Well as I said in the theology thread I'm planning to start up a discordian E-zine to deal with all things discordian, the plan being to output a 20-30 page PDF documentroughly every 6-8 weeks with articles on discordian philosophy interviews with discordian peoples (from forum denziens to anyone famous with leanings willing to return an E-mail.) What I'm after is submissions and people who'd be willing to leave a few hardcopy, copies around in libraries used bookshops and bus stations.
The following is an article I am working on for the first issue to do with discordianism and society, it's still in the drafting phase and will probably go through significant changes but anything you have to add would be helpful. Bewr in mind that when properly formatted it will be in a nice, two column format with little pictures and quote boxes.
QuoteErisianism in a Post-modern World
Society, the damnfool thing that gets in the way of civilisation; with its morality, ethics, standards and beliefs, cocking up what could otherwise be a healthy and vibrant global community. It is everywhere, it adapts to new and strange things just as fast as the neophobes reject them. Society is that quixotic organism which is both much more and also far, far, far, far, FAR less than the sum of its parts. So what is this thing we are calling ,Äúsociety,Äù? What does it mean in this case? Suprisingly, the Oxford Dictionary,Äôs definition will suffice for the purposes of this essay:
Society n. (pl ,Äìies) 1 the sum of human conditions and activity regarded as a whole functioning interdependently,Ķ 3 a a social mode of life. b The customs and organization of an ordered community,Ķ
Society is the system which exists between any large group of people who congregate together under the one system of values and in so doing function (more or less) as a whole. The problem however is not here in the definition, but in terms of how society adapts and evolves.
Society is something that exists independent of civilisation; it is a Meme of epic proportions, containing everyone within its defined boundaries and subjecting them to social pressures: trends and fads, do,Äôs and don,Äôts,Ķ It,Äôs undeniable that in any circle in which we exist we are subject to pressure from the general attitudes of that group. It,Äôs just the way people are; we gravitate towards people with similar viewpoints to our own because we want to be well-received, and we want to be confident of what we think before we broadcast it to the world at large. That,Äôs a society, a large group of perhaps millions of people existing together sharing common goals and interests and similar beliefs and attitudes.
(Random Paragraphs)
There are however, groups of people existing within any society who do not share all the beliefs and ideas of that system, people for whom certain traditions and unwritten laws are an anathema; many of who actually exist peacefully within that system, and have little problem with existing just so.
There is however something about the ,Äúus versus them,Äù mindset that tends to creep in when we have two large societies interacting. This is where the counterproductive side of society takes over.
It,Äôs almost as if the society is invaded by a virus, a virus that inevitably takes hold and sets up root in some small part of the social organism, either slowly altering it, or just wasting away.
The most insidious thing occurs however when an idea is taken up on the large scale by our (modern-day) social organism: it gets sent around the world so many times and reiterated by so many so-called experts that the spirit is lost and everyone mistakes the finger for the moon. As Colin Wilson said in The Outsider: ,ÄúThere is no danger to self-knowledge so great as being universally accepted as a spiritual leader.,Äù The icon of what the ideal represents to the masses becomes the substitute for its reality. Society doesn,Äôt need a voice; it needs a brain. The problem is that society doesn,Äôt have a disclaimer. We shunt away unpopular or unfamiliar ideas and only extol what we know those around us will approve of. We stick to our own special-interest groups, rarely stepping outside the common boundaries of our particular set of interests. We shorten our horizons to ones which do little challenge either our knowledge or our beliefs. The result is poisonous pedagogy: intellectual and spiritual stagnation. A system of values that is perishingly shortsighted and extremely intolerant of any form of innovation.
There should be a sign at every single airport, seaport, train-station, and bus station everywhere in the world that reads:
,ÄúNOTICE:
Visitors please note that the views and opinions expressed by individual citizens of this community do not necessarily reflect the views of this society as a whole.,Äù
What we are talking about here is not written in a line of a book, but between the words. When talking about the law you may have heard some people talking about the letter and the spirit of the law. The spirit of any statement or preposition is not the letter (i.e. what is written down), but what is intended by those words.
Mal was right, we Discordians should stick apart. Not far, far away from each other on separate mountaintops all over the world, but ideologically. Discordianism is not something that can or even should be popularised, but don,Äôt keep it to yourself, the point is: how can you even hope to maintain those valueless values if the written word of Discordianism becomes some Eristic cannon of law? We are encouraged to reiterate and adulterate our own holy books for one purpose: tipping the sacred cow; and if the sacred cow becomes to tip the sacred cow then we must not tip it. If the sacred cow then becomes to not tip the sacred cow then we must tip it.
The chao is not about order and chaos being necessary opposites; the chao is about metastability, two forces acting in constant opposition to each other to maintain a normal range of constructive chaos. Change is inevitable, but if you know what change and when, and if you can embrace that change and reap more benefits from it and suffer fewer losses.
Conclusions? The spirit of Discordianism is a highly esoteric thing, more so than many other spiritual organizations, it revolves around finding a personal identity, and also prodding other people toward that finding a personal identity. Because everyone is different, because similarity rarely extends so far for any two people to think of even a noun in exactly the same way, there is no way that you can effectively hope to codify it. You can have you Discordian groupings, online forums, E-zines, churches, temples, and whatever. But what is written down is not the spirit. Spirit is brought out of those words by the way you explain them, not by parroting what someone else told you it meant, but by discovering what it means to you, and more than that. Discovering that it means something wholly different to everyone else.
Aha! You KNOW the meaning of "We Discordians must stick apart."
I am impressed. Let me know if you need some writings/scrawlings/bird-cage liner for your journal. I can print some for distribution around Chicago.
Tokeval, Rocket P Llama, Magna Cum Stupido, and Daniel P are all at your service as well. As shown by my DA site I am a BRILLIANT writer. :D
I work on a college campus. You plan to announce these newsletters here when they're done? I might be able to print some out and leave them lying around.
Quote from: St. Trollax, ODDWell as I said in the theology thread I'm planning to start up a discordian E-zine to deal with all things discordian,
Hehe...I could do some "ads" for you.
I wanna see you do some "ads" for Trollax. :twisted:
Quote from: SssBella, Oracle of DoomI wanna see you do some "ads" for Trollax. :twisted:
K.
I will post the first one here tonight.
Super cool.
Hella cool even.
Quote from: The Good Reverend RogerQuote from: St. Trollax, ODDWell as I said in the theology thread I'm planning to start up a discordian E-zine to deal with all things discordian,
Hehe...I could do some "ads" for you.
I'm sure you could. Like the Subgenius style or some Greyface Inc stuff?
Quote from: St. Trollax, ODDQuote from: The Good Reverend RogerQuote from: St. Trollax, ODDWell as I said in the theology thread I'm planning to start up a discordian E-zine to deal with all things discordian,
Hehe...I could do some "ads" for you.
I'm sure you could. Like the Subgenius style or some Greyface Inc stuff?
Kinda.
Just as a general warning:
There are a lot of difficult words in the above exerpt...
Kind of a block when trying to make it readable to the general public...
Only people that actually went through college won't skip these bits when browsing through a pamphlet at a busstation...
Incidentilly, I'm pretty sure I can print a copy at the office, and photocopy it a few times after hours at no charge...
But our big stapler is broken, and now I can only staple about 15 pages at a time... 20 max...
Plus I travel 113 km twice each day by train to get to work...
So make it a double edition of 15 pages each, and you can consider the belgian trains/trainstations partly covered...
With effort, I may be able to staple 23 pages with a normal stapler...
Post-Modern? I prefer the Snow Crash assertation that we're in a Post-Rational era. Except for the fact there never was a Rational era persay.
But yes, this seems like a good idea, if you could actually keep it going, Will it all be serious (or semi-serious) essays?
Quote from: CannedLizardExcept for the fact there never was a Rational era persay.
Sure there was. Sadly, the Americans were too busy trying to convince each other that they were free to notice.
Quote from: CannedLizardPost-Modern? I prefer the Snow Crash assertation that we're in a Post-Rational era. Except for the fact there never was a Rational era persay.
But yes, this seems like a good idea, if you could actually keep it going, Will it all be serious (or semi-serious) essays?
I chose the word piostmodern because it is an adaptive and ever-changing concept... Just like the id which tends to rule most people and society. Like I said above I will be doing some editing, and hopefully some of the less serious articles would be enough to have the less-erudite members of the population do a little reading.
As for semiserious articles, It's a discordian magazine, of course there's going to be silliness. I would like to add jakery and mindfuck ideas as well as general good humor and stupidity.
Speaking of which. Lister, Will we have to do translations?
Maybe I'll start doing midnight babble for you, Trollax
And we need an agony aunt column.
A what?
Quote from: illusionA what?
agony aunt column, where people write in and we give them discordian advice... or put them through agony... :twisted:
One Ad:
What the HELL are YOU looking at?
Hey! This isn't the latest TV reality show! It sure as hell isn't a member of the opposite sex, dressed in the hippest clothes! In fact, it isn't one of the approved things at all! Quick! Put it down, before someone sees you...you might look uncool...you might even get into trouble! There are plenty of NORMAL things you could be doing, right now. You could be drinking the latest malt liquor, for example. Or you could watch the TV...hey, that's how you know what's COOL, right? Or perhaps you could read a men's or womens fashion/fitness magazine, just to see how you measure up.
Listen, chump, society puts a lot of effort into determining what you will like, and THIS is how you repay them? By reading some subversive publication, put out by FREAKS and WEIRDOS? Why haven't you put it down yet? What's WRONG with you? Do you think you're SPECIAL? That the RULES don't apply to you?
So, put this down, THIS INSTANT, and PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PAYING ATTENTION TO!
Brough to you by the Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow.
::Tries to put down this publication and turn on the tv so she can learn to be cool::
::Fails miserably::
I wouldn't bother with translating it, most people have enough knowledge of the english language to be able to read it (except maybe the difficult bits, but those will probably get skipped by native-english sheep equally).
Maybe post an email adress or something where submissions (rants, drawings, cartoons, random gibberish,...) can be sent to?
(In my personal experience, http://www.evilemail.com/ is the easiest way to get a quick free email adress... Choose name, suffix, password and you're set to go... Unlike hotmail with it's numerous registration pages...)
Friday the 23th would be a good date for a first publishing methinks (it's the 23rd of next month)
Quote from: ListerI wouldn't bother with translating it, most people have enough knowledge of the english language to be able to read it (except maybe the difficult bits, but those will probably get skipped by native-english sheep equally).
Maybe post an email adress or something where submissions (rants, drawings, cartoons, random gibberish,...) can be sent to?
(In my personal experience, http://www.evilemail.com/ is the easiest way to get a quick free email adress... Choose name, suffix, password and you're set to go... Unlike hotmail with it's numerous registration pages...)
Friday the 23th would be a good date for a first publishing methinks (it's the 23rd of next month)
That would be nice if and when I have a credit card...
I'll get SMFabal to set us up one at Stgulik.net and it can forward everything to my hotmail account. simple...
Quote from: St. Trollax, ODDQuote from: ListerI wouldn't bother with translating it, most people have enough knowledge of the english language to be able to read it (except maybe the difficult bits, but those will probably get skipped by native-english sheep equally).
Maybe post an email adress or something where submissions (rants, drawings, cartoons, random gibberish,...) can be sent to?
(In my personal experience, http://www.evilemail.com/ is the easiest way to get a quick free email adress... Choose name, suffix, password and you're set to go... Unlike hotmail with it's numerous registration pages...)
Friday the 23th would be a good date for a first publishing methinks (it's the 23rd of next month)
Yeah. Especially since Hotmail is upping its free account space limit to 250mb.
That would be nice if and when I have a credit card...
I'll get SMFabal to set us up one at Stgulik.net and it can forward everything to my hotmail account. simple...
i'll write soemthign for you exclusively, but i haven;t decided where to start. if you want, you can pm me a topic, and if i haven't started by the time i get it, i'll start from there.
if you need anything specific to fill in some gaps, i do writing for hire.
i usually get paid in green (money or herb)...
i'll comp it for you though, special pope discount.
i've got lots of random shit readily available already, and i can whip
something up at a monent's notice with one sleep deprived night
(or two)...
let me know, PM me or something.
To Horab and St. Bastard:
just find the piece you like the most and then go a couple of steps down the ladder. That way you've still got plenty of good stuff in reserve.
If you want, I could write some remarkably good....
...er, fluff....
*realizes he has nothing salient to say that the "higher minds" on this forum can't write volumes about*
Quote from: Medeo*realizes he has nothing salient to say that the "higher minds" on this forum can't write volumes about*
Thinking like that is exactly why you don't
Quote from: MedeoIf you want, I could write some remarkably good....
...er, fluff....
*realizes he has nothing salient to say that the "higher minds" on this forum can't write volumes about*
why not write a book about the practical applications of quantam physics in the telephone book production industry?
Quote from: Captain HotsumaQuote from: MedeoIf you want, I could write some remarkably good....
...er, fluff....
*realizes he has nothing salient to say that the "higher minds" on this forum can't write volumes about*
why not write a book about the practical applications of quantam physics in the telephone book production industry?
now that I would pay to see... as a stage show or even a theatre resturaunt.
waht about a musical?
Quote from: Captain Hotsumawaht about a musical?
*sings to the tune of "a spoonful of sugar"*
Oh a hand full of gluons makes the quarks spin around
the quarks spin around
the quarks spin around
Oh a handfull of gluons make the quarks spin around
and keep us at steady states
Quote from: St. Trollax, ODDQuote from: Captain Hotsumawaht about a musical?
*sings to the tune of "a spoonful of sugar"*
Oh a hand full of gluons makes the quarks spin around
the quarks spin around
the quarks spin around
Oh a handfull of gluons make the quarks spin around
and keep us at steady states
For some reason I see the singers dressed up in these brightly-colored foam outfits you see sometimes (it's most stereotypically a banana, but Gwar uses them as well), shaped like gluons and quarks (whatever they are), and doing some morris-dancing while they sing...
I would definitly pay to see something like this...
Oh, yeah ... Let's set up an email or two for Discord.pdf - we can also use the webspace for an archive of past issues.
Right now, submissions@stgulik.net will reach me; I'll set up a second forward to Trollax soon (like, in the next 2-3 days)
Quote from: SMFabalOh, yeah ... Let's set up an email or two for Discord.pdf - we can also use the webspace for an archive of past issues.
Right now, submissions@stgulik.net will reach me; I'll set up a second forward to Trollax soon (like, in the next 2-3 days)
I'm game, if ya want me.
Any requests?
i've never written anything before, mainly because i'm too unsure of myself to start. maybe i'll make an effort and try to write something. what kind of stuff are you looking for?
Quote from: Slartibartfasti've never written anything before, mainly because i'm too unsure of myself to start. maybe i'll make an effort and try to write something. what kind of stuff are you looking for?
Just write. If you really need an audience and he doesn't want it, someone here will.
This is the way of things.
I'm not too sure of a due date...
I have uni and I'm moving house next thursday... I'd also like to do another piece on the decay of culture worldwide (i'll be tying in the athens thing and a piece I'm doing on "Australia's Idle")... Plus I need an armload of condoms for my latest Greyface Inc Picture (which will probably go on the back cover) Anything humourous or ideas for mindfucks that are fairly simple and innocuous would also be good.