ANST - P-words...in a nut-shell.

[Tim McDaniel]

Kief, thanks for quoting the posting from Johann Kiefer
Hadyen so I can reply to it.

Ld. Johann Kiefer Hadyen penned...
>In these United States, your priorities of loyalty are
>expected to be as follows:
>
> God / country / state or territory / county (if
> applicable) / city or regional area (if appicable) /
> family / friends / yourself

Bollocks!  Absurd bollocks!  With side pizzle and extra merkin!

Who does the expecting?  *I've* never seen anything like
that list.

If you think I have any particular loyalty to Travis County
or the City of Austin, or even (treason!) Texas, you've got
another thing comin'.  Certainly I *obey* their laws in the
order given, but they don't have one bit of my loyalty, and
the issue of laws don't arise below them in the list.

Oh, I'm agnostic, by the way.  Forget #1.

"Family?"  Which part?  Am I really expected to put my loser
cousins from Indiana ahead of my closest friends?

And *all* of it depends on the situation.

> Now, in Society terms, this should be
> God / SCA / Kingdom / Principality / Region / Branch /
> Household, guild, etc. (if applicable) / Self

Ha!  I say again: Ha!  In the Milpitas Meltdown, I gleefully
took the side of Ansteorra against the SCA and committed no
disloyalty thereby.  In a future dispute I might reverse
that, depending on the cause.

I'll repeat what I've written before, but perhaps not here:

I have a dear liege lady, the most beauteous, noble,
good-hearted, and generous of ladies, Baroness Kay of Tria
Asterium, in the Middle.  If she handed me a bow and arrow
and say, "Daniel, dear, shoot that king", I'd say
"Certainly!   On your head the sin" and I'd let fly
... whether we were in the Middle or in Ansteorra.

Look, I'm her *man*, of earthly worship.  I have pledged her
my fealty.  I've not sworn myself to any other person.  I'm
*hers*.

When we were both in the Middle, she often swore fealty to
the Crown, as a Companion of the Order of the Laurel.
Nevertheless, it is a very medieval saying and practice that
"the lord of my lord is not my lord".  I don't hold with
William the Conqueror's attempt at Salibury Plain to get all
the greater men of England to swear liege fealty to him
contrary to their previous oaths.  I'm glad that our King
Henry, second of his name, has not done such an absurd
thing.

It is indeed "on her head the sin" (see the before-Agincourt
scene in Shakespear's _Henry V_).  *She* may have betrayed
her oath.  It isn't *my* oath.  Indeed, I could commit
treason (in much of period, == betrayal of an oath) ... *if
I refused to attack the Crown at her command*.  I am
absolved if I do.  (Sure, after I fire and miss, the royal
guard will come over and beat me to death, but I'll die
innocent, screaming yet serene in the knowledge of my
righteousness.)

I think that the general medieval attitude was that the
local lord counted for more than some usually-distant king.
If Baron Pendaran (did I ever post the limerick, by the
way?) asked me to attack the king, I'm not sure what I'd do.
I might ask about the cause.  I might think about which king
in particular it was -- such as ... nah, better not name
names.

> Now, what would this say if you can't keep it in that
> order?

That I have a period sense of priorities?  Or are you just
trying to snidely call people like me dishonorable traitors?

Daniel "This posting was brought to you by the words
'bollocks', 'pizzle', and 'merkin'" de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com; if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com
is work address.  tmcd at tmcd.austin.tx.us is wrong tool.  Never use this.
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