Is Discorianism an ideology?

[Cain]

Typically an ideology has three components, a Descriptive, Prescriptive and Strategy section.  Descriptive describes the world as it is, Prescriptive describes how the world should be and Strategy is how you move from one to the other.

I have my own ill-defined thoughts on the issue, but I would like to hear others ideas first.

[rygD]

I don't think Discordianism is that cookie cutter, but that is just my guess.

[hunter s.durden]

You're going to get an unsatisfying "yes and no" from me.
You will actually have to tell me whether I am saying yes or no.

Many Discordians have a Descriptive view that the world is a nice place (wait before you shoot). We have candy, Playstation, sex, Penn and Teller. Unfortunately the beauty of this world is marred by the Grayface, who takes away the good things, for his own greedy needs, through arbitrary rules and restriction. Grayface is motivated and well organized, which makes him efficent. This is our problem.

The Presciptive view is that by separating ourselves from Grayface and its ways, we can live in the happy world that is right in front of us.

Our Strategy is to become masters of ourselves, most importantly our
sub-conscious. We look to become true individuals, sorting out the ingrained, force fed lies that have become the actual root of suffering. Grayface cannot be vanquished, because a piece live within us. Grayface must be purged. We use the weapons of willpower, non-convention, and of course, apparent chaos.

Thing is, being individuals, everything I just said about we, is bullshit. I can only give my view and noone elses, lest I fall into another Gray trap. Some read my description and said "Fuckin' A!", while other said "Fuck you, you don't know me."

So... um... whatever.

[P3nT4gR4m]

I'm with Durden. One more and we got ourselves an institute.

[Triple Zero]

descriptive = what we're trying to do with the BIP and things similar to it, plus a small few of the rants

prescriptive = i dunno, if we wanted to be an ideology, i'd say we're lacking here. at least as far as being concrete about it goes. some general idea of "people should realize they're free", (coupled with merrily kicking of the nads, shits, giggles and lulz?).
but so far i haven't really had anyone dare to come up with some utopian worldview that wasn't shot down rather quickly. maybe cause you pretty much can't get rid of the Machine?

strategic = operation mindfuck and a larger part of the rants

[P3nT4gR4m]

I think what makes discordianism stand out as an ideology (if indeed it can be classed as such) is the fact that our 'prescriptive' and 'strategy' elements generally are applied subjectively. Emphasis is on 'think for yourself', 'be free', 'have fun or die trying.

Most other ideologies insist on blowing things up and putting peoples heads on spikes and stuff. Fun, admittedly, but hardly likely to serve any real purpose.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

There are too many strains of Discordianism to say.

According to your criteria, I'd say it has all the symptoms of a postmodern pigmonkey philosophy, more than ideology.

[Triple Zero]

I think what makes discordianism stand out as an ideology (if indeed it can be classed as such) is the fact that our 'prescriptive' and 'strategy' elements generally are applied subjectively.

i like this.


a side remark, the "descriptive" element also is applied subjectively, and it's interesting you don't mention it, as we pretty much all agree it sort of goes without saying

well, subjectively, as far as you can dodge the barstool of course

[LMNO]

Typically an ideology has three components, a Descriptive, Prescriptive and Strategy section.  Descriptive describes the world as it is, Prescriptive describes how the world should be and Strategy is how you move from one to the other.

I have my own ill-defined thoughts on the issue, but I would like to hear others ideas first.

Is there such a thing as a Practical Ideology?

Descriptive: The world as most tend to see it. (Half-Blind, Asleep, Sheep-like)
Prescriptive: The world as we probably should see it. (1/4 Blind, Struggling to wake up, Wolf-like)
Strategy: Contradiction, conflict, argument.

Whaddaya think?

[AFK]

I think Discordianism has potential to be ideaology but it depends on the practitioner(s).  Like someone else mentioned, too many strains to really nail down the whole of Discordianism.  But, if you are talking about our strain, whatever that is, than I think LMNO's description of a Practical Ideaology fits.  Of course, others not-in-the-know of what is going on here might view it as a radical cult ideaology but not too much you can do about that really. 

[LMNO]

Yeah, that's why I threw in the E-Prime codewords.

Otherwise it looks like:

D: The world as people see it.
P: The world as people should see it.
S: Our Way or the highway, motherfucker.

[AFK]

Yeah, that's why I threw in the E-Prime codewords.

Otherwise it looks like:

D: The world as people see it.
P: The world as people should see it.
S: Our Way or we drag you down the highway, motherfucker.

HIMEOBSed

[Cain]

Yeah, that's why I threw in the E-Prime codewords.

Otherwise it looks like:

D: The world as people see it.
P: The world as people should see it.
S: Our Way or the highway, motherfucker.

Well that is what an ideology is meant to be (screw e-prime for now).

How the world is, how we want it to be and how we get from one to another.  I think on 1 and 3 Discordianism is strong, but 2 is where it unravels because, as Netaungrot says, there are too many strains of Discordianism.

[LMNO]

Well, we could alway fall back on the Gurdjieff bit:

D: Humans are asleep.
P: Humans need to wake up.
P: Barstool.

[LHX]

Well, we could alway fall back on the Gurdjieff bit:

D: Humans are asleep.
P: Humans need to wake up.
P: Barstool.

it all comes back to the barstool

the barstool is the wrench that will wreck the machine too