I think I should track down all the people in the world who believe art does good for people and has enough power to change the course of human events, just to let them know that there are others who feel the same way.
Today I read Reave the Just (a short story by Steven R. Donaldson) and I think he might be one. Harlock, Wynand, and anyone else who reads short stories regularly, I want you to read it and tell me if you think it's a great story or not. Charbile would probably like this story too.
It's only about 30 pages long or so, so it shouldn't take you that long. I want to re-read it right now! But I can't because I need to finish that thing on Tanzania.
The story is free online from its publisher as an extract from the short story collection, luckily.
http://www.voyager-books.co.uk/Resource
Today I read Reave the Just (a short story by Steven R. Donaldson) and I think he might be one. Harlock, Wynand, and anyone else who reads short stories regularly, I want you to read it and tell me if you think it's a great story or not. Charbile would probably like this story too.
It's only about 30 pages long or so, so it shouldn't take you that long. I want to re-read it right now! But I can't because I need to finish that thing on Tanzania.
The story is free online from its publisher as an extract from the short story collection, luckily.
http://www.voyager-books.co.uk/Resource
I was thinking how easy it is to have an important effect on the world, and came up with this list. I kind of hate "N things!" entries, but they're common because they're easy to write and read. All of these things could potentially change the world quite a bit, and all can be done in less than 10 minutes. Yes, you CAN do great things without having to put in hundreds of hours on some dedicated masterpiece.
1. Encourage someone. After I watched this video I liked that guy so much that I emailed him and complemented him on his good work and on getting an evidence-based optimism out into the world. He wrote back saying that my email helped get him through a hard night of work. I try to make a habit of this: whenever I come across something wonderful, I tell whoever made it how much I appreciate them making it. It's so easy to do and has the positive effect of encouraging people who do things that you like to keep doing it, or to do more things that you will like.
2. Write a review on Amazon.com of a book (or any product) that you like. This is an extension of the above, but has the added bonus of convincing people to buy something that's good. For instance, I just today wrote quick reviews of John Gardner's translation of Gilgamesh and![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
ubermensch's novel Raberata on Amazon.com. Hopefully, one day people will read those reviews and be persuaded to try the books, which they might not otherwise have done without those reviews. Additionally reviews can actually cause a person to enjoy a book (or any product) *more* or *in a different way* than they would have otherwise: for instance I emphasized that Gilgamesh was a life-affirming quest for immortality, not a story about man's inability to reach it (as so many paint it as).
3. Say something to or email or instant message a friend with some key word or message that would (to use a video game analogy) hit their critical point and thus push them in a better direction. I try to do that often with the people I most like, because I know how important friendship is, and it's so easy to do. But it takes some intelligence, what works with one person doesn't work with another. Some people like being insulted and called out on their weaknesses, other people like being praised, it varies quite a bit, based on a person's current lifestyle, personality, goals, the nature of your friendship with them, etc., and sometimes your attempt misses, but do it often enough and the person will probably be enriched in some way, creating some useful long-term effects on that person (and what they do, thus extending the effect in a chain reaction).
4. Edit Wikipedia, especially by filling in a stub or creating a new needed page. Wikipedia's a great resource and heavily-used enough that adding to it will have a long-term positive effect on many people. For instance, I created the Wikipedia page for Chris Crawford's Atari 2600 game "Wizard". Who knows what will come of it? Maybe somebody will read it and play it and apply it; maybe somebody will read it and then read Chris Crawford's excellent writings and apply those, or even join up with his army of storybuilders for his Storytron.
5. Answer someone's question on a forum, especially when their question isn't a stupid "they could have looked it up on Google" question. It'll save that person some time and perhaps even help that person accomplish something which they would not otherwise have accomplished.
6. Write a blog entry which would be of use to people (like um this one).
If you can think of more comment and I'll add them in.
1. Encourage someone. After I watched this video I liked that guy so much that I emailed him and complemented him on his good work and on getting an evidence-based optimism out into the world. He wrote back saying that my email helped get him through a hard night of work. I try to make a habit of this: whenever I come across something wonderful, I tell whoever made it how much I appreciate them making it. It's so easy to do and has the positive effect of encouraging people who do things that you like to keep doing it, or to do more things that you will like.
2. Write a review on Amazon.com of a book (or any product) that you like. This is an extension of the above, but has the added bonus of convincing people to buy something that's good. For instance, I just today wrote quick reviews of John Gardner's translation of Gilgamesh and
ubermensch's novel Raberata on Amazon.com. Hopefully, one day people will read those reviews and be persuaded to try the books, which they might not otherwise have done without those reviews. Additionally reviews can actually cause a person to enjoy a book (or any product) *more* or *in a different way* than they would have otherwise: for instance I emphasized that Gilgamesh was a life-affirming quest for immortality, not a story about man's inability to reach it (as so many paint it as).3. Say something to or email or instant message a friend with some key word or message that would (to use a video game analogy) hit their critical point and thus push them in a better direction. I try to do that often with the people I most like, because I know how important friendship is, and it's so easy to do. But it takes some intelligence, what works with one person doesn't work with another. Some people like being insulted and called out on their weaknesses, other people like being praised, it varies quite a bit, based on a person's current lifestyle, personality, goals, the nature of your friendship with them, etc., and sometimes your attempt misses, but do it often enough and the person will probably be enriched in some way, creating some useful long-term effects on that person (and what they do, thus extending the effect in a chain reaction).
4. Edit Wikipedia, especially by filling in a stub or creating a new needed page. Wikipedia's a great resource and heavily-used enough that adding to it will have a long-term positive effect on many people. For instance, I created the Wikipedia page for Chris Crawford's Atari 2600 game "Wizard". Who knows what will come of it? Maybe somebody will read it and play it and apply it; maybe somebody will read it and then read Chris Crawford's excellent writings and apply those, or even join up with his army of storybuilders for his Storytron.
5. Answer someone's question on a forum, especially when their question isn't a stupid "they could have looked it up on Google" question. It'll save that person some time and perhaps even help that person accomplish something which they would not otherwise have accomplished.
6. Write a blog entry which would be of use to people (like um this one).
If you can think of more comment and I'll add them in.
This came up while talking to Linda about the desire to 'master' some skill: I think too often we (all of the Heroists and their associates) phrase this issue in such a way as to get it metaphysically backwards. You shouldn't want to create great things to become good at creating great things: you shouldn't want to write good novels to become a great novelist, you shouldn't want to make great movies to become a great director, and so on, it's the opposite.
We shouldn't even say "I want to get good at something *for the purpose* of creating great things" -- being excellent at something, and becoming skilled at something, are not important, what's important is actually creating or doing the great things, being good at creating or doing great things is just a SIDE EFFECT of that, and not even necessarily a desirable one (who wants it to be easy to make great things? No challenge.)
This issue is important because you can't make something great if your focus is on 'being good at making great things' or 'becoming the type of person that makes great things'. You have to focus on making great things, not on the fact that it's *you* who are making them, or what making it will mean for your skill, or worse, that making them will show that you are great at making them or make you great at making them (a totally backwards approach).
Here's an analogy: does a baby learning how to walk think "I'm going to be really great at walking! I'm going to be known all across the land as a baby who walks!" No, they just care about the thing itself. The purpose of work (this applies to any form, but especially to one's "one thing" / quest / career) isn't to become better at it, or to become ever-better at it, or to use it as a way of self-perfection, the purpose of work is simply to get things done.
I think that even looking at a particular work as a "step" toward greater works is a bad idea. It's true that we get better with time, but looking ahead that far is distracting. You could die next year, and you actually have a pretty high chance of doing that (relatively speaking, in any given year the chance of you dying is usually greater than a 1% chance, which is *pretty dangerous*), and what of your plans of getting better and better then?
So what I mean is: if you're just doing something to get better at it, rather than doing it to achieve some desired end, you aren't really doing it. Imagine making lemonade to become better at making lemonade, that's pointless, and you'll get better at making lemonade automatically without you having to aim for it or even think about it, you don't make lemonade to get better at making it, you make lemonade to drink it.
We shouldn't even say "I want to get good at something *for the purpose* of creating great things" -- being excellent at something, and becoming skilled at something, are not important, what's important is actually creating or doing the great things, being good at creating or doing great things is just a SIDE EFFECT of that, and not even necessarily a desirable one (who wants it to be easy to make great things? No challenge.)
This issue is important because you can't make something great if your focus is on 'being good at making great things' or 'becoming the type of person that makes great things'. You have to focus on making great things, not on the fact that it's *you* who are making them, or what making it will mean for your skill, or worse, that making them will show that you are great at making them or make you great at making them (a totally backwards approach).
Here's an analogy: does a baby learning how to walk think "I'm going to be really great at walking! I'm going to be known all across the land as a baby who walks!" No, they just care about the thing itself. The purpose of work (this applies to any form, but especially to one's "one thing" / quest / career) isn't to become better at it, or to become ever-better at it, or to use it as a way of self-perfection, the purpose of work is simply to get things done.
I think that even looking at a particular work as a "step" toward greater works is a bad idea. It's true that we get better with time, but looking ahead that far is distracting. You could die next year, and you actually have a pretty high chance of doing that (relatively speaking, in any given year the chance of you dying is usually greater than a 1% chance, which is *pretty dangerous*), and what of your plans of getting better and better then?
So what I mean is: if you're just doing something to get better at it, rather than doing it to achieve some desired end, you aren't really doing it. Imagine making lemonade to become better at making lemonade, that's pointless, and you'll get better at making lemonade automatically without you having to aim for it or even think about it, you don't make lemonade to get better at making it, you make lemonade to drink it.
I'm thinking a wiki with limited access to me and a few others (in other words, a wiki which isn't really a wiki) would be a better format for heroists.studioeres.com than its current format. Since it's designed to be an organized collection of reviews. I could still use that weblog for updates to it for those who want to see the newest entries / want the RSS feed, but for the purposes of browsing it, a wiki is superior. Anyone agree?
Today harlockhero approached me via IM, imploring me to watch something that he couldn't watch, to watch something that he said jsangspar tried to watch but had to cover his eyes and physically turn his computer off a few seconds later: a video of a transexual with polio and other assorted diseases tap dancing in a bunny suit.
Harlockhero claimed that it was so scary that people have been known to die while watching it. I asked why, and he said that the dance was a worship of thanatos -- the love of death -- and that this person had spent their whole life perfecting that dance. He claimed that it was a secret weapon against the truly life-affirming, a video which killed only those who loved life enough to understand the nature of the video. His evidence for that was various people's descriptions of it, includingnovakaiser's, who although he began watching it and has faced death in New Orleans (he was caught there and faced Hurricane Katrina), could not watch the ending.
Before viewing this video I researched it, just to know what I was getting into. It didn't seem that bad. Here's a description:
She just dances and near the end becomes possessed with evil and starts approaching the camera. At the end, the true face of evil can be seen, according to reports.
( warning: disturbing descriptions )
harlockhero approached me via IM, imploring me to watch something that he couldn't watch, to watch something that he said jsangspar tried to watch but had to cover his eyes and physically turn his computer off a few seconds later: a video of a transexual with polio and other assorted diseases tap dancing in a bunny suit.harlockdhero: and, i'm trying to find the man brave enough to see it, for fear that watching it myself will ruin me for life
Rinku Hero: cowardly
harlockdhero: yes but
harlockdhero: when i read the description, i nearly lost my mind
Rinku Hero: hahaha
harlockdhero: it supposedly kills some people instantly
Rinku Hero: lies
harlockdhero: its so terrifying, their brain just kills them to get away from it
Harlockhero claimed that it was so scary that people have been known to die while watching it. I asked why, and he said that the dance was a worship of thanatos -- the love of death -- and that this person had spent their whole life perfecting that dance. He claimed that it was a secret weapon against the truly life-affirming, a video which killed only those who loved life enough to understand the nature of the video. His evidence for that was various people's descriptions of it, including
novakaiser's, who although he began watching it and has faced death in New Orleans (he was caught there and faced Hurricane Katrina), could not watch the ending.Before viewing this video I researched it, just to know what I was getting into. It didn't seem that bad. Here's a description:
Oh, I think she was born with arthrogryopsis! Very nasty. Skeletal deformity, major joint displacement, muscle atrophy (often muscle isn't even there or other tissue growing in its place), can include scoliosis and mental retardation, but I believe intelligence is usually normal. Facial immobility is another fairly common symptom, which is probably why the end is so uncomfortable.
She just dances and near the end becomes possessed with evil and starts approaching the camera. At the end, the true face of evil can be seen, according to reports.
( warning: disturbing descriptions )
The Heroists were founded five years ago today by harlockhero and I.
harlockhero and I.rmsephy made this game for the Human Day contest. It's an Ohrrpgce game so it requires the game.exe from hamsterrepublic.com in case any of you are going to try it (I haven't tried it yet). But I just had to post this image here, it's so hilarious. I have no idea who the blue guy is supposed to be, but Rinku, Charbile, and Harlockhero are all obvious.
http://www.monadnock.net/
okay, um... these guys seem like the heroists, but better, but worse in that they gave up and are now no longer in action. i'm surpised i hadn't discovered them before, especially because the victor hugo quotes page was on their site and i've been to that page many times, i just never bothered to read the rest of the site. i'm going to read through their site now.
okay, um... these guys seem like the heroists, but better, but worse in that they gave up and are now no longer in action. i'm surpised i hadn't discovered them before, especially because the victor hugo quotes page was on their site and i've been to that page many times, i just never bothered to read the rest of the site. i'm going to read through their site now.
i want to start holding regular heroist meetings again. the last meeting was so long ago -- september 1, 2002 (http://www.livejournal.com/community/h
as usual it will be in IRC.
- server shall be irc.esper.net.
- channel shall be #heroists.
- time shall be every sunday, between 3am and 9am eastern time (yes, the dead of night).
- meetings shall begin when at least 3 people are in that room and talking.
(for those who don't know what IRC is and want to attend, download mIRC (search for it on google), install, type /server irc.esper.net, type /join #heroists, and you're there. there is also a way to use IRC from within trillian, and even a firefox extension, and various other ways like javascripts, but they're all more complex.)
discussion topics for the first (or first few) meetings shall be these:
1. jsangspar's idea to create an osama tezuka style 'hero apartment building' rather than a house.
2. our current projects and their progress.
3. getting one or more of the following produced: an artworks review and discussion site (regularly updated as we consume new artworks), a place for our collected aesthetic essays or books (a type of library archive), a practical secret manual / aesthetic war book.
4. open topic (any topic that anyone wishes to bring up).
as usual it will be in IRC.
- server shall be irc.esper.net.
- channel shall be #heroists.
- time shall be every sunday, between 3am and 9am eastern time (yes, the dead of night).
- meetings shall begin when at least 3 people are in that room and talking.
(for those who don't know what IRC is and want to attend, download mIRC (search for it on google), install, type /server irc.esper.net, type /join #heroists, and you're there. there is also a way to use IRC from within trillian, and even a firefox extension, and various other ways like javascripts, but they're all more complex.)
discussion topics for the first (or first few) meetings shall be these:
1. jsangspar's idea to create an osama tezuka style 'hero apartment building' rather than a house.
2. our current projects and their progress.
3. getting one or more of the following produced: an artworks review and discussion site (regularly updated as we consume new artworks), a place for our collected aesthetic essays or books (a type of library archive), a practical secret manual / aesthetic war book.
4. open topic (any topic that anyone wishes to bring up).
[01:03] Charbile> I hereby propose that we collect all heroist terms and ideas, and put them into a logical whole for the benefit of future allies and reference--something like a heroist encyclopedia.
[01:08] Charbile> it would contain definitions and notes, perhaps links to other sites that deal with each topic-word[#]
as best i can remember these are all the terms that have special meanings among heroists (i.e. words that do are not used in this way anywhere else). for sake of space these definitions are brief.
*
"airship" -- the idea of inspiring others to improve themselves by being both a celebrity and an exemplar of virtue and excellence.
"candelabrum" -- the proposed name of the airship.
"airship, castle, city" -- a three-pronged plan to create a secret country, to defend it, and to fight other countries with it. the city is where the people live, the castle is its defensive fortifications, the airship is its connection to the rest of the world. usually this city would be somewhere in the mountains, or on a floating island (either artificially constructed or converted from a real island), or in antarctica.
"SOPH" -- subjective objective pragmatic heroists. an outdated name of the heroists.
"zig", "to move zig" -- to use effort and get things done. derived from that 'all your base are belong to us' thing.
"knows what he/she doing" -- someone who is capable. bad grammar intentional. this is derived from an event at a bus station, where unworldites saw harlock walking: he reported that people who saw him got out of his way and then said "he knows what he doing". it is also from 'zero wing', as 'zig' is, but we only began to use it after that bus episode.
"blaggenthorg" -- a monster whose goal is to cause people to become complacent and content with what they have, and to lose all ambition and all hope that the future will be better than the present, and to live in the short-term.
"nihilist" -- one who believes that he or she himself, or humanity, or the universe, or any combination of those, would be better off not existing or not having been born / not having come into existence.
"wa" -- a person's characteristic sense of life or personality, their power, perception, and distinctive essence. it can be determined by a skilled observer through just an instant's glance, and that is called "wa-reading".
"wa-eye" -- ability at "wa-reading". one with a good wa-eye can see the essence of a person quicker than someone who has a poorer wa-eye.
"budo" -- strength of body, especially physical fighting ability. the physical equivalent of wa. also can be determined through an instant's glance.
"candles" -- ones who light others on fire, and bring them out of the unworld. similar to bodhisatvas, but not as mystic.
"the unworld" -- the place where people live like zombies, consumerist, with no thought except for rest, and who lack any and all seriousness or purpose.
"unworldite" -- one who dwells in the unworld.
":P" -- the characteristic unworldite attitude toward the world.
"the shield of :P" -- how the :P attitude can be used as a shield against any topic. it's a universal philosophical refutation.
"the only sword in the world" -- synonym of dogmatism or dogma.
"unworld general" -- one who seeks to convert people into the unworld. archetypical example: a schoolteacher.
"unworld wizard" -- someone of sufficiently strategic aptitude that they can remain out of the limelight of society but nonetheless change the world. archetype: howard bloom.
"save the world" -- destroying the unworld. the test for a saved world is this: when most people you meet will be pursuing their "one thing" rather than living in the unworld. this would require many or all of the following: the elimination of public schooling in all or most countries, no remaining dictatorships in the world, a generally laissez faire world market, the reduction of religion and pseudo-science to the margins of the world, immortality with the curing of most diseases, a vast increase in population, and much besides.
"one thing" -- a person's career, but only if they would die without that career, or at least suffer so much that they would feel like they are dead. derived from the koan of the one finger, where a zen master cut off a zen student's finger and then showed it to him.
"contract of heroists", "the contract" -- people who use this type of vocabulary and have agreed with eachother to save the world.
"heroic manifesto" -- a statement designed to attract new people to join the contract. created, but unsuccessful so far.
"hero house" -- a house where at least four heroists (preferably more) would gather and create art, probably in NH.
"raiding a cult" -- the idea of joining an unworld subculture in order to undermine it. for example, to join a cult like scientology and rescue people from its grasp, who would then be used to join other cults and rescue yet more cult members.
"bombadillian" -- i forgot all about this term until i came across it today in the heroists community archives. a bmbadil is someone who is not an unworldite but also does not have a "one thing"; someone who is life-affirming but not ambitious; someone who enjoys life but doesn't want to save the world. archetype: jsangspar (before he decided to be a movie director). the idea is that those people, although they are self-interested and life-affirming, have not sufficiently recognized how bad the world is and/or have not been harmed by it enough to desire to control it, and that they dislike hardship and prefer comfort, but not as much as unworlders. the defining characteristic seems to be 'wishes the world would get better on its own, doesn't want to put the effort into it'.
"1,000,008 stars", "stars of destiny" -- the idea that we need to collect 1 million and eight people, each of which is the top of their field, and ally them together in the heroist contract. derived from the 108 stars of suikoden.
"rand's silver bullet" -- objectivism. so called because we believe that it was a bullet specifically designed to kill the unworld, similar to how one can only kill a werewolf by making a special silver bullet.
"faux heroist", "ersatz heroist" -- someone who comes to heroist meetings and talks like one, and pretends to be working on a project, but doesn't actually have any project and is incapable of moving zig. archetype: novakaiser.
"ultra" -- greater than great. someone who is at the top of their field, or performed some difficult action perfectly. derived from a quote by hugo which i have quoted in my lj multiple times before so won't repeat except on request.
"spiral dynamics", "red/blue/orange/green/yellow/cyan" -- a system of classification of types of consciousnesses, stolen from ken wilber's writings. we don't use it any more (i think because we realized it's a bit mystic) but used it a lot in the early heroist days.
"mr. strand" -- someone who is the opposite of the heroists, who goes around discouraging and decreasing the ability and exposure of good artists and turning them into or instead promoting modern/empty artists. similar to toohey's art group in the fountainhead, or to "mr. strand" in the short story by harlock that tilde and the mask of :P was semi-based on. most art critics are, at least unconsciously, mr. strands.
"the majesty of right" -- a proposed system of government which is better than all previous forms, including democracy. it involves an alliance of giant-robot-clad philosopher-kings, one per city.
"rush" -- the idiocy of trying to put philosophy directly into an artwork, without reconcretization, and without actual artistic talent. named after the band by the same name.
"spongebob squarepants" -- any artwork which exalts the slave morality or its consequent lifestyle or attitude.
"douglas adams" -- any artwork which mocks seriousness and meaning by way of comedy.
"thanatos" -- a wish for death, usually unconscious, which spreads like a virus and maintains itself in a cyclical way. the main evil of the world.
"thanatopolis" -- a city or any location with stronger than average thanatos. named after a game by bastardzero.
"the singularion", "the singularity" -- the massmind when it becomes conscious; the thing that humanity shall be if it ever becomes so closely integrated together and altruistic so as to become a single organism composed of many drones, similar to a beehive or anthill.
"the flood", "melting greenland", "plan b" -- melting greenland to purify the world of totalitarianism if it becomes a totalitarianist world, or if the singularion arises.
"god pound it" -- a curse, created by harlock. similar to 'god damn it' but kind of mocking religion at the same time.
"ultra tea" -- green tea and hot chocolate combined in one drink. you may also add coffee.
"i beg of you, let me work!" -- the last words of osama tezuka, spoken on his deathbed. taken to be an expression of the ideal level of love of art creation we aim for.
"flame champion" -- the one who would lead and direct the 1,000,008 stars by virtue of being the best person in the world by a landslide. taken from suikoden 3.
"heroist" -- one who 1) uses these terms, and 2) is a friend of rinku and/or harlock, and 3) has their "one thing" in one of the art fields.
"having a pure time" -- a thanatos-free version of the common idea of "having a good time".
the following are written by harlock:
"how can anyone ever be sure?" - the supposed warcry of the unworld, said to weaken the will to fight in those who launch attacks against them by clouding their ability to objectively judge right and wrong (by calling into question whether such a division even exists).
"kokoro" - the very essence of life-affirmation / love for life, as manifested through a particular action (even a verbal action), or artwork.
"for great justice" - justification given for an action to indicate that said action was perpetrated in pursuit of the ultimate good; an action that has the direct consequence of making the world more saved.
*
harlock, if there are any i missed, add them.
[01:08] Charbile> it would contain definitions and notes, perhaps links to other sites that deal with each topic-word[#]
as best i can remember these are all the terms that have special meanings among heroists (i.e. words that do are not used in this way anywhere else). for sake of space these definitions are brief.
*
"airship" -- the idea of inspiring others to improve themselves by being both a celebrity and an exemplar of virtue and excellence.
"candelabrum" -- the proposed name of the airship.
"airship, castle, city" -- a three-pronged plan to create a secret country, to defend it, and to fight other countries with it. the city is where the people live, the castle is its defensive fortifications, the airship is its connection to the rest of the world. usually this city would be somewhere in the mountains, or on a floating island (either artificially constructed or converted from a real island), or in antarctica.
"SOPH" -- subjective objective pragmatic heroists. an outdated name of the heroists.
"zig", "to move zig" -- to use effort and get things done. derived from that 'all your base are belong to us' thing.
"knows what he/she doing" -- someone who is capable. bad grammar intentional. this is derived from an event at a bus station, where unworldites saw harlock walking: he reported that people who saw him got out of his way and then said "he knows what he doing". it is also from 'zero wing', as 'zig' is, but we only began to use it after that bus episode.
"blaggenthorg" -- a monster whose goal is to cause people to become complacent and content with what they have, and to lose all ambition and all hope that the future will be better than the present, and to live in the short-term.
"nihilist" -- one who believes that he or she himself, or humanity, or the universe, or any combination of those, would be better off not existing or not having been born / not having come into existence.
"wa" -- a person's characteristic sense of life or personality, their power, perception, and distinctive essence. it can be determined by a skilled observer through just an instant's glance, and that is called "wa-reading".
"wa-eye" -- ability at "wa-reading". one with a good wa-eye can see the essence of a person quicker than someone who has a poorer wa-eye.
"budo" -- strength of body, especially physical fighting ability. the physical equivalent of wa. also can be determined through an instant's glance.
"candles" -- ones who light others on fire, and bring them out of the unworld. similar to bodhisatvas, but not as mystic.
"the unworld" -- the place where people live like zombies, consumerist, with no thought except for rest, and who lack any and all seriousness or purpose.
"unworldite" -- one who dwells in the unworld.
":P" -- the characteristic unworldite attitude toward the world.
"the shield of :P" -- how the :P attitude can be used as a shield against any topic. it's a universal philosophical refutation.
"the only sword in the world" -- synonym of dogmatism or dogma.
"unworld general" -- one who seeks to convert people into the unworld. archetypical example: a schoolteacher.
"unworld wizard" -- someone of sufficiently strategic aptitude that they can remain out of the limelight of society but nonetheless change the world. archetype: howard bloom.
"save the world" -- destroying the unworld. the test for a saved world is this: when most people you meet will be pursuing their "one thing" rather than living in the unworld. this would require many or all of the following: the elimination of public schooling in all or most countries, no remaining dictatorships in the world, a generally laissez faire world market, the reduction of religion and pseudo-science to the margins of the world, immortality with the curing of most diseases, a vast increase in population, and much besides.
"one thing" -- a person's career, but only if they would die without that career, or at least suffer so much that they would feel like they are dead. derived from the koan of the one finger, where a zen master cut off a zen student's finger and then showed it to him.
"contract of heroists", "the contract" -- people who use this type of vocabulary and have agreed with eachother to save the world.
"heroic manifesto" -- a statement designed to attract new people to join the contract. created, but unsuccessful so far.
"hero house" -- a house where at least four heroists (preferably more) would gather and create art, probably in NH.
"raiding a cult" -- the idea of joining an unworld subculture in order to undermine it. for example, to join a cult like scientology and rescue people from its grasp, who would then be used to join other cults and rescue yet more cult members.
"bombadillian" -- i forgot all about this term until i came across it today in the heroists community archives. a bmbadil is someone who is not an unworldite but also does not have a "one thing"; someone who is life-affirming but not ambitious; someone who enjoys life but doesn't want to save the world. archetype: jsangspar (before he decided to be a movie director). the idea is that those people, although they are self-interested and life-affirming, have not sufficiently recognized how bad the world is and/or have not been harmed by it enough to desire to control it, and that they dislike hardship and prefer comfort, but not as much as unworlders. the defining characteristic seems to be 'wishes the world would get better on its own, doesn't want to put the effort into it'.
"1,000,008 stars", "stars of destiny" -- the idea that we need to collect 1 million and eight people, each of which is the top of their field, and ally them together in the heroist contract. derived from the 108 stars of suikoden.
"rand's silver bullet" -- objectivism. so called because we believe that it was a bullet specifically designed to kill the unworld, similar to how one can only kill a werewolf by making a special silver bullet.
"faux heroist", "ersatz heroist" -- someone who comes to heroist meetings and talks like one, and pretends to be working on a project, but doesn't actually have any project and is incapable of moving zig. archetype: novakaiser.
"ultra" -- greater than great. someone who is at the top of their field, or performed some difficult action perfectly. derived from a quote by hugo which i have quoted in my lj multiple times before so won't repeat except on request.
"spiral dynamics", "red/blue/orange/green/yellow/cyan" -- a system of classification of types of consciousnesses, stolen from ken wilber's writings. we don't use it any more (i think because we realized it's a bit mystic) but used it a lot in the early heroist days.
"mr. strand" -- someone who is the opposite of the heroists, who goes around discouraging and decreasing the ability and exposure of good artists and turning them into or instead promoting modern/empty artists. similar to toohey's art group in the fountainhead, or to "mr. strand" in the short story by harlock that tilde and the mask of :P was semi-based on. most art critics are, at least unconsciously, mr. strands.
"the majesty of right" -- a proposed system of government which is better than all previous forms, including democracy. it involves an alliance of giant-robot-clad philosopher-kings, one per city.
"rush" -- the idiocy of trying to put philosophy directly into an artwork, without reconcretization, and without actual artistic talent. named after the band by the same name.
"spongebob squarepants" -- any artwork which exalts the slave morality or its consequent lifestyle or attitude.
"douglas adams" -- any artwork which mocks seriousness and meaning by way of comedy.
"thanatos" -- a wish for death, usually unconscious, which spreads like a virus and maintains itself in a cyclical way. the main evil of the world.
"thanatopolis" -- a city or any location with stronger than average thanatos. named after a game by bastardzero.
"the singularion", "the singularity" -- the massmind when it becomes conscious; the thing that humanity shall be if it ever becomes so closely integrated together and altruistic so as to become a single organism composed of many drones, similar to a beehive or anthill.
"the flood", "melting greenland", "plan b" -- melting greenland to purify the world of totalitarianism if it becomes a totalitarianist world, or if the singularion arises.
"god pound it" -- a curse, created by harlock. similar to 'god damn it' but kind of mocking religion at the same time.
"ultra tea" -- green tea and hot chocolate combined in one drink. you may also add coffee.
"i beg of you, let me work!" -- the last words of osama tezuka, spoken on his deathbed. taken to be an expression of the ideal level of love of art creation we aim for.
"flame champion" -- the one who would lead and direct the 1,000,008 stars by virtue of being the best person in the world by a landslide. taken from suikoden 3.
"heroist" -- one who 1) uses these terms, and 2) is a friend of rinku and/or harlock, and 3) has their "one thing" in one of the art fields.
"having a pure time" -- a thanatos-free version of the common idea of "having a good time".
the following are written by harlock:
"how can anyone ever be sure?" - the supposed warcry of the unworld, said to weaken the will to fight in those who launch attacks against them by clouding their ability to objectively judge right and wrong (by calling into question whether such a division even exists).
"kokoro" - the very essence of life-affirmation / love for life, as manifested through a particular action (even a verbal action), or artwork.
"for great justice" - justification given for an action to indicate that said action was perpetrated in pursuit of the ultimate good; an action that has the direct consequence of making the world more saved.
*
harlock, if there are any i missed, add them.
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