Re: S.C.A. Moral Attraciveness

[Matthew Allen Newsome <mnewsome@warren-wilson.edu>]

Poster: Matthew Allen Newsome <mnewsome@warren-wilson.edu>

How?   By displaying the attitude you have in your letter.  By realizing 
that things are not the way they should be, as you have done.  By talking 
wiht people about it, as you are doing.  If enough people look around and 
say "Hey!  Wait a minute!" then changes will happen.  The society has 
changed.  It will keep changing.  Our attitudes, and how we display them 
will affect how it changes.  One example....  at a recent event there 
were a group of people who wore Gothic (and I don't mean Visigoth) 
clothes, played very loud, VERY modern music from their cabin, and pretty 
much didn't even try to play our game.  I was annoyed, but I didn't want 
to cause a scene, because a "scene" would annoy me just as greatly.  I 
chose not to be around them, and to play my game and have fun.  And I 
did.  If enough people choose not to be around them, then maybe those 
particular people will stop thinking SCA events are so cool and not 
participate (or they will try and play our game with us, and adopt our 
ways).  I'm not talking about mindless conformity, just abiding by the 
few rules we have that bind us together.  The same goes for theives, 
Vampires, Dead-heads, and the like.  Regardless of what happens, I will 
play my game and have fun, and I'll try and drag as many people with me 
as I can.
IT'S ONLY A GAME
(I find myself saying that alot lately..)
Oh, and "Hi" Niall!
Aye,
Eogan

On Sat, 7 Sep 1996, Bards keep wrote:

> 
> Poster: Bards keep <s0jswelc@atlas.vcu.edu>
> 
> 
>     Unto the Merry Rose does Niall MacFarlane send greetings!
> 
> 
> I have been doing some reading on the history of the Catholic
> church and came across some parallels between some of our morals and
> morals of the early christian church. Not all of them mind you,
> but certain things like showing decency and care to your fellow
> man, and "taking care of brethren on journeys" and generally
> trying to behave in a decent and honorable way.
>   This is one of the things that at first kept me in the S.C.A.
> was the fact that "the dream" seemed to be the goal we were all
> after. a lifestyle of honor, chivalry and brotherhood that I had
> never seen before. Even I, a relative youngster that I am, only
> being in 6 years, remember at the war being able to leave your
> wallet out in plain view in a commons tent and not have to worry
> about it. An automatic assumption of trust was a thing that
> truely attracted me to this society.
> 
> 	Since then, However, I have learned that the sca either
> was not the place I originally thought, or that we are going
> through some really bad changes.
>    I have seen and heard of cases of dishonesty and outright
> thievery that have really appauled me. First starting out with
> someone that I knew preaching to newbies that "you dont have to
> pay for events.. you can just sneak by troll and go for free"
> and then going to people outright stealing money from events
> wholesale. Another example is when a former queen (or was it princess
> at the time.. I cant quite remember...) having her crown stolen
> from camp. I know just at this last pennsic that we had several
> things stolen just from my camp alone. And on top of all that,
> cases of just plain intolerance to the point where one group or
> individual tries to completely drive another out of the society!
>   I have seen that one more thimes than I feel comfortable with.
> These things are not only done by your everyday member, but thoes
> we have put the highest accolades apon.
> 
> 	What I am trying to relay in all this is.... what is the
> solution to all this? I have heard trying to provide good
> example.. which is good, but not always effective. We are a
> society that has grown by leaps and bounds, and I think that in
> our growing we have lost some of what we hold dear.
>     Like the Pennsic pamphlet said this year.. we need to take
> back what is ours.... my question is .... How?
> 
> 
> 
> Ld. Niall MacFarlane
> 
> Azure, a saltaire or, in base, a natural dolphin or. (I think)
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