Moving Dudeism Forwards

[SagebrushSage]

*deleting old posts*

[The Guro]

It seams to me that there is an abundance of "Sage Advice" to be had with the material already available. From what I have seen of the Dudely Lama in interviews and other public appearances he has done great in communicating the essence of Dudeism as both a casual and fun way of life not to be taken too seriously AND a legit set of principles that someone can apply to benefit themselves and society.

Probably best to keep it principle based and broad in its application... A path to taking it easy and self expression that is self-evident by the basic tone (rather than as you've already noted regarding specific canon). Rather like Jeet Kune Do (in fact I would say Dudeism is part of my JKD) is a path to self-expression arrived at through applying principles that work for you. Many of them will be universal or common... some might only apply to a select few.

What exactly seems to be lacking in what is already available in the materials that have been produced?

[SagebrushSage]

*deleting old posts*

[The Guro]

That sounds pretty cool man!

Maybe a story driven "choose your path" kind of thing... Unless you are going full on "open" world. That would be a ton of work!

[SagebrushSage]

*deleting old posts*

[Brother D]

Wave of the future dude, 100% electronic. Maybe you could have a waltometer, going from dude (green with rust colouration), to paraquat/ asshole (red for the square community). If you fail the modest task which is your charge, (abiding), a plane crashes into a mountain.

[Reverend Al]

What is lacking is a rich tradition of art and symbolism within this culture, as compared to other religions.  Dudeism lacks cultural substance.  This movement needs to produce artistic, musical, and literary works that challenge and inspire our adherents in ways that explore Dudeism or Abideism as a coherent ethical philosophy outside of the "The Big Lebowski" setting.  Ideally, a number of such works would be controversial in nature and would spark conversation about important matters in this community.  As a new independent video game developer who is trying to figure out a way to explore Dudeism in an interactive work, I am not being hypocritical in suggesting this.

You're approaching the question of "What is lacking?" from an artistic/creative perspective, and I dig that, but I think you might be putting the cart before the horse.  The "big" religions have existed in one form or another for centuries, but Dudeism has only existed for, what, maybe 15 years?  And as this thread shows, discussions about defining Dudeism are still ongoing and we're really not much closer to reaching a universal consensus among Dudeists except for "Abide" and "Be cool", and even those are vaguely defined at best.

I'm not saying art and symbolism are unimportant--far from it--but if we're going to use visual media to explain what we're about (beyond the currently available tee shirts and bumper stickers, that is) I do think it's important that any such media doesn't send the wrong message if Dudeism is going to be taken seriously.  Artists aren't going to know what kinds of symbolism are "wrong" if we can't tell them, and we can't tell them until we know ourselves.

On a semi-related note, I wonder if the Dudely Lama truly understands what he started here. 

[SagebrushSage]

*deleting old posts*

[jgiffin]

Sage, examine the motivations, actions, and outcomes of characters in TBL. Most often, people get what's coming to them. If your game has a fighter, well, look what happened to the nihilists. They created their own karma. So could your characters. Their outcomes could be both symbolic and perfectly compatible with their motivations and actions. The trick is to weave everything together so it's not forced. Let people fail. Otherwise, they can't succeed.

[SagebrushSage]

*deleting old posts*

[Masked Dude]

By the way, what's a JRPG?

[Reverend Al]

By the way, what's a JRPG?

Japanese Role-Playing Game.  Essentially, role-playing games (tabletop and video) developed in East Asia.

[RandoRock]

From what I've seen Dudeism is moving forward, albeit in it's own slow paced way. People are doing things all the time to spread the word. There is the Dudeism TV channel on YouTube, StAugustineDude and myself do a Dudeism podcast called the Dudecast, we've been mentioned in news shows, magazines, books, and all sorts of other media, and there have even been a few gatherings or festivals put together. Like others have said the other religions have the advantage of being thousands of years old, scientology had the advantage of celebrity endorsement, and we have word of mouth and the dedication of us Dudeists. Give it time and let it evolve on it's own otherwise we run the risk of turning it into something instead of letting it become something, kind of like what the church did and then you get crusades, dark ages, and all other sorts of nonsense. If enough of us embrace it and live the lifestyle then eventually it will start to catch on. The beauty of it to me is that Dudeism is still simple and pure, we have the opportunity to keep it that way and avoid the mistakes that all the others have made before us....or maybe I'm just being dramatic, who knows.

[SagebrushSage]

*deleting old posts*

[The Dude Shepherd]

What is lacking is a rich tradition of art and symbolism within this culture, as compared to other religions.  Dudeism lacks cultural substance.  This movement needs to produce artistic, musical, and literary works that challenge and inspire our adherents in ways that explore Dudeism or Abideism as a coherent ethical philosophy outside of the "The Big Lebowski" setting.  Ideally, a number of such works would be controversial in nature and would spark conversation about important matters in this community.  As a new independent video game developer who is trying to figure out a way to explore Dudeism in an interactive work, I am not being hypocritical in suggesting this.

You're approaching the question of "What is lacking?" from an artistic/creative perspective, and I dig that, but I think you might be putting the cart before the horse.  The "big" religions have existed in one form or another for centuries, but Dudeism has only existed for, what, maybe 15 years?  And as this thread shows, discussions about defining Dudeism are still ongoing and we're really not much closer to reaching a universal consensus among Dudeists except for "Abide" and "Be cool", and even those are vaguely defined at best.

I'm not saying art and symbolism are unimportant--far from it--but if we're going to use visual media to explain what we're about (beyond the currently available tee shirts and bumper stickers, that is) I do think it's important that any such media doesn't send the wrong message if Dudeism is going to be taken seriously.  Artists aren't going to know what kinds of symbolism are "wrong" if we can't tell them, and we can't tell them until we know ourselves.

On a semi-related note, I wonder if the Dudely Lama truly understands what he started here. 

In an effort to help move Dudeism forwards, I have started a wiki for Dudeism

I'm hoping this will become a reference for all things Dudeist... everything from reading material, like Tao Te Ching summary/translation, to quotes and bios from Great Dudes in History... We'll have a list for any holidays, like Lebowski Fest

I plan to make a new thread once I find a nice rug to tie the site together (read: get it presentable)

If anyone wants to help get some material started before the rug pissers show up, shoot me a PM and I'll hook you up with the URL