This is gonna be an unpopular post but I feel it needs to be said.
Nigger, Raghead, kype, Spic, Dago, Frog, Gerry, Kraut, Commie, Fag, Dyke, White-trash, Trailer-trash, Yank, Limey, Greyface, Cabbage.
What do these words have in common?
The have the exact same meaning.
In conflict it is easier to de-humanise your enemy. This is done by giving him/her a label, you cease to associate your enemy with the word Human.
They are not us, they are not like us, they are different. This begins the path to legitimising whatever you want.
You can treat them differently to the way you treat someone else without any moral qualms.
I've noticed an expression on these forums.
"Turn Cabbages into kimchi"
Let's turn it around.
"Turn Humans into dog food"
Hard to support the second statement but the first is much more palatable.
I appreciate that in a very real sense we are at war. I understand the word "war" is pretty damn strong, but to be honest is there any other way to describe what's going down?
Sure we are not shooting people but it's a war of ideals, a war of words, a war of morality. The system has the Human race locked in tight and is squeezing, some folks believe time is rapidly running out.
Hence the importance of this post.
At the moment words like greyface and cababge are being thrown out lightly. But be VERY careful how these simple words could end up becoming justifications.
I tend to think long-term, prefer to make sure I have the afterwards either planned or considered before I get started with anything.
Longterm I can see Discordianism working or failing based on how we develop the movement in relation to our fellow Humans. We either repeat the mistakes of the past and this noble endaevour becomes a twisted and corrupt extension of the system it once tried to defeat.
OR
Everything we plan for, hope for, dream for is made reality and we find a home. There will always be proponents of the system as the world is balance. But Discordianism can become something greater than it is today, I don't want to make any wild-eyed, hopeful prophecies, but imagine a land where Dscordian triumphs over the system.
We will ONLY do this if we avoid the anger, hate and fear the system engenders. So when you think of someone as a cababge or a greyface look into yourself and just check to make sure your not de-humanising them, because when you start that road and sink too deep into that comfort then concentration camps are no longer a horrid impossibility but become an all too easy possibility.
I understand what you say. Its easier to justify having your foot on someone's neck because of something they did and their depravity is usually the best one. "Look what you made me do."
However, I have witnessed the way Discordianism has developed on this board and there is method to my madness.
Discordians like to fight each other. Alot. I have nothing against that in priciple, in fact I have instigated or made it worse at times. However, the current situation is coming dangerously close to freefall into autocracy. Especially with the war in Iran heating up, but with other factors as well.
If we want to start acting on a large level, we have to understand that our enemy is our enemy and therefore reaffirm our picture of what we are, as Discordians. Unless someone is willing to light a fire under our feet, we'll continue to fight each other until we get destroyed, which will happen, sooner or later.
Also, my definition of Greyface may be stricter than you realize. To me, a Greyface is someone who has chosen to follow the orderly over the chaotic, even when they know how the world is. They are the archtypal Nietzchean "haters of life". All order leads to destruction if viewed as an absolute or ideal to be reached, because it is impossible. The theory never matches up with reality, it creates "friction". Eventually the friction builds up and the system collapses. But usually only after killing a great many people. Thats what a Greyface leads us to, because they are essentially priests and want to tell people how to behave, instead of seeing how they behave and working from there.
compassionate yet ruthless
if you destroy something unjustly -
you will be punished
if you fail to destroy something that you understand needs to be destroyed
because you dont like destroying things -
you will be punished
'if a civilized person doesnt perform his duty what shall be done?'
- lesson 19 in the 1-40
I'm afraid that sometimes, that is life. I agree that what we are doing is dehumanizing our enemies, if we accepted them as equals, they wouldn't be our enemies. I like Cain's definition of a Greyface, and that is pretty close to what I've taken it to be... I do not support the idea of 'turning cabbages into kimchi' though, a cabbage is not an enemy, there is still the potential for waking up a cabbage, there is not the potential for waking up a Greyface- they are aware of the problem, they perpetuate it willingly, cabbages do not.
If you accept this is a war, surely you accept the seriousness of the situation, if this is war, it is important that we don't forget what or who we are fighting against, if we didn't characterize our enemies as our enemies, then the question would inevitably arise- what are we fighting against?
And without the words to describe what we are fighting against- the apathy of the cabbages, the tyranny of the Greyfaces- our cause would lose momentum, falter, and fail. I'm still new around here, but I don't want the cause to fail.
Bring freedom to the masses! No more cabbage fields!
QuoteNo more cabbage fields!
And this shall be our battle cry.