature these processes are far too complex for a human mind to fully comprehend.
maps aren't supposed to be realistic, that would kinda defeat the purpose.
besides the map only has to be realistic enough to help improve the world...if i like the smell of flowers i don't need to know about the mating habits of the parasites of the bees, just that flowers can be planted.
its not that i don't get your point, its just that i disagree. can we drop it now? before we repeat our arguments/points even more?
or do you think we are actually getting somewhere? (or enlightening some lurkers)
Naw, you're right. Whatever.
*ahem*
I'm glad you guys found the Aphorisms helpful. Feel free to use them however you want, although a link back to the original list would be considered friendly.
Doloras from Chaos Marxism
Quote from: Doloras LaPicho on June 17, 2008, 07:26:49 AM
*ahem*
I'm glad you guys found the Aphorisms helpful. Feel free to use them however you want, although a link back to the original list would be considered friendly.
Doloras from Chaos Marxism
Then they wouldn't be stolen, see.
Also, welcome to the board.
Quote from: Doloras LaPicho on June 17, 2008, 07:26:49 AM
*ahem*
I'm glad you guys found the Aphorisms helpful. Feel free to use them however you want, although a link back to the original list would be considered friendly.
Doloras from Chaos Marxism
I didn't include one? My bad. I'm normally fairly good when it comes to linking stuff, I'll rectify that soon.