Monasticism and Evangelism in relation to Discordianism

[Wolfpoet]

I do like my 'isms

In any belief there becomes a divide between to divergent schools of thought. I like to use the terms Evangelism and Monasticism.

Examples of Evangelism:

Islamic extemists, it takes a powerful form of preaching to make somebody become a suicide bomber.

American fundamentalist Christians. We've all heard or seen this lot, scary bunch.

Democratic Evangelism, the revolutionaries of America and France who removed the existing government forms and replaced them with Democracy.

Examples of Monasticism:

The Catholics, ok a tad obvious but the various monastic movements of the Catholics gave the term it's name.

Bhuddism, another famous monastic belief system.

Thw commitees, quangos and think-tanks prevalent in modern democracies.

So where am i going with this?

Evangelists are the preachers, front line, brave fighters of these beliefs. They carry it forward and try to convince non-believers their cause is just and should be followed, they spread the word.

Monastics are the thinkers, they spend most of their time in reflection. They define, discuss, evolve the belief system.

A successful belief needs both extremes. Without evangelism it stagnates, nobody hears about it and the belief becomes an obscure footnote. Without monasticism the belief becomes extreme, preachers yelling at you when even they don't know what exactly they are preaching.

The two schools of thought rarely get on. Evangelists think the monastics are cowards, never prepared to go out and spread the word, just sitting in their little rooms and thinking. Monastics consider Evangelists to be loud-mouthed braggarts more concerned with convincing as many peopel as they can than actualy getting the belief across properly.

How does this apply to Discordianism?

A Christian Evangelist thinks Christianity is the best path, the best way to free a person's soul. Anybody that doesn't listen or convert is obviously a waste of time and not worth bothering with. Let the heathens and heretics burn in hell.

A Discordian Evangelist thinks Discordianism is the best path, the best way to free a person's mind. Anybody that doesn't listen or convert is obviously a waste of time and not worth bothering. let the cabbages and grey faces fall when society collapses around them.


Hmmmm summat familiar in those two paragrapths.

This is where our monastics come in. our thinkers, philosophers and barflies take the above and rip it to shreds. It's one of the reasons Discordians fight each other so much. It's a constant struggle to develop the Discordian belief without falling into the traps. To consistently fight the system and not becoe an extension of it as the Goths have become.

We need complete coverage. Some people will look at the evangelical types and laugh, consider the mindfucks pointless and childish. When faced with the tools of monastic Discordians these people are more likely to wake up.

Deep thinking and street preaching both have their place, lately there has been an upsurge in Evamgelical Discordianism. Efforts to update the PD for 2006, increased focus on pro-active measures.

I think this is a damn good thing.

But never marginalise or discount the Monastics, they may yet surprise people.

[Cain]

Its scary how well you are doing this.  I'm assuming you havent read the back catalogues of rants by us, over the past year or so?  

We came up with different terminology, but similar definitions.  We called the two groups the LDD and the ELF, Legion of Dynamic Discord and Erisian Liberation Front, from the Illuminatus! trilogy.  The LDD are the activist wing, the front line trouble makers, the revolutionaries and the like.  The ELF were the esoteric, the Taoists and Zen monk types, using wu-wei and using Discordianism for personal self-perfection and illumination.  Of course, the two groups aren't exclusive, though most people fall into one of the two camps more strongly.

Like I said, striking similarity....

[Wolfpoet]

hmm maybe i should take a weekend out to read the backdated stuff. Sorry if I'm re-inventing the wheel here.

[Cain]

No, no problem.  Like I said, its interesting to see you coming to similar conclusions out of the context where we came to them.

[LMNO]

Yeah, I was about to mention the ELF/LDD schism.  Unfortunately, that soon devolved into the Cookie-and-Pie Wars.  Lemme see if I can find the relevant rants.

[Wolfpoet]

I am a young Gwasshopper, I say it as i see it.

But i don't see it so much as a schism. Both elements are ESSENTIAL to a workable Discordianism.

Christianity did it best when it split into factions and denominations. No two denominations are exactly alike but all hold the same basic message. Each denomination caters to a variant of the monastic/evangelist philosophy. In effect even though the various denominations don't get on (watch an Born again American Christian kick off with a European catholic sometime) they expand the same system.

Unfortunately their system is inherently corrupt and narrowminded.

Imagine if Discordianism used the same methods to achieve open-mindedness.

[LHX]

But i don't see it so much as a schism. Both elements are ESSENTIAL to a workable Discordianism.

could be said that both are essential to the individual



this is a good summary for those learning the ropes



i dint even know about the ELF LDD joints

finna read those myself later

[LMNO]

These wre found in the "Or Kill Me" subforum, around page 20.  Plus or minus 3 pages or so is where most of the posts about the schism are.

This is something I wrote about the ELF/LDD:
Epistle 1
http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4020

From there, I tried to expound on it, with varying degrees of success.

Epistle 2
http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4180

Epistle 3
http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4298

Epistle 4
http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4369

[Wolfpoet]

Thanks LMNO, I'll peruse those posts when i get more time.