
The Principia Discordia (1963) - empath75
https://principiadiscordia.com/book/1.php
======
mattkevan
Can I recommend here John Higgs’ excellent book ‘The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the
Band who Burned a Million Pounds’ [0]

It’s ostensibly a bio of the band The KLF (or the justified ancients of Mu),
who somehow had a successful music career by taking discordianism as far as it
could go. However, the book widens to Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, the
Illuminatus and most of the second half of the 20th century.

If you haven’t heard of the KLF, they’re well worth looking into: after having
a load of hits in the early 90s, they retired by machine-gunning the BRIT
Award audience (with blanks), deleting their entire back catalogue and setting
fire to all the money they’d earned.

[0] [https://www.amazon.co.uk/KLF-Chaos-Burned-Million-
Pounds/dp/...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/KLF-Chaos-Burned-Million-
Pounds/dp/1780226551/)

~~~
the_other
Seconded. The book is a joy.

Also, the current UK discordian undercurrent is producing some fnord wonderful
things. Daisy Eris’ Cosmic Trigger play has opened some excellent locks
(perhaps not flood gates yet).

And the KLF have recently gone into businesses as undertakers [0].

[0]: [https://www.mumufication.com/](https://www.mumufication.com/)

~~~
mattkevan
I dunno, pretty sure the last few years with fake news, antivax, birthers,
preppers, qanon, deepfakes, troll armies, bot farms and the like is proof that
Operation Mindfuck has been more successful than the wildest dreams of the
acid-soaked hippies that thought it’d be a lark in the 60s.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mindfuck](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mindfuck)

------
weeksie
We had copies of this and the Book of The Subgenius laying around my high
school. Obviously Principia Discordia was from much earlier but the new
wave/punk scene around the 80s-90s cusp in (of all places, Anchorage, Alaska)
was all about this particular brand of weirdness.

We had all read Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus! Trilogy as well and
contented ourselves making obscure jokes having to do with Eris, the number
23, and Slack, and intricate collage flyers with the assistance of the copy
machines at Kinko's. Good times.

Fuck 'em, even if they can take a joke. <3

~~~
api
Can you fnord see the fnords?

~~~
Fnoord
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126765/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126765/)

~~~
api
"The movie's plot is based on the true story of a group of young computer
hackers from Hannover, Germany. In the late 1980s the orphaned Karl Koch
invests his inheritance in a flat and a home computer. At first he dials up to
bulletin boards to discuss conspiracy theories inspired by his favorite novel,
R.A. Wilson's "Illuminatus", but soon he and his friend David start breaking
into government and military computers. Pepe, one of Karl's rather criminal
acquaintances senses that there is money in computer cracking - he travels to
east Berlin and tries to contact the KGB."

A bunch of dorks get online and talk about fandom stuff and it's all just
playing around until Pepe contacts the KGB. So... uhh... that like... actually
happened.

Reality generally requires surrealist fiction to capture. It's too weird for
conventional narratives.

~~~
Bartweiss
William Gibson put it nicely: every time one of these things happens, the job
of sci-fi writers gets harder.

And now Psychedlic Warlord of the Cult of Dead Cow is running for President -
but people are worried he's too mainstream and boring to elect. No wonder
Gibson is writing recent-past stories these days.

~~~
checktheorder
>And now Psychedlic Warlord of the Cult of Dead Cow is running for President

Me, two minutes ago: "Oh, I bet he's some oddball fringe candidate who'll
never get any press attention."

Me, after a quick google search: "Oh my god."

~~~
Bartweiss
_Right?_ Thirty years ago, Bill Clinton smoking pot was still a major moral
question and Beto was a teenager writing weird short stories on forums. Now
he's a bland mainstream candidate, his drugs-and-crime teen handle was about a
three-day news story, and a former federal prosecutor candidate is making up
stories about smoking pot to sound cool. "This makes my job harder" indeed...

------
nemo1618
A SERMON ON ETHICS AND LOVE has always stuck with me:

    
    
      "I am filled with fear and tormented with terrible visions of pain.
      Everywhere people are hurting one another, the planet is rampant with
      injustices, whole societies plunder groups of their own people, mothers
      imprison sons, children perish while brothers war. O, woe."
      
         WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THAT, IF IT IS WHAT YOU WANT TO DO?
      
      "But nobody wants it! Everybody hates it."
      
         OH. WELL, THEN STOP.

~~~
aperrien
I like that one as well as I think it's a great example of the intractability
of coordination problems.

------
michaelt
I'm a big fan of
[https://principiadiscordia.com/book/78.php](https://principiadiscordia.com/book/78.php)
-

DISCORDIAN SOCIETY SUPER SECRET CRYPTOGRAPHIC CYPHER CODE

Of possible interest to all Discordians, this information is herewith released
from the vaults of A.I.S.B., under the auspices of Episkopos Dr. Mordecai
Malignatius, KNS.

SAMPLE MESSAGE: ("HAIL ERIS")

CONVERSATION:

    
    
      A B C D E F G H I J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z
      1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
    

STEP 1. Write out the message (HAIL ERIS) and put all the vowels at the end
(HLRSAIEI)

STEP 2. Reverse order (IEIASRLH)

STEP 3. Convert to numbers (9-5-9-1-19-18-12-8)

STEP 4. Put into numerical order (1-5-8-9-9-12-18-19)

STEP 5. Convert back to letters (AEHIILRS)

This cryptographic cypher code is GUARANTEED TO BE 100% UNBREAKABLE.

------
carapace

        BOBoBoBoBoBoBOBoBoBoBoBoBOBoBoBoBoBoBOBoBfNoRdBoBOBoBoBoBoBoBOBoBoBoBoBoBOB
        !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
        !::::'___`:::::::'___`:::::::'___`:::::::'___`:::::::'___`:::::::'___`::::!
        !:::'/_ _\`:::::'/_ _\`:::::'/_ _\`:::::'/_ _\`:::::'/_ _\`:::::'/_ _\`:::!
        !:::|/ ~ \|`::::|/ ~ \|  `::|/ ~ \|'   `|/ ~ \|::'  |/ ~ \|::::'|/ ~ \|:::!
        !:::|'-.-`|  :::|'-.-`|    :|'-.-`|     |'-.-`|:    |'-.-`|:::  |'-.-`|:::!
        !:: (|e|e|?   ::(|e|e|? '   (|e|e|? ` ' (|e|e|?   ` (|e|e|?.:   (|e|e|? ::!
        !.  `._^_,''   :`._^_,'..'  `._^_,'`...'`._^_,'  `..`._^_,'.   ``._^_,'  .!
        !.   \\=//       \\=//       \\=//       \\=//       \\=//       \\=//   .!
        :    U/_/        U/_/        U/_/        U/_/        U/_/        U/_/     :
        @/      \&~  @/      \&~  @/      \&~  @/      \&~  @/      \&~  @/      \&
        Y/\.::./\S\ /Y/\.::./\S\ /Y/\.::./\S\ /Y/\.::./\S\ /Y/\.::./\S\ /Y/\.::./\S
        E$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$E
        %%%%XX%%%%%%%%%%%XX%%%%%%%%%%%XX%%%%%%%%%%%XX%%%%%%%%%%%XX%%%%%%%%%%%XX%WiZ
    
    

"JITTLOV'S 3-D DOBBS"
[http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/eyes/Jittlov3-D-Dobbs.html](http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/eyes/Jittlov3-D-Dobbs.html)

------
ziroshima
R.A.W. had some great books and I always felt he was very underappreciated.
Quantum Psychology in particular really changed my outlook, and I've always
felt it should be talked about more.

~~~
carapace
Ya, he basically showed that quantum phenomenon happen all the time at macro-
scale and nobody noticed. Weird.

------
foobar_
All statements are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless in
some sense, true and false in some sense, true and meaningless in some sense,
false and meaningless in some sense, and true and false and meaningless in
some sense.

~~~
lioeters
Sounds like a passage of Buddhist literature..

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagarjuna#Sunyata](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagarjuna#Sunyata)

~~~
mtVessel
...or a tutorial on Javascript

------
booleandilemma
I notice that this was posted by emptath75.

7 + 5 + 11 (yesterday’s date) = 23

It’s so obvious!

------
dsr_
Contains the most profound written wisdom:

A Discordian is Prohibited of Believing what he reads.

------
jmiskovic
This page and the next one are surprisingly lucid:
[https://principiadiscordia.com/book/56.php](https://principiadiscordia.com/book/56.php)

------
dajohnson89
For a second, I was excited to see someone created a discord about Principia
Mathematica :-/

------
citruscomputing
"I have come to tell you that you are free. Many ages ago, My consciousness
left humanity, that they might develop themselves. I return to find this
development approaching completion, but hindered by fear and by
misunderstanding. You have built for yourselves psychic suits of armor, and
clad in them, your vision is restricted, your movements are clumsy and
painful, your skin is bruised, and your spirit is broiled in the sun. I am
chaos. I am the substance from which your artists and scientists build
rhythms. I am the spirit with which your children and clowns laugh in happy
anarchy. I am chaos. I am alive, and I tell you that you are free."

\--Eris Nancy Discordia

------
Endy
Hail Eris.

~~~
panzagl
All hail Discordia.

~~~
omnibrain
Kallisti!

------
aasasd
Discordianism has nothing on the Church of the Subgenius. I've read the
pamplet and the Wikipedia page several times each, and still have no half
coherent idea of what the church is about—except the chaos, of course.

~~~
zentiggr
If you do start to see anything coherent, begin to doubt your sanity.

Rule #1: we must all stick apart

------
ganzuul
'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.

------
somesortofsystm
Reading this over coffee and flicking through "Behold the Pale Horse" while
William Gibson "strange cargo" plays in the background .. I can still smell
the sage of the Bay Area bookshops where this was a staple.

I just checked however, and do already have a .PDF. How can one not have
bumped into FNORD in this day and age ..

------
jonathankoren
Earlier this year at SXSW a documentary about Subgenius was was screened. I
supported its kickstarter, but I haven't watched it myself.

[https://laughingsquid.com/jr-bob-dobbs-church-of-the-
subgeni...](https://laughingsquid.com/jr-bob-dobbs-church-of-the-subgenius-
documentary/)

------
llamataboot
The Hell Law says that Hell is reserved exclusively for them that believe in
it. Further, the lowest Rung in Hell is reserved for them that believe in it
on the supposition that they'll go there if they don't.

(helped me out of a jam as someone raised christian...)

------
kylek
Happy Zaraday [0]

[0]
[https://discordia.fandom.com/wiki/Zaraday](https://discordia.fandom.com/wiki/Zaraday)

~~~
VMG
to my disappointment my distro doesn't provide `ddate` any longer :(

~~~
aperrien
You can find code for several different implementations of ddate here:

[https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Discordian_date](https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Discordian_date)

------
jerrysievert
my only fully uv tattoo simply says fnord.

------
rootw0rm
Once upon a time I had a corporation named Golden Apple Research Group.
Discordianism inspired the name.

------
scubbo
My first tattoo was (still is, I guess) of the Sacred Chao!

Hail Eris, all hail Discordia!

~~~
jerrysievert
mine was also the sacred chao, followed by the uv fnord and later by the eye
in the pyramid in flame, where the flames also light up in uv.

------
bartcobain
Hail Eris Discordia!

------
ptah
hail eris

