[Sca-cooks] Politics rant

[david friedman]

>What on this green earth requires that I spend time
>worrying about what other people are, think, or do? I
>can't control them, and I have no desire to. They
>can't control me, whether they want to or not, unless
>I let them.


>Phlip,

This is related to a conclusion I reached a very long time ago, with
regard to the Society in general and Pennsic in particular.

If I think of Pennsic (say) as a single thing, which isn't worth
doing unless it is done right, the situation is pretty nearly
hopeless. Even if I were willing to put all of my time and energy
into making Pennsic (or the Society) more nearly what I think it
ought to be, I do not think I could succeed--it's gotten too big.

One the other hand, if I view Pennsic (or the Society) as an
environment within which I can choose what to do, who to interact
with, it's an attractive one. I don't have to spend my time at
Pennsic attending parties where people get drunk and try to seduce
each other, or arguing about what kingdom's rules apply where, or
talking about sf or mundane politics. I can take or teach classes in
things that interest me, run my bardic circle where people come who
like the kind of thing I like, walk across Runestone to Tagmata and
hear Vis reading from Homer or visit with Carolingian friends, attend
the cooks' potluck, discover a merchant from An Tir whose knives are
even better executions of the stuff in the knives and scabbards books
than the one I got from a merchant from Caid a few wars earlier (that
particular An Tirian merchant was the one who responded to my query
about what the evidence was that sword scabbards were made entirely
of leather with "they weren't. I can make you one right, but it costs
more"), ...  . And Pennsic gives me a place to find and interact with
those people in the SCA who are sympathetic to my approach to what
the SCA should be like.

So what matters isn't the average, it's the high points.
--
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/