ANST - Courtesy Crusade

[j'lynn yeates]

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hmmm, seems we have here a well-intentioned but doomed attempt to
quantify the qualitative ...

in my opinions, this concept is in reality a bad idea, having seen
such things come and go many times over the years and in various
locations and witnessing the damage they have left in their wake. 
the SCA is already so fractured that large chunks are falling off as
time and tide and widens the cracks ... do we really need anything at
a upper echelon level that has the clear potential to further
alienate and create yet more us/them demarcations?   

on the other hand, like all big storms it would be a good rallying
point and energy source for all partisans, tricksters, discordians,
satirists, anarchists, cassandra's, prophets, taz'sters, etc ... to
feed from.  note that i have just described a sizable and long term
population within the SCA as a whole.  ... but then what use is a
crusade if you don't have a nebulous "enemy" faction to direct your
energies against.

an important concept here ... *never* give a trickster the loaded gun
of someone else's ideology!.  and do consider that public banners can
serve cross purposes - on one hand they serve as a rally point for
your particular factions, cult / faction / group / organizational
badges, and serve as visual territorial markers ... on other hand
they make very good targets for the oppositions and markers for the
artillery once the factions are gathered under them (classic study in
medieval field tactics ...)

consider well the backlash potential before embarking on this path!
... file under "good intentions/high ideals.  it looks passable on
paper, but dosn't fly in the real-world of human difference and in a
culture where toleration of difference is the common denominator.  
in this culture (that the SCA is a *small* subset) the day's of being
able to claim a moral high and then impose it on those "below" is
gone (thankfullly) and the "lead by example", while acceptable dosn't
really change a people raised as supposed individual, humanistic,
free thinkers (note, *not* the type of people one would find in the
medieval societies that created these ideals ....) which well
describes the population that has historically fueled the SCA
rank-n-file membership ...

courtesy, like so many things is in the eye of the beholder, but
comes from heart of the individual participants .. and it it comes in
many forms and guises.  it is not something that can be legislated or
enforced by the external social structures.  if it does not come
naturally from within the individual, it is a hollow theatric
performance .... 

'wolf
... a synergistic moment, listening to Patti Smith's "Gung Ho" as i
type (wonderful song about Ho Chi Min) as reading and responding to
the thread


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