Discordianism

recreation /dis-kor'di-*n-ism/ The veneration of Eris,

also known as Discordia; widely popular among hackers.

Discordianism was popularised by Robert Shea and Robert Anton

Wilson's novel "Illuminatus!" as a sort of self-subverting

Dada-Zen for Westerners - it should on no account be taken

seriously but is far more serious than most jokes. Consider,

for example, the Fifth Commandment of the Pentabarf, from

"Principia Discordia": "A Discordian is Prohibited of

Believing What he Reads." Discordianism is usually connected

with an elaborate conspiracy theory/joke involving

millennia-long warfare between the anarcho-surrealist

partisans of Eris and a malevolent, authoritarian secret

society called the Illuminati.

See Religion, Church of the SubGenius, and ha ha onlyserious.

[Jargon File]

(1997-04-12)