Protecting Ourselves (was Should Ansteorra have a web page)

[LIB_IMC at centum.utulsa.edu]

I don't really want to reopen the whole can of worms, but I did want to
share something that I found thought provoking in this morning's Dallas
Morning News (Section G, pgs 1 & 4, by Julie Vargo).  The Article is on
"The Armored Cocoon", and is really worth looking at if you can find a
copy.  Essentially, however, the article discusses the "Cocooning" of the
80s and the ways it has perpetuated into the 90s, and explores some of
ways we are trying to protect ourselves.

However, I found the following quote (used without permission, but I believe
it to be well within the guidelines laid down for "Fair Use") to be
particularly interesting, both in light of the Web Page question, as well
as other aspects of the Society:

"The Precedent
	While burrowing into our armored cocoons may make us feel safe
and cozy, some wonder at the precedent it sets. "You can't build a fence 
around global warming or the mob" Mr. [Jim] Perry says.  "This is just a
knee-jerk reaction.  People need to think about doing things another
way.  If we feel we have to build walls and armored cocoons now, what will
our kids do?"
	Others fear the isolation of the armored cocoon will become a
self perpetuating trend. "Once you wall yourself in, it's hard to escape,"
says Mr. [David B.] Carney, who studies communities worldwide. "People 
begin to feel relatively safe inside their home and very afraid of what's
happening outside.  They become suspicious of others.  They don't want to
make the effort to get to know anyone anymore."
	"This results, however, in less-fulfilled lives," Mr. Carney says.
"Our values and views are formed by the concept of community.  Without the
community, we become more egocentric.  If we lose the common bond to the
community, we lose the idea of the common good.  Without those things, we 
lose the basis for democratic society.""

[Jim Perry is a spokesman for Worldwatch Institute, a nonprofit environmental
and social institute studying golbal trends.  David B. Carney is a research 
associate for the George Washington University Center for Communitarian 
Studies in Washington, D.C..]

I know there may be some of you who have no clue as to why I think that
this has anything to do with the Society.  Basically, the SCA has, in my
opinion, a very strong strain of this "wanting things to be safe" in it.
This is the reason that there is a debate over what is appropriate to
post on a web site.  This is the reason that it's next to impossible
to suggest any changes to the way things could be done, without running
into the dense undergrowth of "knee-jerk" paranoia that tends to keep new 
ideas from growing in the Society.  And it is most certainly one of the 
reasons that the Society looks upon, and is looked upon by, what should be
its peer groups with derision and contempt.

Granted, it is easy to pick a single article and say "Here, this single
thing is the *real* culprit for all the wrongs in the Society", and it
is not my intent to be so overly simplistic.  This does appear, to me at
least, to be something that people might want to consider.

I. Marc Carlson, Reference Technician   |Sometimes known as:       
McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa   | Diarmuit Ui Dhuinn 
2933 E. 6th St., Tulsa, OK  74104-3123  | University of Northkeep
LIB_IMC at CENTUM.UTULSA.EDU (918) 631-3794| Northkeepshire, Ansteorra