Friday 27 June 2014

A reverse-secret society

I "started" a reverse secret society as a joke, whose membership consists of everyone who hasn't heard of it yet. It's so secret that its own members don't even know it exists. Congratulations on your excommunication! You are now a non-member of "The Ignoramii". That name was suggested by one of the first non-members on the original Facebook post that exposed (and therefore began shrinking) the membership from "everyone in the world" to "everyone but a few of my closest friends". And now to "everyone but the readers of my blog, too". It's like Godel's Incompleteness Theorem applied to secret societies.

It's just a silly, strange joke, of course, but it makes me laugh. For instance, can I be said to have created it, since, by the time I made it up, I was no longer a member? Maybe I'm more like the "discoverer". Does that suggested name have any validity at all, since it was also created by a non-member? There's no way back in (except, I suppose, amnesia) and no way for anyone to truly define anything about the society, either. Also, anyone outside the society can kick people out, but those inside can't invite anyone in.

It reminds me a bit of "Wonko the Sane" in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, who built his house inside-out and called it "Outside the Asylum", because he realised the world had gone insane. Also a bit like Futurama's "Voter Apathy Party" where you can only get in if you don't care enough to get in. I also like imagining the conversations it could bring up:

"Hey, what's it like being a member of the reverse-secret society?"
"The what?"
"The secret society where you're only a member until you hear about it."
"Huh. It was fine, I guess, until just now."
"Oh, yeah. Right. Sorry."

Mokalus of Borg

PS - You can try to submit your resignation to just about anyone you meet.
PPS - The problem is, once they try to accept it, they're out, too.

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