Discordianism is a strange phenomenon that can be described as “part religion, part parody pseudo-religion”.
On one hand, Discordianism is a perfect parody of religious superstition, similar to the “Pastafarian movement” aka “The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster”.
On the other hand hand, Discordianism perfectly captures the core essence of Eurasian esoteric tradition, more specificly what Hindus refer to as the “Trimurti”.
The “Trimurti” (aka the Hindu trinity) are a trinity of “Devas” known as “Brahma”, “Shiva” and “Vishnu”. “Brahma” and “Shiva” closely correspond with concepts in physics known as “emergence” and “entropy”. “Vishnu” is best described as the ironic, fragile and ever-changing balance both.
In Discordianism, “Brahma” / emergence and “Shiva” / entropy are known as the “Aneristic Principle” and the “Eristic Principle” respectively. A third principle is the notion that the “Aneristic Principle” and “Eristic Principle” are both illusions and the very distinction between both is really but a matter of (arbitrary) perspective.
“The Principia Discordia” is what one might refer to as “the Discordian Bible”, written by Greg Hill (Malaclypse the Younger) with Kerry Wendell Thornley (Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst). The following excerpt summarizes the core principles of Discordianism :
The Aneristic Principle is that of apparent order; the Eristic Principle is that of apparent disorder. Both order and disorder are man made concepts and are artificial divisions of pure chaos, which is a level deeper than is the level of distinction making.
With our concept-making apparatus called “the brain” we look at reality through the ideas-about-reality which our cultures give us. The ideas-about-reality are mistakenly labeled “reality” and unenlightened people are forever perplexed by the fact that other people, especially other cultures, see “reality” differently.
It is only the ideas-about-reality which differ. Real (capital-T) True reality is a level deeper than is the level of concept. We look at the world through windows on which have been drawn grids (concepts). Different philosophies use different grids. A culture is a group of people with rather similar grids. Through a window we view chaos, and relate it to the points on our grid, and thereby understand it. The order is in the grid. That is the Aneristic Principle.
Western philosophy is traditionally concerned with contrasting one grid with another grid, and amending grids in hopes of finding a perfect one that will account for all reality and will, hence, (say unenlightened westerners) be true. This is illusory; it is what we Erisians call the Aneristic Illusion. Some grids can be more useful than others, some more beautiful than others, some more pleasant than others, etc., but none can be more True than any other.
Disorder is simply unrelated information viewed through some particular grid. But, like “relation”, no-relation is a concept. Male, like female, is an idea about sex. To say that male-ness is “absence of female-ness”, or vice versa, is a matter of definition and metaphysically arbitrary. The artificial concept of no-relation is the Eristic Principle.
The belief that “order is true” and disorder is false or somehow wrong, is the Aneristic Illusion. To say the same of disorder, is the Eristic Illusion. The point is that (little-t) truth is a matter of definition relative to the grid one is using at the moment, and that (capital-T) Truth, metaphysical reality, is irrelevant to grids entirely. Pick a grid, and through it some chaos appears ordered and some appears disordered. Pick another grid, and the same chaos will appear differently ordered and disordered.
Reality is the original Rorschach. Verily! So much for all that.
The irony of the “Principia Discordia” being a parody pseudo-religion elaborating on the greatest nonsense imaginable while also providing the most fundamental insight into the core principles of the universe in a very concise manner is itself a perfect illustration of the most essential principle.
This principle is the notion that the distinction between order (or what is desirable) and chaos (or what is undesirable) is but an illusion, based on our very perspective (or our rather arbitraty, subjective taste), and that the perceived balance between both tends to be both ironic and changing.
