Kingmakers
(cross-posted from Facebook)
I was witness to some distinctly nasty behavior at the last baronial meeting. A couple stormed out of the hall, apparently outraged a Lord and Lady were “uppity”.
Now, I know next to nothing about any of the people involved, but I’ve seen this sort of behavior in every creative endeavor I’ve participated in, be in theater, the SCA, live action games - you name it. It always bugs me. The objects of these people’s outrage work hard. They spent a lot of time and effort to get make several projects work in the SCA. I have no idea what the standard for “too proud” might be, but the object of these folk's scorn certainly do have very valid reasons to be proud of the work they’ve done.
The SCA seems particularly thick with this sort of envy at times, and there are days when I wish that the whole system of honors - knights, barons, kings, all of it - would get tossed out on its ear just to shut these people up. Think someone’s acting like a king? There. No kings anywhere. Happy?
Of course, the dirty secret is that even if you did throw out the peerage, it wouldn’t affect the majority of peers in the slightest. They would continue to do the things that earned them their position. Knights would continue to be good sportsmen and exhibit the virtues that make them testaments to the Society. Pelicans would keep volunteering for the jobs no one wants and everyone needs. Laurels would continue to learn and teach history, and in doing so make the SCA actually mean something. Barons and Baronesses would continue to organize the whole thing and herd SCA members into something resembling organization. Just about the only meaningful difference would be that the King wouldn’t be obligated to travel through multiple states on his own time and at his own expense to perform a job, that, when you really look hard at it, has no power at all.
And in truth, it wouldn’t stop the whiners, either. They’d still complain that these people were “getting uppity” and being shown too much respect, even when all the veils were stripped away.
I loathe hearing this kind of bleating. It makes my fun time every week that much more unpleasant. I doubt that anything I write could affect people who behave like this, but expressing my annoyance helps me feel better. Consider this my tiny little declaration of war on a persistent sin within the SCA: “Hey you! It’s me - the new guy. That noise you’re making? I know what it is. And throwing out your pettiness onto the floor for the world to see is really disgusting, you know? Why don’t you sit down and be quiet so we can have fun.”
My greatest consolation is this: the people who complain that “Peer X” has too big a crown, or that “Peer Y” seems too proud of their position, have no real understanding of the peerage. Pride comes from deeds, not belts and hats. And that lack of understanding pretty much means that I’ll never see those people with a gaudy belt or hat in my lifetime.
I was witness to some distinctly nasty behavior at the last baronial meeting. A couple stormed out of the hall, apparently outraged a Lord and Lady were “uppity”.
Now, I know next to nothing about any of the people involved, but I’ve seen this sort of behavior in every creative endeavor I’ve participated in, be in theater, the SCA, live action games - you name it. It always bugs me. The objects of these people’s outrage work hard. They spent a lot of time and effort to get make several projects work in the SCA. I have no idea what the standard for “too proud” might be, but the object of these folk's scorn certainly do have very valid reasons to be proud of the work they’ve done.
The SCA seems particularly thick with this sort of envy at times, and there are days when I wish that the whole system of honors - knights, barons, kings, all of it - would get tossed out on its ear just to shut these people up. Think someone’s acting like a king? There. No kings anywhere. Happy?
Of course, the dirty secret is that even if you did throw out the peerage, it wouldn’t affect the majority of peers in the slightest. They would continue to do the things that earned them their position. Knights would continue to be good sportsmen and exhibit the virtues that make them testaments to the Society. Pelicans would keep volunteering for the jobs no one wants and everyone needs. Laurels would continue to learn and teach history, and in doing so make the SCA actually mean something. Barons and Baronesses would continue to organize the whole thing and herd SCA members into something resembling organization. Just about the only meaningful difference would be that the King wouldn’t be obligated to travel through multiple states on his own time and at his own expense to perform a job, that, when you really look hard at it, has no power at all.
And in truth, it wouldn’t stop the whiners, either. They’d still complain that these people were “getting uppity” and being shown too much respect, even when all the veils were stripped away.
I loathe hearing this kind of bleating. It makes my fun time every week that much more unpleasant. I doubt that anything I write could affect people who behave like this, but expressing my annoyance helps me feel better. Consider this my tiny little declaration of war on a persistent sin within the SCA: “Hey you! It’s me - the new guy. That noise you’re making? I know what it is. And throwing out your pettiness onto the floor for the world to see is really disgusting, you know? Why don’t you sit down and be quiet so we can have fun.”
My greatest consolation is this: the people who complain that “Peer X” has too big a crown, or that “Peer Y” seems too proud of their position, have no real understanding of the peerage. Pride comes from deeds, not belts and hats. And that lack of understanding pretty much means that I’ll never see those people with a gaudy belt or hat in my lifetime.