NR - Principality

Marc Carlson marc-carlson at utulsa.edu
Sat Sep 9 14:40:49 PDT 2000


HEGitana at aol.com wrote:
> Ya know, I've been to Pensic several times and I don't remember there ever
> being a problem with the Oklahoma/Texas thing...

With all due respect, ma'am.  I'm certainly not trying to
pick an argument 
here, but really, the point isn't "is there some problem
relating to Oklahomans
as Ansteorrans?".  The people in the south have, to my
knowledge, never been 
unpleasant to northerners (well, unless they're Yankees, but
that's another 
issue :) ).  They haven't been.  Virtually every person I've
dealt with in the
SCA from south of the "northern regional line", much less
further south, has
either been more than happy to treat me as one of them (or
if they were snotty
it was for some other reason that had nothing to do with my
being from the North).
So clearly, that's not the issue at hand.

The problem, as I see it (and I'm sure that other people
wiull chime in if I've
mistaken the point) is that I'm not "one of them".  Northern
Ansteorrans have
a slightly different culture, a slightly different take on
things, and really,
some people eventually get tired of being taken for
something they aren't.  The
problem is a perceptual one, but that doesn't make it any
less a *real* problem
to the people who perceive it.  If I may quote you
"...perception is everything and often starts fires that are
hard to put out."

Now, I understand why you might feel that dragging mundane
Texas/Oklahoma 
rivalries into it might be bothersome, and that's perfectly
reasonable.  
However, I'm not sure that this *is* just an expression of
those mundane 
rivalries, and that to belittle it as just that is perhaps
missing the point.  Actually, it would be nice if it were
that easy.  Geographical distance (as I
am reminded every time I have to drive to see the in-laws),
divergent 
attitudes reinforced by time, and so on contribute to this
at least as much 
as simple state rivalries.

Marc/Diarmaid
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