Re: The ParaMetaExistentialist Manifesto

From: ddonahue@dbc.com (D Donahue)
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 1995 20:12:20 GMT
Organization: CCnet Communications (510-988-7140 guest)
References: <3sagu3$of@emf.emf.net>

acb@bruce.cs.monash.edu.au (Andrew C Bulhak) wrote:


>The ParaMetaExistentialist Manifesto:

>1. truth is the original lie. 
>2. reality is dead.
>3. history is dead; it committed suicide. 
>4. art is dead.
>5. truth is the biggest lie. 
>6. we are all doomed to endless monotony.
>7. culture is dead; it died of infinite regress

While this manifesto is most likely metaphorical, the Literalist
Police thought it deserved some light-hearted comparative analysis.

Points numbers 4 and 7 imply the author doesn't think his manifesto is
art, culture or part of reality, unless it predated their death.

Is the original lie the biggest lie?  If so, then the first lie was
the largest and from then on, the lies are getting smaller and this
must be considered a sign of progress.  Though what we are measuring
the size of lies by (I assume the author wouldn't want to use their
falseness as a measure since truth is a lie) I cannot say.

Does all this mean that falsity is not as big of a lie as truth?
How did art and reality die?  I think it was murdered by writers like
this one.

If people keep writing manifestoes like this then 6 is true.

What was history like before it committed suicide?

My friend Art is not dead.

Culture must have died from a pretty quick infinite regress.  Myself I
can never seem to wait long enough to find out if the regress is
infinite or not. Perhaps it is cyclic and we haven't waited long
enough. We can revisit this issue after the infinite regression has
completed or the cycle (if it exists) repeats.

Things that are dead:

	reality
	history
	art
	culture

Does this mean truth is alive, or was that just an oversight? 

This brings us to a final question: Does the author think that his
manifesto as a whole is truth ? If not, then it should be discarded.
If it is truth, then it is part of the biggest lie and should be
discarded. The net result: Discard. Which is what I will do with this
posting now.


--------------------------------------------------------
Just some thoughts from:

John Restrick & David Donahue
Free-lance Literalist Police