I do like my 'ismsIn any belief there becomes a divide between to divergent schools of thought. I like to use the terms Evangelism and Monasticism.
Examples of Evangelism:
Islamic extemists, it takes a powerful form of preaching to make somebody become a suicide bomber.
American fundamentalist Christians. We've all heard or seen this lot, scary bunch.
Democratic Evangelism, the revolutionaries of America and France who removed the existing government forms and replaced them with Democracy.
Examples of Monasticism:
The Catholics, ok a tad obvious but the various monastic movements of the Catholics gave the term it's name.
Bhuddism, another famous monastic belief system.
Thw commitees, quangos and think-tanks prevalent in modern democracies.
So where am i going with this?
Evangelists are the preachers, front line, brave fighters of these beliefs. They carry it forward and try to convince non-believers their cause is just and should be followed, they spread the word.
Monastics are the thinkers, they spend most of their time in reflection. They define, discuss, evolve the belief system.
A successful belief needs both extremes. Without evangelism it stagnates, nobody hears about it and the belief becomes an obscure footnote. Without monasticism the belief becomes extreme, preachers yelling at you when even they don't know what exactly they are preaching.
The two schools of thought rarely get on. Evangelists think the monastics are cowards, never prepared to go out and spread the word, just sitting in their little rooms and thinking. Monastics consider Evangelists to be loud-mouthed braggarts more concerned with convincing as many peopel as they can than actualy getting the belief across properly.
How does this apply to Discordianism?
A Christian Evangelist thinks Christianity is the best path, the best way to free a person's soul. Anybody that doesn't listen or convert is obviously a waste of time and not worth bothering with. Let the heathens and heretics burn in hell.
A Discordian Evangelist thinks Discordianism is the best path, the best way to free a person's mind. Anybody that doesn't listen or convert is obviously a waste of time and not worth bothering. let the cabbages and grey faces fall when society collapses around them.
Hmmmm summat familiar in those two paragrapths.
This is where our monastics come in. our thinkers, philosophers and barflies take the above and rip it to shreds. It's one of the reasons Discordians fight each other so much. It's a constant struggle to develop the Discordian belief without falling into the traps. To consistently fight the system and not become an extension of it as the Goths have become.
We need complete coverage. Some people will look at the evangelical types and laugh, consider the mindfucks pointless and childish. When faced with the tools of monastic Discordians these people are more likely to wake up.
Deep thinking and street preaching both have their place, and I think this is a damn good thing.
But never marginalise or discount the Monastics, they may yet surprise people.
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