The Dude Testament

The Dudeist Frame of Reference

For Dudeists, The Big Lebowski is more than just a movie. It’s a way of life, the philosophical rug that really ties the universe together.

That’s a hefty claim to make about a film, especially one that flopped when the Coen Brothers released it back in 1998. It may even sound downright silly or even sacrilegious for us to make such a claim about something that is, after all, merely entertainment.

However, we’re not trying to scam anyone here. If we understand it correctly, “mere” entertainment has always been an essential part of religious life, especially in Western civilization. Ancient Greek comedies and tragedies, for example, were integral to Athens’ sacred civic ceremonies. Medieval morality plays promoted Christian values to a wide audience more effectively than priests blathering Latin from the pulpit. These forms of mere entertainment served the vital function of unifying folks into communities and helped to create, promote, and reinforce the very ethos of our culture.

We agree with many wiser fellers than ourselves who say that movies serve a similar purpose today. Filmmakers reach into the same deep, mythic pools that their theatrical forebears plumbed to create narratives they hope will resonate profoundly with viewers. George Lucas did for Star Wars, Francis Ford Coppola did for Apocalypse Now, and Adam Sandler did for…well, not all films are life-changing.

Still, even in films dismissed as escapist diversions, what draws viewers to them at some level is an enduring mythic (and often unconscious) hope that through the light projected on the movie screen they’ll see themselves up close, as the band U2 once put it. The stories we create, after all, whether told around a campfire, written in a book, performed on a stage, or projected onto a screen, usually end up creating us as well.

That’s why we believe The Big Lebowski is more than just a “cult film.” Cults, after all, are on the fringe. Yet with its millions of fans (according to Facebook), The Big Lebowski might better be described as “religious.” Anyway, that’s the way the worldwide Dudeist movement sees it. What is a religion, after all, but a cult that caught on?

It’s not just about popularity, of course, otherwise, Titanic would have its own religion too. In religious texts and figureheads and characters we discover our deeper selves. And though the movie’s main character is a slacker who calls himself the Dude, his eyes are a blue million miles. In other words, he fits right in there in our collective unconsciousness, comforting all of us uptight, downsized, single-minded, multitasking, overworked, underpaid, plugged-in, pissed-off, shit-on, run-down, zoned-out sinners by embodying what life is truly all about.

We’re talking about taking it easy, man.

Yes, it’s really that simple. Unfortunately, though, it’s a message the square community doesn’t give a shit about. Keeping us uptight, after all, helps them keep the baksheesh. Though the Dude was dismissed as a bum by overachievers like the millionaire Mr. Lebowski, and as a deadbeat by real reactionaries like the Sherriff of Malibu, we recognize him as a bona fide hee-ro. That is, the modern epitome of a long, lazy tradition of Dudes (both fictional and historical) revered across the sands of time for reminding us, in different ways and in different places around the world, to just chill the fuck out.

The problem is, most of these revered Dudes who once personified and vivified the Dude Way in their time and place are today no longer openly associated with the Dude word. Pan, the lazy Greek god, for instance, may have been pretty well regarded back in his day, but he no longer draws much water in our pious, preachy communities. And languid philosophies like early Christianity and Buddhism have become oddly achievement-oriented since their uncompromised first drafts. It seems that where Great Dudes were once an integral part of the whole durn human comedy, they’ve gradually been swept under the rug, so to speak.

That’s why we founded the Church of the Latter-Day Dude: to bring this Dude shit back to light, man. As we explain on our website:

While Dudeism in its official form has been organized as a religion only recently, it has existed down through the ages in one form or another. Probably the earliest form of Dudeism was the original form of Chinese Taoism, before it went all weird with magic tricks and body fluids. The originator of Taoism, Lao Tzu, basically said “smoke ’em if you got ’em,” and “mellow out, man,” although he said this in ancient Chinese so something may have been lost in the translation.

Down through the ages, this “rebel shrug” has fortified many successful creeds: Buddhism, Christianity, Sufism, John Lennonism, and Fo’-Shizzle-my-Nizzlism. The idea is this: Life is short and complicated, and nobody knows what to do about it. So don’t do anything about it. Just take it easy, man. Stop worrying so much whether you’ll make it into the finals. Kick back with some friends and some oat soda, and whether you roll strikes or gutters, do your best to be true to yourself and others—that is to say, abide.⁴

This here Abide Guide is meant to help you do just that.