Philosophy | Ritual | Techinque | Inspiration | Links
The whole is greater than the sum of it's parts.
Anyone who has ever gone to a movie alone knows there are some activities that are
a lot more fun to do with others. This is not to say that movie-watching alone is
deficient or bad, but that even an activity that does not require teamwork to
accomplish such as watching a movie can be made more enriching through social
interaction.
Even outside of the purely social aspects, other people inspire us to even greater
heights than we could reach alone. It is impossible to exist in a vacuum (you're
not carpet dirt!), and as such everything we do is influenced by others. Every new
scientific discovery rests on the shoulders of the one before it; new cars do not
reinvent the wheel. We only exist as an us-shaped piece in a giant webwork of
interconnected people and ideas - society at large, and our friends and families
and associates in specific.
This interconnected thing sounds like a very threatening idea to the American
ideal of total independence. For years, my own ideal vision was to "be my own
Source", a vision of complete independence. I didn't want to need anyone; being
let down hurts, and I thought independence was a way of learning my lesson.
It took me a while to realize it, but no matter how much I thought I wanted it,
it is impossible to be independent. (Even if it was possible, consider the
idea of living in a bubble that allows nothing in or out: pretty soon, you'd be
drowning in your own shit and running out of air. This is independence.)
How, then, can we make our own decisions?
The key to both remaining connected and yet making your own decisions is
autonomous interdependence. According to Dictionary.com, autonomy is
defined as "immunity from arbitrary exercise of authority", and interdependence is
"a reciprocal relation[ship]". Basicly, in an advanced society such as we live in,
specialization is necessary - I do not wish to grow my own food, weave my own
fabric to sew my own clothes, build my own transportation, somehow supply my own
electricity or dig a well to find water. I depend on the grocery store and all
its employees and suppliers for food, just as they depend on me and other
customers for their paychecks which in turn allows each of those employees to seek
their own groceries elsewhere. While in a sense the grocery store does limit my
choices by choosing to carry one product and not another, generally it is
understood that I am making my own shopping decisions. This is autonomous
interdependence - we all depend on each other, but no one forces the choices of
another.
A few years ago, I was reading Bruce Sterling's book of short stories, _A
Good Old Fashioned Future_. The story "Maneki Neko" made a big impression on
me, not so much for its writing, but for an idea presented within. Quoting the
link above:
"Maneki Neko" is an upbeat, funny story that portrays a logical
extension of the late, lamented "gift economy"[editor's note: see below and in
the links section for more info on this] upon which the Internet was built. The
central principle was that if people contributed what they could to the system for
free, everyone would wind up better off.
In Sterling's near-future Japan, Tsuyoshi Shimizu is one of many people who follow
the prompts of the ubiquitous network. When the net tells Tsuyoshi to give a weary
stranger a coffee, or buy a bottle of aftershave, he does it without worrying about
the reason; in return, anonymous packages arrive with useful gifts such as baby
clothes and pickles for his pregnant wife. Strangers on network business identify
themselves to one another via hand-signals, but different regions of the net have
different signal dialects.
"Maneki Neko" runs counter to every paranoid story ever written about computers
taking over our lives. Computers have made people anonymous, but not impersonal.
Even those who try to fight the system benefit from it. Trust the computer; the
computer really is your friend.
While we do not have the technology currently to make this sort of ubiquitous
computer networking a complete reality, this sort of gift economy does not require
computers to work. Key examples of current gift economies include "white elephant"
parties after the holidays, the free-source movement in software, and message
boards where participants 'pay in' by posting intelligent and informative writings
and 'pay out' by responding to the queries of others.
An important feature of a gift economy is the emphasis on non-zero-sum
situations ("situations in which one person's benefit does not necessarily come
at the expense of someone else", read the excellent article at that link for
examples). In a win-lose economy, there will always be losers. It is ironic that it
will only be when everyone stops only 'looking out for number one' that we will
create a true win-win economy, but there you have it.
At a certain point of wealth, winning becomes its own reward. When one is rich
beyond a certain point, money stops meaning anything except in very abstract levels
- no matter how indulgent someone at this level of wealth becomes, they can't
truely diminish their fortune. At this point, acquiring wealth stops becoming
interesting for the money itself or the things that one can do with it and starts
becomming interesting only in terms of the games that one has to play to acquire
it. For these people, like a game of golf, acquiring more money/resources is fun
because of the process one goes through rather than the resource itself. When you
can have anything you want at the wave of a hand, the stakes have to be raised to
stave off the ennui that would otherwise ensue. These are the players of zero-sum
games: for these people, winning is only interesting because someone else loses.
Social networking is the means by which we counter these zero-sum players. Really
losing means you don't have resources, and you can only truly have no resources
when you truly have no connections. To put this in more concrete terms, even if
you've run out of money, you're not going to wind up homeless if you have a
supportive family or circle of friends, because they'll find places for you to stay
because they care about you. Independence is having no resources other than what
you can provide for yourself and thereby having no safety net if things don't work
out as planned; interdependence is being able to borrow and lend freely from the
greater network, to have someone there for you if you can't provide for yourself
due to unforseen circumstances, and providing for others who find themselves in a
bind when you have a little extra.
One of the ways "they" win is by convincing those who are not the rich elite to
think in zero-sum terms. One of the ways many of the recent tax cuts have passed is
by convincing the middle class that tax cuts are good for them, when in reality the
specific tax cuts in question will overwhelmingly benefit the rich (the estate tax,
for example, was taxation on inhereted income - sure, Grandma might have left you
$5000 and now you don't have to pay $500 to the government, but who is it really
benefiting? You, or the guy whose Grandma left him $500,000?). Along the same
lines, the win-lose economy is only good for those sick fucks who want to see other
people lose. The win-lose economy isn't even that great for the winners, because
when in every equation there is a loser, at least some of the time, it's going to
be you. When the economy moves towards the win-win ideal, things get better for
everyone.
My call to you is this: create social networks, create and use gift economies, and
most importantly, live your life as if these networks were already in place.
I am not socialist or so naive as to think that our modern world could only
function in an economy of "from each, according to his ability. To each,
according to his need" (Marx), but as a supplement to the regular economy, a gift
economy can make an otherwise meagre existance rich in terms of resources, which is
the real game anyways. Who cares how much cash you have if it can't accomplish your
goals? ...and who cares if you have no actual cash but have everything you could
ever want? [For more discussions of cash and resources, see the daily life section.]
Back to the top.
Ritual:
Networking ritual creates a feeling of family amongst participants. Weekly
masses and services hold together Christian churches by creating routine and
giving congregants a reason to come together every week and thus create the
feeling of familiarity that creates the trust and mutual good-will needed for
comunity. If there's one thing the Christians have right, it's how they create
community. We can learn from them.
People will not come together every week for no reason; create a reason for
weekly gatherings. For groups that aren't interested in the occult, this can
be as simple as a craft, movie or pub night with your friends. For those who
want to get a little more esoteric, it might be worthwhile to create a sort of
working group. A working group can be anything from a sort of magic(k)al book
club to a sort of scientific group that performs esoteric experiments and
shares results. Another good idea is to create a sort of energy bank with your
people that you all use to deposit and withdraw energy, a way of sharing your
strengths with others who in turn share theirs with you.
The point is to create a feeling of familiarity, a sense of sharing in
something important or vital, and ideally, some way of sharing in each other's
strengths.
Back to the top.
Networking is a mutant talent of mine. I don't really think about it, it's just
something I'm Good at (everyone has a few of these). This whole site is one of my
ways of contributing to the greater network, and as one of my strengths, I'd like
to share with you what I know about networking. The previous essay on "why bother"
to the contrary, that's really what this section is about: the how of networking.
My first suggestion is to get plugged into one or more of the networking locations
I have listed below. Many Discordians live in areas with a fairly low
freak quotient, and have a hard time finding anyone else of our surreal semi-faith
to work with, which is why the internet is such a vital part of this.
Secondly, work on some of the self-illumination stuff and
start contributing to the community at large through any of the venues listed here
or that you've found on your own. (If you find any particularly good networking
locations, please mail St. Mae.) It's not
good enough to simply know people, you have to have something to contribute to be
really effctive with this.
Finally, begin to take this to the 'real world' as much as you can. Do favors for
people who can't immediately pay you back because you are paying into the greater
network, and ask for help when you need it and the only currency you can pay with
is gratitude. If your tree has too many lemons, make marmalade and give it out to
friends just because you had too much. If you know how to fix cars and find someone
with mechanical trouble, help out if you have the time. It doesn't cost you
anything, and it eventually brings you back more than you could expect. Just
because you lack cash does not mean you are poor if you have an enormous pool of
resources to work from, and just because you have cash doesn't mean you are rich if
you have no support.
Networking locations:
KallistiCon, a Discordian
(un)Convention is an annual gathering at Saint Mae's house in the San
Francisco bay area. We've had seven successful KallistiCons (as of 2007) so
far, and will continue to do so. As a fairly small gathering over the course
of a weekend, it tends to be pretty intense, and it's a hell of a lot of fun.
We engage in ritual, share meals, play games, trade ideas, visit Emperor
Norton's grave. If you're interested, be sure to join the KallistiCon mailing
list by adding your address at the link above.
LiveJournal is an online
journaling community. No, wait, it's cool, I swear! Other than just posting random
blog stuff (anything from personal diary-like entries to link fests and rants on
your favorite topics), you can connect with others by linking them as your
"friends" and watching their journals on your "friends page". There are also
community journals for everything from Discordianism to cooking to photography to
philosophy and on and and on. There are communities for nearly everything you can
think of, and a number of things you're likely not to have considered.
Yes, St. Mae has a journal. This is a powerful networking tool - it's how many
of us keep in touch with each other, and how many isolated Discordians first
find community. Join us. It's free.
Irreality is an
important website for those who fit into various left-handed bits of the
occult world. If you're interested in esoteric Discordianism or chaos
magic(k), this is one of the best places to go.
Tribe.net is also
exceedingly useful. Create a profile, and then join some tribes. Start with Eris of Discord, Robert Anton Wilson fans,
ChaosMagick, Culture Jamming,
and Chapel
Perilous. Related Tribes are listed on the left, so go exploring for a
place that feels like home.
Illuminatus.meetup.com and
Discordians.meetup.com may be worth signing up for. This
used to be a free service, and it did a lot of good that way. Since they
decided to charge, a lot of people left the service making it much less
useful.
If you join up in one of these places, IM St.
Mae and maybe we can befriend each other over the internet.
Back to the top.
Inspiration:
The biggest inspiration for networking is looking at other successful
networks. Hopefully a few of the links in the technique section can help
provide that.
Back to the top.
Non-zero-sum article.
Articles on the gift economy: Gifford
Pinochet - The Gift Economy, The Hacker Milieu as Gift Culture.
The Temporary
Autonomous Zone by Hakim Bey. This is a classic mind-blowing work talking about
creating temporary zones of complete autonomy (not very possible in the "real
world"). Why do they need to be temporary? What exactly are the features of a TAZ,
and how do you set one up? Check this out. Networking is all about creating TAZs
everywhere we can manage.
Back to the top.
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