main | contents | previous | next
11 OCT 2004
New funny money website
It's mustbefunny.com, woken up on 09 OCT 2004. I unlinked earlier versions of funny money and started a new minimalist website. All it does is display and print funny money.Now mustbefunny.org is neglected, while the action shifts to the sister site. This was predicted: Funny is as funny does. The funny mission sends us out to make funny money. The mustbefunny.org site is theory and talk. The funny money site is practice and action.
I feel happy to make this shift. I've had to work on web design, how to get all the browsers to print the same, and the end product is very close to dtp quality.
9896
13 OCT 2004
$1 per minute earning power
What to do with funny money? Give it away. But people don't value free goods. Make it scarce: You can earn $1/minute, starting now.People enjoy reading through a stack of funny money, and want to keep those they particularly like. Now they have a standard for how many to keep, and those who might not keep any will feel they're entitled. Now there's a value on funnies: one minute of time, of attention, of reading.
This is the first game we play with funny money. It sharpens the attention. We keep time, we keep score, money changes hands. It puts a value on the money and a value on our time: $60/hour. Rich. When we get to an hour that will go up to $100/hour. Richer.
9897
13 OCT 2004
Funny money: intrinsic value
What's our money worth? Whatever's written on it. One joke. Nominally one dollar. Our jokes and production quality had better be good. Then our funny money has intrinsic value, like the coins of olden times. It's not an IOU. It doesn't need a signature. Its value is created in the manufacture. Then it's free to travel, no strings attached.
9898
13 OCT 2004
Funny money: symbolic value
Intrinsic value is the basis of funny money: Is it a good joke, a good quote? Nicely produced? Symbolic value is layered on top of that.We're making our own money -- what an expression of sovereignty!
It's an alternative to serious money, which we get to mock. Ours is so superior!
So we might as well make a lot of it, spread it around.
Doing so is another symbolic act, building the funny economy to create a funny future.
9899
20 OCT 2004
Funny provides a buffer
Funny provides a buffer between the divine and the serious world. Without it the ego tries to control the divine, or the divine upsets the serious world and gets crucified.
9913
25 OCT 2004
Funny world as fiction
Funny world continues our sequence of abstraction from matter to spirit. Funny world as fiction may seem trivial, and that's just what we want the old order to think. We have to think that way also, and focus on entertainment, innocent of any plans. Turn plotters over to the Inquisition. Reduce all plans to entertainment.We can invest our passion in entertainment, and trust that this creates funny world, period. We can have visionary motivation tied directly to the present in a leap of faith.
This is familiar to old and new religions. Our heaven is out of reach, but if we follow our faith and do what we can, then we receive the spirit as immediate reward, and the world is mysteriously improved.
That compresses the religion into the present. It reduces all argument to a point. Maximum simplicity. And it keeps it grassroots. There is nowhere else to go.
9923
30 OCT 2004
Funny megalomania
Turning back to theory runs the risk of megalomania, saying this theory is the key to the new age. That's not bad. It's funny. It's in the script already, and it might work as policy. The funny movement is about spreading this stupendous news, rather than being funny, which may well be beyond our reach, except as deluded news-spreaders.Will it work for me? I think so. It says my theory so far, long over the watershed, is my great contribution, good news for everybody. Becoming funny myself is of only minor import.
There's energy in megalomania. I can invoke it as true belief, highest urgency. I do believe in the urgency of change. Where's my required disbelief? That would be making it a performance, a fiction, futile. Success is as entertainment, not belief.
The opposite of megalomania is trivia, and I've had a tendency to toss off funny money as trivial, joke over. Instead I should play it with inspired certainty. It's still impossible, but at a higher level of seriousness. And funniness.
It's a posture, perfect for rebellious youth. We're adopting an opposing view to the whole power structure and status quo. We know it's an act, and impossible, and funny. Disbelief applies all around.
I can be quite serious in my role of engineer, which is a funny position to take, rather than prophet or missionary. Engineering is the only job I know.
9936
30 OCT 2004
Taking mbf seriously is the way to build the joke
It's the joke formula. Take this absurd premise. Then build on it as if it was holy truth. Every serious step raises this folly higher. It becomes a public spectacle.Here's comic motivation at last. Keep building on this comic monstrosity. We're adding whatever's funniest. That's what works.
9937