Definitions, Questions of the Source of Legitimacy

[Lance Harrop <lharrop@mrj.com>]

Earl Dafydd writes about Lord Alfredo's definitions:

> Alfredo, I hope you will not take this the wrong way, but you have
> not clarified things with your definitions.  The above is almost
> incomprehensible BECAUSE of your definitions.  You have created jargon
> that nobody will understand without a cue sheet, and reduced an issue
> of significant intellectual interest (and strong emotional response)
> into meaningless gibberish.

Well, at the risk of being the next subject of His Excellency's comment, 
I would suggest we need to step back a space and ask a question of first 
principles, that being: What is the source of legitimacy for the Crown?

As I see it, there are FOUR possible answers to this question:

The Legitimacy of the BoD.  That is, the authority of the Crown is 
legitimate because the Corporation lays down the rules for chosing the 
Crown, and the Corporation OWNS the game.  

Obviously, if you accept this premise, then changes in the selection of 
the Crown must either fit within the definition of Corpora, probably as 
interrupted by the BoD, or the BoD must be convinced to change Corpora or 
at least grant the applicant a waiver of its requirements.  Something no 
one seemed to think would be possible in the case of KoNordmark.

The Legitimacy of Succession:  By this, the authority of the Crown is 
legitimate because of the line of succession from the establishment of 
the East Kingdom.  Argueably, this succession is strengthen by the fact 
that the first King of Atlantia was currently King of the East when he 
won the first Crown Tourney.

Under this premise, changes of selection are simply not possible, we must 
continue to use the Eastern Rite system of selecting Crowns.  We do not 
necessarily have to use the system currently popular in the East, as it 
may be they, and not US, who have diviated from the legitimate Eastern 
Rite system.

The legitimacy of Commitment:  This might have been described as the 
legitimacy of Prowese, as it says the winner of Crown wins because he is 
the best around.  However, as we know, not all the best knights and 
fighters fight in Crown.  The participants who do win are generally those 
who are both willing to commit time to improving their skills to the 
level where they are viable Crown finalists and semi-finalists, and are 
also willing to commit to actually serving as Crown.

Under this premise, you don't question how we chose Crowns, but you do 
question HOW they serve on the Thrones.  I think this is a premise 
accepted by a large number of Atlantians, including a number of recent 
Crowns.  Unfortunately, the reputation of the office is very dependent on 
the level of commitment actually provided by the couples sitting on the 
throne.  And that reputation, and our expectations, carry from reign to 
reign.

The last possiblity is the legitimacy of Acknowledgement:  The authority 
of the Crown is dependent on the Acknowledgement of the Populace that the 
couple is, no matter how they are selected, the best people to fulfill 
the duties of the Crown.  That is, the populace accepts the selection of 
the heirs as the next Crown, making the authority of that Crown legitimate.

This premise means, however, that changes in selecting the Crown are 
something which can, and should, be made at the Kingdom level by the 
populace, and should focus on a selection system which will obtain us 
candidates most able to fulfill the most important duties of the Crown.

----------------------
All that being said, I believe in the legitimacy of Acknowledgement and I 
believe in the selection of the Crown's heirs by a heavy weapons tourney...

..BECAUSE, the most important duty of the Crown is the recognition of 
Merit in the populace of the Kingdom.  Not court ability, not leading 
wars, not the ability to conduct diplomacy, not meeting management, not 
heading curia.  The most important Royal duty is giving people their 
cookies.  

The Society is a volunteer organization which would collapse if not for 
the efforts of a (ever changing) fraction of the populace.  The Kingdom 
needs volunteers for officers, autocrats, cooks and waterbearers.  We 
can not have fun without these people.

You can't coerce people to serve, they either do it badly or they simply 
leave.  You can not rely on the same people all the time, they burn-out 
or go stale.  And you can not rely on one group of people to recognize 
merit, because they will develop blind spots and miss the merit of some 
people.

Crown Tourney have the possibility, not always realized, of putting fresh 
perspectives on the Throne, and seeing that every worthy candidate has 
the opportunity to be seen.  Lord Henry would say that no one should 
serve in expectation of getting their cookie, because no matter what they 
do, they are not guarenteed of it.  That may be true, but that does not 
mean the Crown should not strive to be fair and appropriate in giving out 
cookies, or that the populace should expect the Crown to be other then fair.

There is no validity in arguing that the Crown should be ARBITARY in 
giving awards, so that the populace will NOT think to serve in the 
expectation of getting a cookie.  That is simply unjust and obscene, and 
does not get us a better caliber of volunteers.

Consider the last dozen of Crown winners and the ratio of new to repeat 
office holders:

	Olaf		Repeat			South
	Anton		New			Central
	Galmr		New			North
	Michael		Repeat			Central
	Steffan		New			North
	Cuan		New			Central
	Kane		New			South (moved since)
	Anton		Repeat			Central
	Thorbrandr	New			North
	Michael		Repeat			Central
	Cuan		Repeat, but new Queen	Central
	Galmr		Repeat			North

That is half and half, and a little better when you consider Queen Brigit 
brings a new perspective to the Throne.  The South may have been a little 
weak in representation, but not terribly.  I'll let you consider 
household alignments from your own perspectives.

This change of prespective, allowing different attitudes and viewpoints 
to get to the throne, and different groups of candidates to be recognized 
for their merit, is the great virtue of our system.  Only in rare 
instances are any aspiring Crown contestants told they may not compete, 
and usually if they wait a few years, they can get back into the game.

The opportunity for someone new to win Crown, and knight, pelican and 
laurel whom they think is appropriate, always exists.

Until someone convinces me that ONE, this is not the foremost duty of the 
Crown, and TWO, that there is a better method for finding candidates for 
performing this duty other then free entry tourneys, I will support the 
current method and ACKNOWLEDGE the Crown Prince by-right-of-arms as the 
legitimate heir to the Throne of Atlantia.

In Service
Leifr Johansson

though I think that sucession of a territorial prince will still serve 
the purpose just as well ;-).
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