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Formal Complaint against Formal Complaints:
The Erisians in ADF would like to launch a formal complaint.
It seems that there are people out there trying to fill our niche. Creating discord and generally being annoying is our business. We will not stand for such behavior, unless it is perpetuated by people who are willing to admit that Discordianism or Erisianism (or the Divine Path of Having a Good Time) is their primary or secondary or thirdary or fourthary or fifthary religious path.
Unless someone can prove that the Goddess Eris is speaking through them (or can admit as much), they should not be speaking for Her.
Therefore, we launch a formal complaint against formal complaints that are stagnatory, destructive, and simply annoying. We don't want to specify which complaints these are, because we don't know. The Illluminati. . . I'm sorry, that's a typo. . . The Mother Grove has been handling such things in private, and we respect that. What we do not respect or appreciate is that these formal complaints seem to
hemorrhage out of the confines of the "confidential" Mother Grove, getting mentioned in public forums, at festivals, and in all manner of other places, some so dirty that even hot dog buns cannot exist there.
We Erisians are sick and tired of the destructive chaos these have caused, and would prefer if people would stick to creative chaos. A bit of a shake-up every now and again is not a bad thing, but we must avoid strife that is simply for the sake of strife.
A quick litmus test: who is laughing at the strife present in ADF? Please simulate crowd noise.
*listens to the crickets*
Obviously, if no one is laughing, then this strife is not good! We can all agree on this, right?
So here are some good, healthy ways to cause a little bit of good, creative strife:
1) Talk to each other. Don't stop there, though! Yell at each other! Scream! Make yourself heard. Then buy each other a drink, laugh at what you said, and admit that you aren't right all the time.
2) Admit that you might have made a mistake. Do it on a public email list. Do this at least once a year. If you can make it once a month, more power to you, brother/sister!
3) Do what you have to do. Don't worry about whether something will be passed by the MG, the CC, the CoSD, the CoL, the LDG, or any number of other alphabet soup committees. Present finished work rather than bitching about how that work wouldn't be accepted if you did it, anyway.
4) Take responsibility. If something falls through, admit it. If you're behind, ask for help. If you can't fix a problem you offered to try to solve, hand it off. Admit all mistakes.
5) If someone slighted you in the past, let sleeping dogs lie. We can all pretend that we live in a cyclic time, much like Eliade postulated, but I don't think we're involved in the primordial past. That's something we're supposed to access during ritual, not when we go through our old email. If you wake up a sleeping dog, you're going to get your ass bit.
These formal complaints seem to be ripping the fabric of Our Fellowship. Disregarding everything I know about what's going on, and looking at this through the eyes of a new member, I'm a bit shocked. When I consider the situation from my vantage point, where I can see most things that go on and have civil discussion with involved parties, I'm disgusted. When I look at this as someone who likes all the parties involved in the complaints, I feel like I'm being torn apart, painted with feelings of betrayal from both sides. Let me tell you, it's annoying.
So I urge you, fellow ADF members, to consider the defamation of character you have caused to the agents of chaos who work tirelessly to find new, fun ways to be chaotic. Are you doing your Erisian fellows justice? Do you think they could find it in their hearts to enjoy watching this kind of strife?
Once again, enter the laughter.
*the crickets play on*
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Updated on 06/22/2004. Site Credits / Email Me!
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