For the uninitiated, the Church of the SubGenius is a disorganized parody religion that makes fun of serious organized religions while at the same time combines elements from them with whacko conspiracy theories, UFOs, cryptozoology, and many other popular paranoid beliefs. Their members are made up of perverts, weirdos, nerds, geeks, and all other sorts of outsiders who don't identify with the normals.
I recently paid my thirty-bucks to become an ordained minister in the Church of the SubGenius (via the Church of Universal Life). I haven't picked my SubGenius yet name and I'm asking for feedback on that so please leave a comment with suggestions for my SubGenius name. So far I've been considering Reverend Loki Eris Puck.
SubGenii believe in a primal force called Slack which is the true pursuit of life. Is it a coincidence that I call myself a professional slacker, or that one of my favorite card games is "Chez Geek" in which the goal is to obtain the most Slack? SubGenii believe we are the offspring of Yeti and early man, and that Yeti once ruled the city of Atlantis. They believe one day the UFOs will bring about the final Rupture and only card carrying SubGenii will be allowed on the escape pods piloted by sex goddesses.
Let's look at what has led me to the decision to throw my lot in with this fringe-element pseudo-cult of paranoid freaks.
Of course my family and upbringing has something to do with it. I grew up with only an older brother for a sibling, which taught me the harsh lessons of living in an authoritarian society. I love my brother, but I can't deny the impact he had on my burgeoning psyche. I also learned to rebel against authority in subtle and indirect ways since he was bigger and stronger than me it was unwise to rebel overtly. I identified with being the "anti-Chris" and did things differently than my older brother did. If I couldn't make my mark on the world by doing things first or better than my brother then I would do it differently. I rebelled against anything I felt was "normal".
My mother always encouraged my imagination and radical thinking while at the same time expressing her own brand of non-denominational spiritual thought. She fed me a steady diet of science-fiction and fantasy books and movies. For as long as I've had an imagination I've been entertained by the bizarre, the strange, the dark, the unknown, the horrifying, and the supernatural. I also learned from her that you can be a moral, spiritual, and just person without being specifically religious.
My love of horror and dark literature led me to the likes of Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, essential to familiarizing myself with the original American masters of horror. Lovecraft's particularly skewed and paranoid view of the cosmos in particular has had a lasting effect on me and he has inspired countless more. He exposed the world to the mythos of Cthulhu and the fabled Necronomicon which make their appearance in so many derivative films and novels.
I love bad films, b-movies, and MST3K style entertainment. I have a soft spot in my heart for the legend of the Loch Ness monster (is it a coincidence that my friends decided to call their band Rockness Monster?), UFOs (I want to believe!), and bigfoot-yeti-abominable-snowman-sasquatch-skunk-ape-missing-link. I've always wanted to believe in the legend of Atlantis, the Greek, Celtic, Egyptian and Norse gods (is it coincidence that my mom named our first family dog Loki?), and the Illuminati super-conspiracy.
I was destined for a life of geekiness. I played Dungeons & Dragons, I played video games, I memorized Monty Python movie quotes, and eventually I chose a career in computer programming, rounding out my geek quotient (or G.Q.).
Attending college and ultimately living in Eugene has exposed me to many different view-points and beliefs: some radical, some conservative, many somewhere in the middle. I recall taking a very mind-opening psychology class called "Critical Thinking" in which I learned to never take anything at face value and always analyze the motives of the messenger.
I listened to NPR, read internet news blogs, and developed a view of the world as being run by inane megalomaniacs that rule over the clueless masses who let themselves be easily subjugated. People lie to themselves on a daily basis, believing that the governments are here to help and protect us. Once you realize that you are lying to yourself and that you are pulling the wool over your own eyes, that's the first step to becoming a SubGenius.
Recently I've begun attributing significance and meaning to the insignificant and coincidental. Of course all metaphysics and spirituality derive from the aforementioned mental gymnastics.
I just finished reading the Illuminatus trilogy (which someone coincidentally left at my house after a garage sale some years ago and I only now finally got around to reading), which manages to interweave all my favorite themes into a convincing if somewhat schizophrenic narrative whole. Suddenly I became aware of other elements in my environment which supported its subversive and skewed view of the world. My daily internet news blog, Fark.com, mentioned The Church of the SubGenius. I'd heard about it before and seen the iconic 50s style clip-art images of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, so I decided to read up on it. I was amazed to see the same symbology and core tenants of the Discordians, a supposed semi-heroic anarchistic branch of the Illuminati. I already owned a card game called "The Illuminati" which coincidentally was largely based on these books. Recently the card game released a supplement called "INWO SubGenius". I want it now.
I've developed a habit of listening to Podcasts while at work. Some of my favorite include: Air out my shorts, EscapePod (coincidence?), PseudoPod (sister podcast of escapePod but focused on horror including many lovecraftian-style submissions), The Drabblecast, and now the SubGenius Hour of Slack radio show.
It was after listening to an hour of hilarious and insightful ramblings from Reverend Ivan Stang and pals that I decided "what-the-hell" and sent in my $30. I'd taken the hint, all the synchronicity was more than I could stand, and I surrendered to the self-hypnosis.
The paradoxical and oxymoronic irony of joining an "anarchistic group" is not lost on me. I think it's part of the charm: belonging to a religion that is decidedly anti-religious, proclaiming my "individuality" just like everyone else in the group, and claiming to be part of a secret society that is blatantly out in the open.
So, please leave your suggestions for a really cool SubGenius name or any other comments relating to my transformation into a self-hypnotized anarchistic paranoid geek-freak.
Links to stuff:
http://www.subgenius.com/
http://www.subgenius.com/ts/hos.html
http://web.mac.com/normsherman/iWeb/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html
http://pseudopod.org/
http://escapepod.org/
http://theitspot.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati
http://www.sjgames.com/illuminati/index.html
http://www.sjgames.com/inwo/
http://www.sjgames.com/inwo/SubGenius/
http://www.sjgames.com/chezgeek/
http://www.fark.com/
