Operation Mindfuck

From Academic Kids

Operation Mindfuck or OM is an important practice in Discordianism. The term was coined by Robert Anton Wilson in the Illuminatus trilogy of novels and was elaborated on in the Apocrypha Discordia. It is most often manifested as a decentralized campaign of civil disobedience, activism, art movements, especially performance art and guerilla art, culture jamming, graffiti and other vandalism, practical jokes, hoaxes, reality hacking, and anything else that is believed to bring about social change through disrupting paradigms and thus forcing the victim to question the parameters of one's reality tunnel, the end result intending to be a society in which the creative aspects of both order and chaos are embraced. There is a disagreement among Discordians as to whether or not they should seek to improve society or completely topple it, while other Discordians take the more cynical and self-deprecating approach that the practice is in fact only for entertainment and passing it off as anything else is pompous.

Because much of Operation Mindfuck itself involves hyperbole and exaggeration in regards to discussing the Discordian Society, it is difficult to determine the actual scale of the campaign, be it large or practically non-existent.

In the Illuminatus trilogy and it's sequels, Operation Mindfuck is epitomized by a protagonist named Markoff Chaney, an anti-social dwarf who engages in subtle practical joking, in a deliberate in an attempt to cause Discord, as a protest against his mistreatment by society. One such joke involves the forging of signs that are signed by "The Mgt." (leading people to believe they're from "The Management" instead of "the Midget") that contain absurdities, and placing the signs in stores and other establishments.

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