ANST - awards & peasants & peers, oh my

[Timothy A. McDaniel]

On Wed, 17 Jun 1998, Joel Schumacher <jschumac at jcpenney.com> wrote:
> Of all the "brass-hats" I've met, I've not known many without some
> sort of air of superiority.

I can give two answers.

1) I have not seen any air of superiority from Adelicia Gilwell, as
one example.  She is quite a nice lady.  Da'ud ibn Auda seems to me to
be a backwoods, er, backdunes country kinda guy.  If they'd had
trailer parks in 12th century Arabia, he'd drop in.  Try attending one
of his movie viewings -- check the SteppesLetter for dates and times.
They've both done one HECK of a lot of work for this Society, but
they're nice.

2) Sometimes, they *are* superior.  For example: I think Robin of
Gilwell has a slight "air of superiority", but I think he *is*
superior: I greatly admire his span of knowledge, his ability in
rhetoric, his spur-of-the-moment cleverness (if I were caught in a
disaster at an event, I'd try to watch him to see what he does), and
his evident virtue.  (A few weeks ago, I was confronted with a most
dishonorable but most tempting situation.  One of the major thoughts I
had was "What would Robin of Gilwell think?", even though he'd never
find out unless I told him.)  I don't mind the slight glow in the air
around him.  It makes it easier to walk past his camp at night.

> How many "brass-hats" go from camp to camp, meeting people without
> some dignified act or entourage?  How many brass hats shout to passers
> by to "come join us"?  "Here, sit here in my chair, I can stand".
> "Want something to eat?"  "Who are you, where are you from?"

I've not seen that from *non*-brass hats, but I haven't wandered camps
much.  Also, many of the hats at events are either busy or resting
from being busy.

> I don't really know why people argue the "historically accurate"
> viewpoint.  It seems only used when to win arguments or put people
> down, not to make the society more realistic.

My reasons: I like reality.  One volume on the life of Henry II
Plantagenet has more detail, richness, and truth than all of Tolkien's
works.  I encourage historical accuracy in heraldry (the one area I
can speak about with some confidence) because I like reality, I think
real-looking armory is neat, and I'm tired of SCA-style but non-period
armory.  When I can convince someone to go with a more period name or
coat of arms, it's a rush -- not because I "won" or "put someone
down", but because I helped birth something neat.

> If we're not accurate anyway, why not ...

This sounds like an intro to the "slippery slope" argument: we can't
be perfect, so let's not bother trying.  Since I do not have perfect
virtue, should I stop trying to be virtuous?

> make everyone knights if they so desire? Why not let everyone pick
> their title and personna and act it out?

There is at least one medieval group that does so: the Markland
Medieval Mercenary Militia, on the East Coast.  They manage to
function that way.  I am leery of abandoning periodness in clothing,
say, or food, or lots of other things.  Since the SCA title system is
so far from period, I'm less leery of abandoning it.

> Alternatives could be to have a setup more like champions which
> exist for various events or contests, like Warlord or Guardian or
> the Tor, or Queens Champion.  Something where you hold this or that
> title, then somebody comes along after some period and the title is
> passed on to the next person.  Likewise for artistic endeavors.

I have a longer screed on this subject.  (What, me long-winded?)  I
think I sent it to the Southern list.  If anyone wants a copy, I'll be
glad to send it.  I noted that offices are under-used in the SCA as
marks of honor or status, especially honorary offices, offices
exercise by deputy, and offices with nominal duties.

> To kind of answer the question about would I dare question Inman's
> right to be a knight.  I wouldn't expect him to fail a test, would
> you?

Well, he's getting on in years.  Should he live long enough,
eventually he *would* fail.  You may be willing to take away his
chain, his belt, and his spurs; others may not.  It also wasn't done
that way in period.

Daniel "once a knight is enough" de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel (home); Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com; 
if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com is my work address.
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