Someday, somewhere, somehow -- everything will be funny for everyone.
-- Robert Stone, Damascus
Gate.
A Faith for the New Millennium
It's three words: Must be funny. It's the name, the whole doctrine and belief
system, the one commandment, the discipline practiced by the faithful, the spiritual goal . . .more
Manual of faith and practice
Contents -- edition of 23 MAY 2006
The dominance of serious world, the Inquisition and its slave system
defines the starting point of the game. This does not deter players. It
sets up a challenge. The greater the opposition, the more fun and glory
in defeating it.
That's a traditional game plot, and I've set it in black and white,
so we're all pulling for the rebels, and the escape is more important
than what kind of funny world we come up with.
But we all have to play Inquisition most of the time, and enjoy it.
What are our incentives to hound the heretics?
Time dollars. That's how the Inquisition keeps score. Time dollars are
innovative and charitable. The Inquisition does good works.
But we want game first, and we can work in the world later if we feel
like it. So the Inquisition builds funny world first, and time dollars
on top of that. It builds the heretics versus Inquisition game, which
generates time dollars. Much of the game will be an ad-hoc development
group for time dollars, and players can feel good about that.
The Inquisition can focus on developing the game as a resource for the
time dollars economy.
That's good for funny people. It's an art project, and the revolutionary
message clashes with the Inquisition's view of itself. Dramatically, this
dissonance forces the audience to resolve it.
But why would the Inquisition run a game which vilifies it? Why not
choose another game? Well, that's the story they're given. Maybe they're
evil as claimed, and want to redeem themselves with the time dollars initiative.
Or they can dismiss the rebels' hyperbole as nonsense.
The story holds as fiction, and it has a lot of truth and richness to
it. We're playing both sides!
The Inquisition's fictional role sets it apart from serious world, which
is good news. It places the Inquisition in funny world, even with all
its serious work on time dollars. It does an export trade in time dollars
with serious world and makes some money in return.
That's the final compelling argument for funny world, the Inquisition
and time dollars. It makes money.
The must be funny rule puts funny first, but it's arbitrary, absurd.
It's just the funny game we're playing. We apply the logic and see what
happens. Since we don't believe, we continue to follow prior principles.
These may be fun, profit, community or charity.
Then funny world is just a recreation we enjoy periodically that doesn't
much affect the balance of our lives. Must be funny is a game rule, not
a commitment.
Removing the serious time dollars goal gets rid of a monster and focuses
all resources on funny world. The Inquisition has no independent existence,
and is purely a creation of funny world for its own purposes:
The epochal drama of heretics versus Inquisition.
The Inquisition provides quality control.
Serious players are put to work, doing time, to build funny world
and serve funny players.
The Inquisition organizes a time dollars system to support funny
world.
Players who want to justify funny world extend time dollars to serious
charity.
Item 5 arises because funny world is seen as idle entertainment by players
and serious world. We disbelieve any higher purpose and view funny world
as an arbitrary source of fun and games. Item 5 is conscience and sink.
It is derived entirely from the funny players, and is an incentive to
join and raise energy. This is the sink we lead with, so we can have fun
in a good cause.
Time dollars is seen as mainly for building funny world and maintaining
the funny slave system. We do only as much time dollars for charity as
we feel like. We're volunteers.
The funny view is that the heretics have got the Inquisition to work
for them, building funny world, and that serious people have become a
slave class serving funny people.
These correspond to the first two categories in 6707
of building funny world and serving other players. The other two categories,
developing time dollars and external charity, are Inquisition interests
in serious world. Funny people might volunteer to do this, but there is
no massive flow of labor into the time dollars economy, no incentive for
the Inquisition to build funny world. The split between the worlds is
emphasized.
This latest view focuses on building funny world first and foremost,
which gives it must be funny integrity. Time dollars are created to serve
funny world, and any extension into serious world charity is optional.
That could become a time dollars demonstration project, and serious world
may take it from there.
Do nothing.
Time is too precious to waste.
-- Buddha
4077
He deserves Paradise
who makes his companions laugh. -- Mohammed
April Fool's Day — the day we remember
what we are the other 364 days of the year. -- Mark Twain
IF THE FOOL WOULD PERSIST
IN HIS FOLLY HE WOULD BECOME WISE -- William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Of all our senses, the most highly developed
is nonsense. -- Happy Oasis
WAFFLE IRON:
Why on earth would you want to iron a waffle? Wouldn't that just flatten
out all the little squares? No, I believe waffles should be dry cleaned.
Pancakes, of course, should always be ironed.
-- George Carlin, p.14, Brain Droppings, 1997 9833
Start off each day with a smile
and get it over with. ~~
W. C. Fields
Top
card in the deck. Funny trumps everything. 8750
Someday, somewhere, somehow -- everything will be funny for everyone.
