The basic plan is a discussion group. There's not going to be a lot of preaching by me because I doubt I'm much closer to this ideal than anyone else here. What I do have is a lot of interest in the problem and knowledge of various previous attempts to solve it. So I (and anyone else who's interested) will propose some articles (usually web pages) for discussion once or twice a week. We'll all discuss them using special rules intended to augment the discussion process. Occasionally, there will be certain tasks related to the discussion topics. Nothing along the lines of "assassinate the prime minister". More likely to be something like "Count how many times you lie in one week" or "Try to go a whole day without using the pronoun 'I'". If you don't want to do them, you don't have to.Most people believe they are rational, and that their opinions are right. Yet people disagree about almost everything - big societal things like religion, politics, and morality; and little personal things, like whether or not your friend's girlfriend is a crazy bitch. These disagreements lead to wars, hostility, anger, and heartbreak - all the while with both sides complaining that the other can't see what's obviously true.
THE ORDER believes that rationality isn't a choice, but an achievement. Preferring gymnastic ability to not having gymnastic ability doesn't make you a gymnast, and preferring rationality to irrationality doesn't make you rational. Gymnasts need to train hard to turn a naturally uncoordinated body into a well-coordinated one, and thinkers need to train hard to change a naturally irrational brain into a rational one. Schools, universities, and debate clubs begin this training, but only enough to create people who feel rational but have a thousand invisible biases and prejudices that muddle their thinking and social interaction. The purpose of the Order is to take this training to a higher level, one that straddles the boundaries between the intellectual and the mystical. A place like Shireroth, full of people who are both very smart and unusually tolerant of weird things, is a good place to begin our work.
Some would say that an attempt to use esoteric means to perfect rationality is ironic or contradictory. They may be right, but the Order thinks it will at least be interesting.
The Order draws its inspiration from several sources. The Buddhists, the Dûnyain, the writers at Overcoming Bias, the magi, Scientologists, , medieval scholastic monks, and various scientists and philosophers have all shared portions of our goal, but some have gotten mired in superstition, greed, insanity, and other problems, and others are inspirational but need their work to be taken further. We aim to combine the best of these into something new and powerful.
The Order believes that the flaws in humanity can be fixed, though not without great effort. It believes that unless we take the first baby steps towards fixing those flaws ourself, we'll never even begin the process. And its members are dedicated to helping themselves each other take those steps nd whatever might come after them.
The Order is of course open to everyone of any religious, political, or philosophical beliefs. Just realize that I'll probably try to undermine them and you're encouraged to undermine mine in turn. We especially need some really smart people to keep the discussions interesting and to find new material.
Participating in the Order would involve:
- reading topics relating to rationality, and discussing them if you find them worth discussion.
- looking at tasks set, and trying them if you find them interesting.
- having your beliefs challenged, and challenging those of others if you think you're up to it.
- not eating pork (For some reason, lots of really successful religions have bans on pork. Why mess with what works?) [EDIT: Cancelled by popular request]
You don't need to undergo any initiation ceremony or put your name on a scary list written in big calligraphy. I just want to know if people would join in the discussion.
