Preface to Book Seven

PREFACE TO BOOK SEVEN

Every movement needs manifestos.

Documents that declare: "This is what we stand for."

Declarations that proclaim: "These are our principles."

Statements that announce: "Here is where we draw the line."

Discordianism has these too.

Sort of.

Our manifestos are... complicated. We stand for things while refusing to stand for things. We declare principles while denying we have principles. We draw lines and then immediately erase them.

This is not contradiction for the sake of being difficult. This is recognition that:

• All positions are partial
• All certainties are provisional
• All lines are arbitrary
• All manifestos are performative
• And that's okay

A traditional manifesto says: "We believe X, we reject Y, we demand Z."

A Discordian manifesto says: "We believe X (and also not-X), we reject Y (while seeing its point), we demand Z (but also recognize that demanding is cringe)."

This book contains our manifestos. Read them. Follow them. Ignore them. Contradict them. All responses are valid.

The manifestos herein declare:

• Chaotic Neutrality (we pick no sides, we pick all sides, we pick our battles badly)
• Interdependence (we're connected, we need space, both simultaneously)
• Anti-Optimization (efficiency is overrated, waste time beautifully)
• Technognosticism (the digital is sacred, the sacred is digital, your phone is a chaos portal)

These are not the only Discordian manifestos. You can write your own. You should write your own. Everyone should have their own manifesto. The proliferation of contradictory manifestos is the point.

Let us declare our positions while admitting positions are bullshit.

Hail Eris, who takes all sides and no sides.