Cain
February 14th, 2006, 05:55 AM
Operation Mind****: An Explanation
This is an important and relatively well known practice within the Discordian Society. OM is essentially based around the premise that the only move an opponent cannot predict is a totally random one. With that in mind, OM allows Discordians to carry out a wide ranged campaign of civil disobedience, activism, systems disruption, sabotage and acts of High Weirdness in order to shake up the dominant paradigm.
OM was instigated by the Zenarchist Ho Chi Zen of the Erisian Liberation Front, who may also be known by the names Kerry Thornely and Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst, however it gets it first mention in the Illuminatus! Trilogy, probably due to the idea sharing between RAW and Thornely before it was written. To this day, no single Discordian knows how many are involved in OM, due to its decentralized nature. People drop in and drop out as they feel free to. Even if someone could figure out who was involved, it would be impossible to tell what they were doing as part of the campaign. The only safe assumption is that anything a Discordian does is somehow related to OM, but, since this leads directly to paranoia, this is not a "safe" assumption after all, and the "risky" hypothesis that whatever the Discordians are doing is harmless may be "safer" in the long run, perhaps.
Annoying, isn't it?
OM is viewed differently by many Discordians. Some see it as a way to break people out of societal conditioning, that by doing something so weird and inexplicable all preprepared answers are unavailable for the target/victim, others see it as a way of getting their fun in before the hammer comes down.
Virtually any action can be part of OM, as effects are what matter. Acts of guerrilla ontology and trolling are the most common, though it can be anything from destructive acts involving toilets (you know who you are), to fake signs(Your Local Police Are Armed and Dangerous; Legalize Free-Enterprise Murder: Why Should Governments Have All The Fun?; Smash the Government Postal Monopoly; If Voting Could Change the System, It Would Be Against the Law; etc) , to improvised acts of pure randomness on the streets to inventing fictitious organizations (and inducting politicians in them against their will) or spreading false rumours and conspiracy theories. It needn't be very complicated, as with the Wing nut example in the Apocrypha Discordia, or it can go up to nearly stopping major sporting events (I was SO close).
The exemplar of OM for many Discordians is the character Markoff Chaney. He is a character in the Illuminatus! Trilogy, a misanthropic dwarf who carries his own campaign out against the Illuminati by his use of changes signs renamed “The Mgt” (for management, although it also means “midget” in reference to his size) and becomes the random factor in the equations of everyone from the Illuminati to the Legion of Dynamic Discord and ELF.
*Obviously its not actually called this (check the word filter if dont already know. Here is a clue, its a 4 letter word that starts with an f and ends in uck.), however, some people seem to think that such language may hurt peoples feelings or offend them. Like the Subgenii have said "what do you want us to say, "kiss them if they can't take a joke?" But such is life, it seems.
This is an important and relatively well known practice within the Discordian Society. OM is essentially based around the premise that the only move an opponent cannot predict is a totally random one. With that in mind, OM allows Discordians to carry out a wide ranged campaign of civil disobedience, activism, systems disruption, sabotage and acts of High Weirdness in order to shake up the dominant paradigm.
OM was instigated by the Zenarchist Ho Chi Zen of the Erisian Liberation Front, who may also be known by the names Kerry Thornely and Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst, however it gets it first mention in the Illuminatus! Trilogy, probably due to the idea sharing between RAW and Thornely before it was written. To this day, no single Discordian knows how many are involved in OM, due to its decentralized nature. People drop in and drop out as they feel free to. Even if someone could figure out who was involved, it would be impossible to tell what they were doing as part of the campaign. The only safe assumption is that anything a Discordian does is somehow related to OM, but, since this leads directly to paranoia, this is not a "safe" assumption after all, and the "risky" hypothesis that whatever the Discordians are doing is harmless may be "safer" in the long run, perhaps.
Annoying, isn't it?
OM is viewed differently by many Discordians. Some see it as a way to break people out of societal conditioning, that by doing something so weird and inexplicable all preprepared answers are unavailable for the target/victim, others see it as a way of getting their fun in before the hammer comes down.
Virtually any action can be part of OM, as effects are what matter. Acts of guerrilla ontology and trolling are the most common, though it can be anything from destructive acts involving toilets (you know who you are), to fake signs(Your Local Police Are Armed and Dangerous; Legalize Free-Enterprise Murder: Why Should Governments Have All The Fun?; Smash the Government Postal Monopoly; If Voting Could Change the System, It Would Be Against the Law; etc) , to improvised acts of pure randomness on the streets to inventing fictitious organizations (and inducting politicians in them against their will) or spreading false rumours and conspiracy theories. It needn't be very complicated, as with the Wing nut example in the Apocrypha Discordia, or it can go up to nearly stopping major sporting events (I was SO close).
The exemplar of OM for many Discordians is the character Markoff Chaney. He is a character in the Illuminatus! Trilogy, a misanthropic dwarf who carries his own campaign out against the Illuminati by his use of changes signs renamed “The Mgt” (for management, although it also means “midget” in reference to his size) and becomes the random factor in the equations of everyone from the Illuminati to the Legion of Dynamic Discord and ELF.
*Obviously its not actually called this (check the word filter if dont already know. Here is a clue, its a 4 letter word that starts with an f and ends in uck.), however, some people seem to think that such language may hurt peoples feelings or offend them. Like the Subgenii have said "what do you want us to say, "kiss them if they can't take a joke?" But such is life, it seems.