Show, don't tell.

First, I need to make it plain that no matter what I say, I appreciate the work being done by the people on the Black Iron Prison project. The more I think about the original PD, the more I notice that a lot of the jokes are dated. It could use an overhaul.

But I still have a criticism, and it is based on a principle of good writing: show, don't tell. The OPD showed me, at a time when I was ready for such a message, that it was possible to think about the world for myself. It did this by setting up a religious system that, in its deliberate absurdity, pointed out the artificiality of beliefs and the precarious nature of the descriptions of reality they offered.

When I later read the BIP, what struck me was that it mainly seemed to tell me that I should think for myself. But it didn't show me how; it didn't demonstrate to me what that would look like. I doubt very much that I would have understood if I had encountered BIP before OPD. This is not to say that anyone else will have the same experience.

The reason I think that simply telling people to think is not the best possible tactic is that in my experience, almost everyone believes they already are. "I think for myself, unlike those {people brainwashed by the liberal media | people who watch Faux news | Obama supporters | Randroids | Christians | secularists}." People like this will most likely respond to the BIP message with "Got it covered, buddy! Plan on me continuing to stay just like this."

So by all means update the message of Discordia for a new generation with different political, economic, technological, and cultural concerns. But avoid removing the part that makes it effective. As it is, and I think this is the conventional wisdom, BIP and OPD should be presented together. Each has strengths that complement the other.