Re: The Answer Is (stang's take)

In article <3C036DCB.80805@one.at>, Dave White <David.White@one.at> wrote:

a wonderful essay!

You have zeroed in on how the Church works best -- as a PEP TALK that gives certain people that one little kick-start they needed to pull out of whatever bog or bag they were in. From that point on, they have to do it themselves. All Dobbs does is give your ass initial "helpful" boot in the ass. That's usually the last that most people see (or feel) of "Bob's" boot; after that, it's their own bootstraps they yank on. When they aren't yanking off, that it.

Many lonesome weirdos think they are The Only One and that there's something wrong with them, as compared to The Others. THE BOOK OF THE SUBGENIUS and even the first pamphlet (and back in that day, it seems, the clips from ARISE that some saw on Nightflight) makes it clear that, yes, they probably ARE fucked up, but the important thing is that they may well be MUCH LESS FUCKED UP than the normal people around them. (In some cases this is simply untrue and the SubGenius in question is, indeed, what even we would call "hopelessly fucked up. My observation is that those are a minority.)

Over the 20 years that I've been observing "Solo Clenches," I have seen a lot of people go through this pattern:
1. "Bob" (or book or show or whatnot) saves their ass from mental or physical suicide.
2. They start seeing the Hints and synchronicities, and they get TOTALLY, not to say "too," into it.
3. They go in a little deeper for awhile, maybe attending events, meeting other Subs, checking out "accessories" like the Cds and videos and other Subs' zines. But as time passes the initial thrust of the Dobbs Dick loses its oomph, the intense sense of discovery thins out, and the inevitable Mal Aligned Normals diluting the Slack starts to bum them out.
4. About this time something usually happens in their lives that has much more immediate bearing than The Church of the SubGenius -- they get married, or find themselves in a decent career, or have kids, or grow up and leave home... sometimes they simply get bored with it and move on to the next ShorDurPerSav.
5. Years pass.
6. They return, all of a sudden, out of the blue, briefly report what's happened to them, and then they fall into the more relaxed use of the Church as an occasional walking cane of laffs and yuks rather than as a full time crutch.
7. Then they disappear again, and no one knows where they go then. All we know is that every single one "ends up on their heads" and "shuts up like hell."

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Original file name: Stang's Re- The Answer Is... - converted on Monday, 21 July 2003, 13:44