23 Golden Apples: Discordianism as the Funhouse Mirror of Society

Discordia is the fun house mirror of our society. Suppose a group of people approaches a mirror at the carnival fun house. Each person sees the same distorted reflection of themselves. Some turn away, uncomfortable with what they see. Some people laugh at the warped view of their friends but not at themselves. Others make silly faces, move from one angle to another to get a different distortion, laugh.

Why are the reactions so different? We all wear masks. Some masks are so firmly glued on that the face of the wearer has grown into it like a mold. This is especially true of people wearing the mask of conventionality, of societal norms. The wearer begins to believe that that mask is the reality of who they are. The warped view found in a distortion mirror disturbs them not because it accurately reflects their true self, but because it reminds them of the parts of themselves they deny. The face reflected back could be themselves; they don't know anymore, and they're afraid to look hard enough to find out. They deny the amorphous quality of who we are from day to day.They may also see exaggerations of ugly truths about themselves. They are scared and look away.
Others prefer to pretend that their mask is reality, but laugh at other people's illusions.

Then there are the Discordians. The Trixsters of the modern world.
We know that what we see in the mirror is both real and unreal and funny and sad and true. Eris is our Goddess not because we love discord, but because she exposed the vanity of those other snotty goddesses and it was chaos and it was funny. If the other goddesses had not clung so to their masks, there would have been no squabble over who was the fairest. Who cares?
Having a golden apple with For The Fairest handed to you does not mean that you're the fairest, or even that there is a "fairest", or that it would really matter if there were.
Chaos ensued because of a symbol - a symbol that would allow the bearer to place a new mask on, that of the societally chosen "fairest".

That's how wars start.

Which brings us back to the fun house. Discordians are the people at the fun house mirror of life who are making faces, taking pictures, trading the pictures with friends, and laughing - at ourselves, our masks, our society, and our beliefs.
We are all coyote.

c. J. Golden 2006