[Ansteorra] RE: SCA slang

[Marc Carlson]

>From: "Theron Bretz" <tbretz at montroseclinic.org>
>Your Excellency.  Well said, although your phraseology raises a more
> >general question.  Why is it that those who are serious about history are
>called Nazis?  This is not directed at you, it's a fairly common >turn of
>phrase, but one I find deeply disturbing and highly insulting It seems that
>anyone who tries to enforce some modicum of authenticity or tries to
>enforce the stated purpose of the Society is >the moral equivalent to the
>people who brought us the Holocaust?  And at the same time, the fantasy and
>beer crowd are just harmless >partygoers, Frat Boys out to have fun, until
>the bad old Nazis told >them to shape up.
>If that's the way things are shaping up, we (the history crowd) can't
>possibly win, and that's depressing.

Luciano,  I agree absolutely with your interpretation of history and the
mythinterpretatons of the Victorians.  Victorian scholars were excellent at
data gathering, their skill at interpretation, um, was less good -
frequently because they chose to interpret their gathered data in order to
support their a priori assumptions. I just wish the Victorians were the only
ones who did that.  Moreover we are in complete agreement regarding the use
of the term "Nazi".

Part of the problem you are seeing may have to do with the prevalent
mythology that we inculcate our new people with when they join (i.e. "stay
away from those people - they will try to make you do things their way,
they'll insult you and humiliate you publically, they're _Nazis_").  I say
myth because I maintain that while most of us have some example or other of
it happening, I have found that I have been accused of insulting people's
clothing and being a judgemental person -- simply from walking in to a room.
  I don't have to say a word, and people will -assume- that (because I am
interested in authenticity) I'm judging them, their clothes and their
personae.  Now, for those of you who don't know me - I *really* don't care
what other people do, or how they dress.  I don't discuss other people's
clothes with them, unless they bring it up, and even then I'm pretty mellow
about that they've chosen to wear [unless they try to tell me that X is a
fact or accurate, when it isn't].  Heck, I've *complimented* people on their
outfits, or some clever way of doing something, and they've gotten insulted.
  I know it's not just that the fangs and claws put people off (although
admittedly it doesn't help) since I've seen it happen with other people too.
  Because they've been taught people who are interested in authenticity are
like this.

What this means that is when someone takes it upon themselves to "help", and
make uninvited suggestions (and sometimes invited suggestions) to someone
who obviously is new, or has made some sort of fashion decision that isn't
somehow "right" to the helper -- we suddenly have a new anecdote.  Even *I*
have my own anecdote on this topic -- having been told by a Royal at my
first event - a Namron Medfaire - that my Garb was unacceptable and wrong
[basic black t- tunic].  But you know, I'm sure that this peer probably
*meant well*. And for the longest time, that encounter defined my
interpretation of people who were into authenticity.

So, where is this going?  Luciano, you used two figures of speech in your
message: "anyone who tries to enforce some modicum" and "we (the history
crowd) can't possibly win".  I am certain that you did not mean them the way
they came across, at least to me, but I would like to address the meanings
as they came across to me.

There is nothing to enforce, and nothing to win.  As frustrating as it can
be, there are no established standards of dress or behavior -- and even if
there were, we do not have the authority to enforce them.  At best, we can
do (as I hope I am doing in this message) show another way.  A way that we
have as much a right to as those people who aren't interested in history,
research, autheticity, whatever have to how THEY want to play the game.
[Personally, I resent being told, as I have been in the past, that there is
a "right" way to do this, and that if I didn't play by their rules, I should
go somewhere else.]

Marc/Diarmaid

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