[Ravensfort] unanswered email

[Aedh Finn Mac Cormaic]

On Sun, 4 Nov 2001 12:01:01 -0600, I read the following on a monolith signed by
Clarissima:

>This e-mail is considered a personal issue.  I would
>like to request that the Populace of Raven's Fort not
>respond to this issue.  The parties involved have been
>contacted personally by me.
>
>I had hoped we would not have to endure this again,
>but I was mistaken, so here is my response.

Every problem in this barony seems to have come down to a personal issue.  Too
many people just want the problems to 'go away.'  If you really want the
problems to go away, then fix them.  Well, actually, "you should have fixed
them" is much more accurate.  At this point we have a problem or two that we
can't just get rid of, and no, I'm not referring to people, yet.

I, like Marius, listened to the counsel of others to be quiet and wait.  While I
did, things got worse.  Everybody thinks things have gotten better, but they
haven't because Kief is too busy making the barony exactly what he wants it to
be: a support base for his own political aspirations, and Niklas is so positive
that what _he_ wants for the barony is the right thing for the barony that he's
willing to disregard just about everybody else to get it.  Yes, that's
mudslinging.  Do I have any proof?  Nope.

I tried to talk to Niklas on a few occasions.  When it came down to the wire, he
refused to answer a simple yes or no question over email.  Do you have a problem
with me?  That was all I wanted to know.  Until he got the hat, and the
authority it represents, he wasn't even noble or honorable enough to grant me
that.  I tried talking to Kief two years ago.  Since I wasn't there to discuss
what he wanted to discuss, and _told_ him that from the beginning, and since I
wouldn't agree with him, he made some actions that were incredibly physically
intimidating.  When a man like him lunges toward you with a look of rage on his
face shaking a fist, it can be very distressing.  Yes, I tried to talk to him
about it.  During the last summer, I decided it was time we worked things out.
He decided it was more important to quickly rebut Marius on the public list than
to deal with our problems in private.  I have a whole bunch of emails saved if
anybody cares.  They're not the only ones who are at fault, everybody is,
including me.  They just happen to be the ones with the most influence and the
strongest agendas.  I was too blind or stupid to act when I could have actually
made a difference.  Instead, I backed out, and now, there's nothing I can do,
partly because I'm 'not involved enough.'  The trust I had in these people is
gone.  Even when I know something happened, they'll still avoid dealing with it.
Sure, Kief might have been innocent.  I'll never know because he's _not_
innocent of preferring to attack Marius in public over dealing with me in
private.  Sure, Niklas might not have realized he was manipulating things in the
poll, or that someone else was, but since NO ONE will discuss it openly how the
heck are we to know?

That's _the_ problem that won't go away.  Unless you're kissing up to someone,
they need you, or you haven't gotten in their way, yet, they're not going to
listen to you.  Unless they fear you or you have reached some mythical qualities
of achievement that they respect, they won't actually hear what you have to say.
Don't worry, though, if it's a good idea, they'll come up with it later, or let
someone else do it, and take the credit for it.

So, where's the barony going?  Well, as long as you can successfully get rid of
anybody who doesn't agree with the 'cult of personality' that is developing
around certain people regardless of their merit or actions, The barony can go
wherever _they_ want it to.  If the SCA or Ansteorra will start holding high
ranking members to the behavior standard required of them and stop letting those
members punish those of lesser rank because 'they don't act like they should,'
then maybe the barony can go where the populace wants.  I doubt the latter will
happen, especially since Kief has such high aspirations for position within the
SCA.  When did this <expletive> about 'we're based on historical society' come
from, and why, in the name of any higher power you care to believe in, did we
ever let it replace 'not as they were, but as they should have been'?

I _know_ something hinkey went on with the populace poll.  For one thing, the
three minute speech was Niklas' idea.  That's why he had two to three days
longer than anybody else to work on it.  For another, the results from the poll
indicate that one pair of candidates got far fewer votes. Good for them, they
_really_ didn't want it. Bad for the barony, I've talked to enough people who
are _insistent_ that they voted for them that they would have had an equal
showing.  Unfortunately, all but about 4 or 5 of the people who voted for them
weren't members.  If you want to go over to a membership required organization,
do it.  Stop letting non-members think they have a voice and doing stuff like
this to them.  Somebody treats me like dirt, it doesn't encourage me to give
them money.

So, for peace, what options are there? If Marius successfully gets anyone to
discuss personal issues, I'll personally be floored.  Do I like Marius?  To put
it bluntly, Hell, no.  He's a self-serving, egotistical, manipulative, little
worm of a man.  If I can agree with someone I feel that strongly about on
anything, doesn't it say something about what I'm agreeing with them on?  I've
tried working my personal issues out.  The people who have problems with me and
who I have problems with don't care to talk.  Well, fine.  you want your "game?"
(Warning to those who really care: 'It's only a game.'  Means 'Let me do it my
way because this isn't the real world where you can stop me.')  Feel free to
play through.  If I can't help fix the problems, I will cease to be a part of
them.

May the handful of people who really make up the power of the barony find or
convince enough people who want the same thing they do to get their goals
accomplished.  I'd like for somebody to be able to have fun.  If I'm wrong about
those people, I wish they would have proven me wrong by talking things over with
me when I tried to talk to them about it.

If you want to respond to me, probably better to do it directly to me.  I don't
know how much longer I'll be subscribed to this list.  If you just want to call
me names, don't bother, please.