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A Discordian Position on the War

 
 
Salamander
22:44 / 06.05.04
This is a position on the war which is very well spoken, read and be enlightened, or not, whatever...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: John Fenderson
bbc@singlenesia.com



The Barry Bittwister Cabal Thinks The President Is Groovy
"They can only get inside your head if you keep an open mind."
Bureaucracy 62, 3168

The Barry Bittwister Cabal wishes to publicly acknowledge and support the wise leadership presented to us by His Eminence, George Bush. Because our televisions have told us so, we all know that Our Leader's push for war with Iraq is both correct and just. If you don't believe this, you're a traitor and the terrorists have won. All real Americans see the need to attack Iraq right now. Some of our Discordian brethren have expressed that this view is counter to core Discordian values. We explain here why this is not so.

In the Discordian tradition every man, woman and child on Earth is a Discordian Pope, and some consider the inevitible wholesale slaughter of large numbers of exalted religious personalities to be just plain mean, if not downright offensive. We feel compelled to remind them that Saddam Hussein regularly kills and tortures his own people. Iraq has been at war with somebody or another since forever. These people are used to it. War to them is like a head cold to us. They don't mind. Really. Besides, there's a certain pleasing symmetry to the notion of engaging in what amounts to wholesale murder of these people in order to save them from a homicidical maniac. It brings back the memory of the pleasant aroma of Napalm in the morning. Smell it?
Saddam is a very evil man. If you've been paying attention to your programming, you know well that Evil + Evil = Good. Let's review: Saddam is Evil, We Want Good. Plugging the values into the equation, we see that Our Leader has no choice but to do Evil. But it's not that bad, because Evil gets us Good, and so it must, in itself, be Good. Logically, Evil is Good.
Our Leader perceives that conquering Iraq will liberate vast quantities of oil into the pockets of Him and His Masters. Reagan taught us all about the "trickle down" method of bettering everyone's lives, and so we should support Him in His efforts, rather than stand in His way. That way, the Iraqi people will benefit by feasting on the crumbs that He accidentally drops from His table.
Many Discordians believe that it is OK to murder people so long as they give consent, at least implicitly (by attempting to murder you first, for instance). Bringing this up seems fruitless since Iraq has obviously not given such consent. But think: Once we attack Iraq we have given them permission to murder us, which they will undoubtably take advantage of. This brings about the fortuitous circumstance of us only engaging in unprovoked assault once, since after retaliation we'll be engaging in self defense! As we all know, it's OK to eat dogshit if you only eat a little.
The Principia Discordia advises: "Don't Let THEM Immanentize The Eschaton." One way to interpret this is that Discordians should prevent Our Leader's attempt to bring on armageddon, since that's our job and we haven't agreed on how to do it yet. We argue that we can remain lazy by simply doing nothing to oppose Our Leader - thus joining Him. Then our "They" becomes their "Us".
As a parting statement, we offer one small bonus thought. We confess that Our Leader's insistance on perverting the very soul of Americanism by officially reviving the corrupt policy of Manifest Destiny under the pleasant-sounding name of "preemption" doesn't really look too good. But never fear! Might makes right, even when it doesn't, so America can't be wrong. Besides, not one of you, nor Our Leader or His Masters, will have to look a single Iraqi mother in the eye as she weeps over the baby we paid to have killed. If you can't see the fnords, they can't eat you.

-><-

With Love,
The Barry Bittwister Cabal
 
 
w1rebaby
00:23 / 07.05.04
But OH NOES! If Evil is Good, then we're doing Good, and so we can't use the Evil + Evil = Good argument any more!

Actually, if Evil = Good, and Evil + Evil = Good, we can replace both with, say, x, and we have

x + x = x
=> 2x = x, and then subtract x from both sides
=> x = 0, and divide by x
=> 1 = 0

Excellent! It's been categorically proved! Damn, I've been waiting a long time for that. I guess some good has come out of the war then.
 
 
Charlie's Horse
00:52 / 07.05.04
I think you just rewrote Voltaire's Candid in a few hundred words or less. That alone convinces me.

Also, if King Kong or Ho Chi Minh can die for our sins, imagine what the entire civilian population of Iraq can do! By Goddess, martyring these people guarantees our freedom in this world and the next. With this war, Bush defends our lives and postlives...

Laughing Hysterically,
Keflexive
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
00:55 / 07.05.04
Hail Eris!
 
 
Salamander
04:13 / 07.05.04
Nah, not me the original is at this site. I just wanted to share the madness, mwahahahah!
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
11:51 / 07.05.04
I'm not suppose to be annoyed at Iraq has been at war with somebody or another since forever. These people are used to it. War to them is like a head cold to us. They don't mind. Really. as being suspiciously racist sounding and condescending because it's them wacky Discordians saying it, right? It's almost enough to make me tear up my 'genuine Messiah' card...
 
 
Charlie's Horse
14:14 / 07.05.04
I think you're right Ms. Lady of the Flowers (unabbreviated) but for the fact that nothing in that post is serious. It's a lil' more complicated than 'yes, the discordian wackyness allows all kinds of tasteless jokes,' though.

Evil + Evil = Good as a formula completely destroys any system of ethics or morality a person could have - not to mention math itself, as fridgemagnet demonstrated. Isn't the racism as bad as destroying the entirety of math? Or ethics? Hells, it's not even that dualistic - destroying ethical systems justifies racism, as can the destruction of the scientific method. That's a lotta bad.

That's why everything in that lil' post should be completely turned around before being taken seriously. If ever. Fnord.

Not to nitpick further.. but isn't it 'Official Pope?'
Discordia needs no messianic nutters running around.
Popes are bad enough.
 
 
rizla mission
14:23 / 07.05.04
Surely anybody who was truly hardcore in their Discordian beliefs would support the war simply due to the immense amount of chaos and instability it's given birth to...?
 
 
Salamander
16:12 / 07.05.04
Last I bothered to check, most discordians prefer constructive chaos, but in the end whatever. It would be nice if we could all just play all day, but unfortunately we still have alot of pineal glands still atrophied with the curse of greyface. The irony about the statement about Iraq always being at war is that on a long enough time line it looks like everyone is always at war, oh wait everyone is always at war...
 
 
Nobody's girl
16:46 / 07.05.04
I've got a ink stamp that says "Don't Let THEM Immanentize the Eschaton", it's fab
 
 
grant
17:31 / 07.05.04
Actually, the "always at war" thing is a good point, and more specific to Iraq than you might expect.

Some historians/analysts (I ran into the idea on IFAS.org) read the Iraq War as a continuation of the Persian Gulf War in a literal sense... that war was never concluded, no treaties, no surrender, and constant conflict from then till now over the No-Fly Zones. The militarized zones.

And the eight year Iran-Iraq War ended in... 1988? And Desert Storm was January of 1991...(They took a two year break in between to invade Kuwait. Nothing more relaxing than a good invasion.)

So that's over 20 years of virtually non-stop combat right there.

Mainly, it might be added, due to US involvement in the region (causing the coup that installed the Shah of Iran, then reaping the rewards when the Shah got toppled, then selling arms to Saddam to fight the Ayatollah)....
 
 
pornotaxi
17:37 / 07.05.04

the weapons inspectors must be allowed more time to find the five tons of flax.

meantime, out coalition troops must stick apart.

that is all.
 
 
Rage
05:52 / 08.05.04
"Discordian beliefs?" Hahaha.

I actually had a group of discordians threaten to call the cops on me for crashing... get this... KallistiCon. The head girl told me not to come to the party and all. Irony was never that ironic.

This person is just making fun of people who who actually feel that way. Not much of an effort, really. Eris says "laaaaame."
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
14:33 / 08.05.04
Pah, if Eris is all in favour of people killing other people and causing all kinds of non-consensual pain then that really would be a downer. Oh and;

 
  
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