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BS: Happy Solipstice!

21 Dec 05 - 04:00 AM (#1631971)
Subject: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: Paul Burke

Today is the feast day of St. Solipsus, the Patron Saint of solipsists, and as vice- chairman of The Solipsist Society, it is my pleasure to wish each and every one of you a very happy Solipstice.

There will be a celebratory solypso session at the Berkeley's Arms.


21 Dec 05 - 05:04 AM (#1631989)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: John MacKenzie

solipsism

In philosophy, a view that maintains that the self is the only thing that can be known to exist. It is an extreme form of scepticism. The solipsist sees himself or herself as the only individual in existence, assuming other people to be a reflection of his or her own consciousness.


Now who does that remind me of?

Giok ☺☻


21 Dec 05 - 06:15 AM (#1632003)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: gnu

So, how can there be a vice-chairman? Just a reflection.


21 Dec 05 - 06:23 AM (#1632006)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: John MacKenzie

A vice in the wilderness?
G ☺☻


21 Dec 05 - 07:32 AM (#1632028)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: Paul Burke

I didn't want the responsibility of being chairman. I actually resigned a while ago, but nobody accepted my resignation.


21 Dec 05 - 07:35 AM (#1632029)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: *daylia*

Solipstice? Awwww ... try Chapstick. Comes in festive cherry flavour too.


21 Dec 05 - 08:53 AM (#1632078)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: Rapparee

Get off it. You guys only exist because I thought you up, just like I thought up everything.

Why, even my brothers and sister cannot remember an existence when I was not -- ergo, I have always been and always will be, per omnia saecula saeculorum.

So don't make me unthink you. (And don't try that old "I'm not going to think about you" business. It's been tried and those that tried it are now unthoughts; they vanished, screaming, into Nothingness when I unthought them. And you wouldn't like that and I wouldn't like to do it, especially since it would just ruin your seasonal holidays. But I will if I have to.)


21 Dec 05 - 09:09 AM (#1632093)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: John MacKenzie

I've never had a chap on my lips!
Giok

Paul your resignation is to take effect immediately.


21 Dec 05 - 09:11 AM (#1632096)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: Rapparee

Yes I know Giok. I made you post that.


21 Dec 05 - 09:16 AM (#1632099)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: Paul Burke

I'm off to join the Solipsist Workers' Party (Marxist-Leninist) then. You are a crowd of counterrevolutionary cryptofascistic neoimperialist Socinians!


21 Dec 05 - 10:00 AM (#1632124)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: RangerSteve

So why are there so many jerks in my life? Why would I think them up? A possible answer is that they're the real people and I'm just someone one of them thought up and he/she treats me like s**t for his/her own amusement. Therefore, I have to take all the crap that's handed to me and be nice to people I don't like, because I don't know which of them is real and I don't want them to unthink me because basically, the good times outweigh the bad. This business could make me very paranoid, and I'm in law enforcement, and the last thing anyone needs is a gun-toting paranoid. This is all Paul Burke's fault for bringing it up in the first place. No doubt he's the one who thought me up, so, thanks, Paul for the life, but could you do away with some of the idiots I work for and possible get me landlord to lower my rent? I promise to be good.


21 Dec 05 - 11:55 AM (#1632208)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: Paul Burke

There there, put that gun away and calm down CALM DOWN...

You need to read Flann O'Brien's "At Swim-Two_birds", which is all about the author's responsibility to the characters he dreams up, and what happens when those characters decide to get even with him. An essay about the plot.


21 Dec 05 - 11:57 AM (#1632210)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: Rapparee

Because I have decided that you haven't suffered enough, that's why.


21 Dec 05 - 12:08 PM (#1632222)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: TheBigPinkLad

So this is why none of us (you) remembers being born nor dying?


21 Dec 05 - 12:13 PM (#1632227)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: Amos

Rapaire:

Unthink me. I double-dawg-dare you.

A


21 Dec 05 - 12:17 PM (#1632232)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: John MacKenzie

I think therefore you aren't!
G ☺☻


21 Dec 05 - 12:18 PM (#1632233)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: robomatic

Solipsism: A great philosophy if only I could convince somebody else of it!


Goes somewhat with the song: "I'm my own grandpaw". and with the story "All You Zombies" by Robert Heinlein in which a foundling hermaphrodite gets knocked up, has her baby at the same time the doctors conclude that there's more man than woman left over, then as a man goes back in time and seduces herself.


21 Dec 05 - 01:56 PM (#1632297)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: Bill D

I think I think, therefore, I think I am......I think.


21 Dec 05 - 05:25 PM (#1632439)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: Amos

I guess Rapaire backfired and un-constructed hisself when he tried to unthink me. Does that prove he was right, or that he was wrong? This Solipsism can get very tricky...


A


21 Dec 05 - 07:50 PM (#1632521)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: CapriUni

The thing is, it is impossible to unthink anything.

For example try following these instructions:

Do not think of a purple, polka-dotted elephant, even for an instant.


22 Dec 05 - 07:34 PM (#1633377)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: SharonA

CapriUni: Does that include the time during which one reads your description of what we're not supposed to think of? By the way, I'm not thinking of it; I'm thinking of a white horse.

This discussion reminds me of the song "Railroad Bill and the Kitten"!

But I can't help wondering: who thought up Dubya?


22 Dec 05 - 08:14 PM (#1633396)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: Peace

"Does that prove he was right, or that he was wrong?"

Well, yes and no, Amos.


23 Dec 05 - 04:02 AM (#1633591)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: John MacKenzie

Nemo me impune lacessit!

Giok


23 Dec 05 - 04:26 AM (#1633602)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: folktheatre

"celebratory solypso session" Isn't that another word for a Soca session? Or is it a different leg of calypso that I haven't heard about?



ho ho ho....


23 Dec 05 - 05:23 AM (#1633633)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: Paul Burke

Definitely not Soca- that's for Socinians.

When I wake up in the morning and I open my eyes
And I contemplate the Universe I realise
That I am the only one that I can prove to exist-
You stand out from the crowd when you're a solipsist!

CH: Solipsism, solipsism
    Theres never a schism in solipsism.

Next week, the apocalypso.


23 Dec 05 - 05:34 AM (#1633640)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: George Papavgeris

It just occurred to me - can you imagine a solipsist with schizophrenia? He'd be his own worst enemy!


23 Dec 05 - 07:04 AM (#1633693)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: Rapparee

I have done it, and Amos no longer exists. I have thought up someone who calls itself "Amos" because I demand it for balance in the Universe, but the original entity called "Amos" has been wiped away without a trace, completely and utterly. The new "Amos" will have the memories of the old, except for that time in when his ship docked in Ulan Bator and he took shore leave and stayed with that sultry, sensual woman of the world who introduced him (for I have decided now upon the sex of the entity) to life, love, lust, greed, envy, gluttony, simony, calumny, and great Art.


23 Dec 05 - 07:14 AM (#1633698)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: folktheatre

apocalypso. ha ha! Doom dub! Anyway......


23 Dec 05 - 08:50 AM (#1633731)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: gnu

Meanwhile, back in zee shark tank, Philippe desparately tries to unthink zee great predator feesh and return safey aboard Calypso. As hees oxygen runs low, and wiss zee sea being whipped into a torrent by zee appraoching storm, we can only try to unthink zee shark wiss Philippe.

Remember, only through your donations can we bring quality programming like this to you. And, for a donation of $1M, you can have this change purse, with the PBS logo, to put the rest of your money in. You can call anytime with your pledge - not just during this next half hour of waiting to see Philippe do the unthinkable. Our volunteers are.............


23 Dec 05 - 08:50 AM (#1633732)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: John MacKenzie

I used to like calypso but now I prefer collapso.
I only drink to steady my nerves!
G.


23 Dec 05 - 09:26 AM (#1633756)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: Snuffy

Nemo me impune lacessit!

Leave aff the foreign talk - jist say "See you, Jimmy"


23 Dec 05 - 10:39 AM (#1633805)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: Amos

Hahahahahahaha.

Rapaire is delusory.


Hahahahahahaha.

And I am not delusory!!!!


Ha.


A


23 Dec 05 - 10:43 AM (#1633808)
Subject: RE: BS: Happy Solipstice!
From: CapriUni

CapriUni: Does that include the time during which one reads your description of what we're not supposed to think of? By the way, I'm not thinking of it; I'm thinking of a white horse.

I think it must (therefore, it must), because you have to interpret and decode the words, and in so doing, you give them context and meaning.

That's why you can't unthink someone out of existance: every time you make a decision about who needs to be unthunk, you have no choice but to think about who they are, the context in which you've placed them, and how the context is altered because you've put them there. Every time you do that, you're only reinforcing their existance.