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+2 votes
by
I think I'm cool with 'em. I remember reading about Discordianism a few years ago and digging the general philosophy and idea. But of course now I can't remember even half the stuff I'd read on it, so I can't give an actual analysis of Discordianism or anything. All I remember is that it struck me as probably the most sensible religion I'd ever heard of.

(One thing I can say for sure is that I've always had the impression that Discordianism is pretty obscure - I've only ever met two or three other people who knew what it was, and I haven't seen any modern writing on it alone or combined with anarchism.)
The most interesting take on contemporary Discordianism comes from the "Black Iron Prison" project, other than my own Discordian expressions ;)

http://www.blackironprison.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
hpw, can you please give an actual answer--rather than a link--or make this a comment? (and why wouldn't you quote your own expressions?) also - the link you provide says nothing about anarchists. so how does this answer the question?
The Black Iron Prison presents a critique of the social order with the imagery of being trapped in a prison.  Fucking read it.  If you want a review, write one for the anvil.  This isn't Discordian 101, so I'll save you the tl;dr on it.  Disruption and exposing the behavior of power is more important than issues revolving around oppression.

The weakness of the Black Iron Prison project is primarily centered on the individual.  The individual must break free of their own bars, rather than exposing an external problem.  We have reason to be "angry" or filled with "hatred" as external things from our selves are preventing our expressions of power.  With this as a driving power, the individual is far less to blame and an analysis of power (power in society) can develop far stronger than simply attempting to break down the prison in our heads.

Something like that.  Read the fucking book.

1 Answer

+4 votes

In the third issue of The Sovereign Self, the individualist-anarchist paper from Tacoma, WA, Apio Ludd (I believe it was he; not sure; I don't have it in front of me; will edit if necessary) argues against the worship of chaos, not because chaos isn't awesome, but because the individual in order to be free from authority cannot allow a force to exist separate from and above them in a place of sacredness (like God, humanity, etc).

But does that mean Apio--or other anarchists--would critique discordianism? It doesn't sound fun to me to relate to the idea of chaos in the way that people relate to the concept of God, but then chaos is a different kind of force than God is understood to be. God's relationship to humans is usually understood in terms of domination, kingship, paternity (a relation of domination), and historically (while the jury may be out on the chicken-or-egg question of who created who in whose image), the fact is that the social power relations (hierarchies) in monotheistic societies and these societies' religious hierarchies tend to reflect one another. We live in a more "secular" society whose power relations and forms of governance may be more reflective with a humanist belief system--which was the new monster of Stirner's day--or even something else, but in any case discordianism doesn't seem to be the religion of the day. I may have got too far on a tangent there but my point about discordianism is that chaos is not God, and if you look at the sacred discordian texts--lo and behold!--the "worship of chaos" is not at all like the worship of God; the practices reflect the beliefs; actually, the beliefs themselves are self-undermining and ironic, and the whole system seems to be about destroying everything sacred, including itself, in a far more interesting way than rigid reactionary atheism. A major question raised by Stirner's thought is, after all, how one can go about denying these phantoms their place above you. Some of the discordian practices, especially irony and humor, have certainly proven useful to individuals walking that path. Indeed, it would be really silly to say that discordianism is actually about worshiping chaos, even though it is.

Some anarchists say that anarchy is order, and I think they would preemptively reject discordianism but then it might grow on them for its excellent approach to the chaos/order question which would probably lead them to abandon the idea that anarchy is order.

To conclude, I like it a lot! :)

[edit for italics]

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