It's perhaps hardly surprising that there's cross-pollination between Discordianism and Situationism, the French artist-philosophers of the happening, while other influences and precursors include: the Dada movement; Beat novelist William S Burroughs, who first mooted " the 23 Enigma " after which F23 is named; psychologist and LSD guru Timothy Leary, dubbed "the most dangerous man in America" by Richard Nixon; and Zen Buddhist thinker Alan Watts, whose proto-Discordian attitude, perhaps familiar to anyone versed in psychedelics, is pithily captured by Graham: "We are only just the universe looking at itself, and you is an illusion, but so is the 'you' that wants to overcome that illusion."

Discordianism is a broad church, sharing an affinity with pretty much any "anti-foundationalist" or flexible and pragmatic philosophy (rather than dogmas, Discordians have catmas, which are temporary and non-binding, to be discarded when no longer useful, and one of a slew of playfully subversive concepts such as pronoia: the irrational belief that the universe is out to help you). We humans are not inevitable endpoints of some pre-existing programme, but chance-riddled mutations from billions of combinatory possibilities. Happy accidents. There's not only a great deal of political liberation to be had in that – in not living up to a pre-given model or code of behaviour; in making it up as you go along – but also a fair bit of fun...