Mistaken Impressions

[Gunnora Hallakarva]

Gunthar said:
<snip>
>I can understand your dislike for every other Crown being the same people,
>even I sometimes go "Oh come on! Again?".  However sometimes the Kingdom is
>best served by someone coming on again and filling a role they do well.  Some
>people take a while before they learn the role, but when they do I feel they
>add to the SCA instead of detracting.  Think of all the Crown who in their
>first (and second, and third) were terrible but got much better.  It was a
>good thing to have Duke Inman as King during the BoD crisis.
>
>Also, speaking as a fighter, should I ever be so unfortunate as to win th e
>Throne I would like to know that there was the possibility that I could have
>fought everyone who had won before.  Whether they were in the list or not I
>still prefer the option to be open.  Banning fighters from entering the lists
>does neither the group nor the other combatants any honor.  
>
>This may sound like a flame but I assure you it is not.  Only there could be
>some who feel that what you said could be a personal insult.  I do not feel
>this was so but thought I should mention it.

Gunnora answers:
I agree that a Crown returning to the throne does in fact have a much better
grasp of what the job is and what to do about crises... they've encountered
them before.  But isn't the whole "Royal Family" setup (non-official and
unregulated as it is) really a support group for sitting Crowns, providing
them a pool of people who have "been there, done that, got the t-shirt"?

My problem with seeing the same ol' people over and over again, and why I
hate the practice so much, is that even though I personally like the people,
when you have the same ones, you don't get new blood.  Which means that you
don't get new managements styles, you don't get a chance at really new ways
to look at things or do things... a repeat Crown certainly may have new
ideas, but their "style" remains the same, they are the same people, and it
limits how different their approaches to things can be.  Plus, it's boring.
Even if you get a really bad Crown (and every Crown that has ever sat has
had someone in the kingdom who didn't like them, human nature being what it
is) at least you have something new to complain about for six months.

The turn-over built into the Crown keeps it vibrant and alive.  It also acts
as a very real check on the power of any given Crown.  I mean, what if we do
get a fighter as King, but as soon as the Crown hits his head he manifests a
huge psychosis and he acts like Godzilla all  reign?  We all know what we
do!  If you are absolutely frothing at the mouth about King Godzilla, you
sit out six months (or you start a very public fight with K.G., and get
banished for the same length of time :-)   )  A more usual scenario is that
everyone who doesn't like King Godzilla and his policies grumbles for six
months, perhaps practices their own fighting skills prior to next Crown
Tourney, and then heaves a huge sigh of relief when the next Coronation is
held.  Luckily for the people living under King Godzilla's reign, when this
has happened in real life we usually do not see them ever sitting on the
throne again... why I don't know... subtle pressure from the Chivalry?
pressure from the Royal Family?  a ban on fighting in Crown Tourney by the
sitting Crown?

As for those who read my prior post that had a short description of the
Repeating Royalty phenomenon in the course of describing the benefits (IMHO)
of a principality who may have taken the comments as a personal attack,
please grow up.  Read it over.  I am discussing the *custom* and *continuing
practice* of Repeat Royalty, not individuals, their policies, or how I feel
about them personally.  

I will say it again, anyone who misunderstood that to be a personal attack
obviously doesn't know me very well.  If I don't like what you are doing, I
will by God get in your face and tell you so in words of one syllable (non
pornographic, obscene, or scatalogical!) that you will not be able to
misunderstand.  When I do this, it happens in a calm tone of voice, and goes
like, "Here's what I don't like about you or what you did.  Now here's why
it's bad.  And this is what I think you should do to rectify the situation.
And furthermore, if you don't fix it, expect to have this discussion with me
again."  Mundanely I work with diverse people everyday.  At your job you
don't get choices of liking or disliking... you manage or you don't get a
paycheck.  I communicate quite well, thank you... and a complaint in my
opinion is nothing more than an opportunity for a creative solution!  

So if you are someone who thought you were personally being slandered by my
comments about Repeating Royalty then you must be a member of the past
Royalty. Hmmm.  Has anyone who has complained to me or reported the problem
to me here on the internet been a member of this group?  I don't think so.
So if you are taking offense on account of someone else, why don't you give
it a rest and let the persons who are Repeat Royalty talk to me dierctly if
they have a problem?

I reiterate:  I have no problems with individuals who happen to be Repeating
Royalty, it's the custom of doing it over and over and over and over that I
find boring and stagnating.  It's like too heavy a rotation of a pop song on
the radio!  Variety! (Plus, you must be even more masochistic than I am to
*want* to be on the Throne more than once, even, but that's another story!)

Wassail,

::GUNNORA::

Who still hasn't had anyone come to me directly and say, "A am personally
offended about what yousaid because...."




Gunnora Hallakarva
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