[Main Blog Post] A Few Thoughts on Slack

[jprussell]

If you've ever bumped up against the Church of the Subgenius, then you know "slack." I give my own take on what it means to me in my latest post.

Comments

[jprussell]

::smacks forehead:: That's what I meant to bring in and totally forgot - the Tao and wuwei! Zhuangzi is a total slacker.

That also suggests a (partial) way of reconciling the challenges in my previous comment: while slack may be the lack of constraint on what you want, one way to both get more slack and to be more likely to be getting it the "right" way, is to make sure that what you want is as in line with the Tao as possible.

Perhaps that is the greatest service of the Church of the Subgenius - their off-color emphasis on flaunting convention, gratifying bodily needs, and so forth (tactics which Zhuangzi also uses, btw), serve to point out that much of what we feel compelled by in life is artificial in some sense. Going with the flow of the Truth, on the other hand, is no constraint.

[k_a_nitz]

That last sentence makes me think of the injunction to become one with god for some reason

[jprussell]

Hmm, interesting. Certainly, in monotheistic faiths, "the Truth" or "the Way" would be synonymous with, or at least very, very close to synonymous with the one and only God. From a polytheistic standpoint, I wonder if different Gods represent different ways of being "in tune" with the Truth/Way/Tao/etc, and while seeking union would be one way to pursue that, other practices might get you there different ways.