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*                         CYBERSPACE                         *
*         A biweekly column on net culture appearing         *
*                in the Toronto Sunday Sun                   *
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* Copyright 1999 Karl Mamer                                  *
* Free for online distribution                               *
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The net's original homesteaders, hackers, have a low 
tolerance for fields of inquiry that can't be pulled apart, 
quantified, and summarized in a FAQ. Where ever hackers 
find a belief structure that brazenly defies rational thought, 
they're quick to parody it.

Politics, UFOology, and even Martha Stewart (see 
www.cris.com/~akiyama/martha.html) are all fodder for 
online parody. No other human endeavor, however, gets 
lampooned more on the net than old-time religion. Go to 
Yahoo! under 
society_and_culture/religion/humor/parody_religions/ and 
you'll find dozens of web pages ranging from the Cult of the 
Squirrel to the Church of Buscemi.

Mother Superior to all of them is the Church of the 
SubGenius (see the church's online mission at 
www.subgenius.com). The Church began in Texas in 1981 
but rapidly spread to hackers, artists, and disillusioned 
university students all over the world through the net, books, 
and mail order. The Church of the SubGenius's main 
attraction is its ever growing canon of writings that parody 
the more improbable elements of Christianity, consumer 
culture, UFOology, and Elvis worship.

Adherents are urged to acquire a substance known as 
"slack." The more slack you have, the easier your access is 
to great sums of money, good food, and desirable mates. 
Followers are asked to emulate the life of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, 
a crafty, pipe-smoking salesman. The faithful will be taken 
skyward on "X-Day" (July 5, 1998) by UFOs piloted by yetis.

The Church of the SubGenius is itself a scion of an older 
parody faith called Discordianism (see 
www.cs.cmu.edu/~tilt/principia/), a creation of the 
/Illuminatus!/ trilogy authors Robert Shea and Robert Anton 
Wilson. As the name implies, Discordian faithful worship the 
goddess of Discord, Eris. What the Church of the 
SubGenius is to Christianity and pop culture, Discordianism 
is to conspiracy theories and Gnosticism.

A large number of Dobbsmen and Discordians also follow 
Neutopianism. The main web site at 
genesis.tiac.net/neutopia greets you with "Dear Earthlings, I 
am Doctress Neutopia." and initially it seem like another 
parody religion until your wheezing modem manages to fully 
download the picture of Doctress Neutopia (aka Libby 
Hubbard) standing arm-in-arm with President Bill Clinton. 
This is /not/ a woman to be trifled with.

It's hard to say how many people actually believe in 
Doctress Neutopia's theories that Gaia worship, eco-
feminism, and free love can transform the world but she 
does have a large number of mostly male followers on 
alt.society.neutopia. There are some mighty fine looking 
eco-feminists and that they might be into free love has a 
certain appeal to males who spend most of their time in front 
of computers.

Neutopianism is not without its negative aspects: no driving 
around really fast, no barbecues, and you probably have to 
read Susan Faludi's /Backlash/ before getting invited to the 
parties the eco-feminists attend. As is the custom with most 
developing religions, a group of men got together and spun 
off a more guy friendly version. In this case, Monster Truck 
Neutopianism was created to meld a Gaianian world view 
that does not conflict with the desire for a fully paved 
Earth. Read all about it at
www.primenet.com/~lathrop/monster.html.

    Source: geocities.com/lapetitelesson/cs/text

               ( geocities.com/lapetitelesson/cs)                   ( geocities.com/lapetitelesson)