Re: Acknowledgement

["Susan and Frank Downs" <sfdowns@pinn.net>]

Title: Re: Acknowledgement

Your Grace,

What on earth do you mean by "lowering the standard?"  When have I said anything about "lowering the standard?"  What I'm saying is that victory on the list should be a matter of skill at arms rather than "threshhold of pain."  Because you think of fighting as a sport, you seem to make no distinction between boffer weapons and heavy fighting.  Everyone gets a chance to play, if only for the J.V.  That's absurd on the face of it.  People don't make steel plate armor to fight with boffer weapons, and when's the next boffer crown or Emerald Joust?  Who's the latest boffer knight?  We don't confer anything like the prestige of heavy weapons on boffer weapons.  Your pretending that we do, along with your vague cries of "lowering the standard," and telling people that if they can't match your "threshhold for pain" or "don't want to get hurt" they should get out are what I'm condemning as elitist.  It's also what I was referring to as "might makes right."  What I would like to get through to you is that I know the risks I take when I fight, but I don't want people like you making me have to risk injuring someone else in order to fight successfully.  You're wrecking my game by turning it into a savage bloodsport.  That's the problem I see in fighting.  If this is simply my point of view, then you can just write me off as a crackpot, but I'm pretty sure that's not the case, so I think it's a real problem.

Of course people have a right to fight, they just have to authorize, which, in the past, just about anyone could do, with enough determination.  You talk about throwing a "telling blow," but the point you seem to be missing, or willfully overlooking is that your "telling blow" may well be, and probably is, different from my "telling blow."  Furthermore, I am willing to bet that both of them vary, unintentionally of course, depending on circumstances.  In the heat of a melee it probably takes more to get either of our attention than in a leisurely bout with a new fighter.  I'm not saying that either of us is "cheating," simply that we're in different mindsets which alter our perceptions.

The sad fact is that you, and people like you, do set the standards.

In service,

Takenoshita Naro (m.k.a. Frank Downs)
----------
From: Logan and/or Arielle <sirlogan@mail.clt.bellsouth.net>
To: Susan Downs <sfdowns@pinn.net>
Subject: Re: Acknowledgement
Date: Tue, Feb 9, 1999, 8:22 AM


> Susan Downs wrote: 
> > The internet is too slow a medium for my fury, for such it has become, and I find myself compelled to write before my last letter can be responded to.  The views espoused by Duke Logan in this letter are precisely the cause of the problems with fighting in Atlantia today.  They are the exact antithesis of chivalry, and it chagrins me that anyone who holds them is in any position of influence.  Of course, these attitudes have been around for a long time, they just haven't had a spokesman.  It doesn't take any more skill for a fighter to say "you can't hit me hard enough to make me accept your blows," just a willingness and ability to set aside the possibly injurious consequences of such a posture.  This kind of elitist, "might makes right" attitude is both ethically wrong and practically futile.  It discourages new fighters and injures old ones. 
> >
> > Sincerely, 
> >
> > Takenoshita Naro 
> > >  
>
> There is a higher standard for someone who wants to fight heavy than there is for someone who wants to fight with boffer weapons. In my mind that means that there is the opportunity for most people to engage in combat in one form or another. 
>
> Just how low do you think that we should lower the standard Takenoshita? There is a level that we all must follow when it comes to fighting. I stand firmly behind my original post and take great issue with your statement. People do not have a right to fight.  They may fight if they can successfully complete an authorization.  Part of which is the ability to throw a telling blow.  Are you suggesting that we should authorize a fighter who cannot throw a telling blow? Imagine the frustration that this person will experience. In tournaments they may hit their opponent as hard as they can in the head only to have the shot called light, i.e. below the given standard. Is it fair to set this person up for this kind of frustration time after time? I say no, that would be an injustice to that individual. For you to vent your fury at me for stating facts as to the way the system is set up throughout the SCA is ludicrous. I do not set the standard, I simply pointed out what it is. 
>
> Furthermore, you have twisted my words to have a totally different meaning. I simply stated that there is, currently, a standard in which we all must meet.  I have never expected a fighter to have to hit me as hard as I can hit them in order for their blow to be good. I am not nor ever have been a proponent of "might makes right". For you to imply that these were my words is insulting. 
>
> You claim that there are problems with fighting in Atlantia today. What exactly are these problems that you speak of?  Are they really problems that have affected many people or, simply, your view? It seems to me that a kingdom that has such a high percentage of fighters isn't exactly experiencing that many "problems". 
>
> Finally, I would like to know how my post could have been taken as "elitist"? I simply offered an alternative for those that can not, or, will not make the 'standard' and still wish to engage in combat.  There really are very few differences between heavy fighting and boffer fighting. 
>  
>  
>
> Logan 
>  
>
> _____________________________________________________________ 
> Vis,  Fortitudo, Prudentia 
> _____________________________________________________________ 
> "For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack." 
> -Rudyard Kipling 
>