[MR] Re: Atlantia Digest, Vol 10, Issue 27

[Brett W. McCoy]

Kandi32583 at aol.com wrote:

> First off. Let me just thank Master Nikulai and Mistress Nia for a wonderful 
> bit of humor to lighten the "TROLL" convo.  I haven't been in the SCA too 
> long, but I do know that I love it.  Especially with all its little quirks.  The 
> SCA wasn't started as a "research and document" historical society.  It started 
> with some people who like to get together and do "medieval" stuff...It 
> snowballed into the great organization we have today.  Maybe it is time for a change 
> of some words and maybe not.  The question I have to ask though, is "Why?".  
> If we are doing this to be more PC, then to me that is not a reason.  What in 
> the SCA is totally PC?  For that matter, Who in the SCA is PC?  However, if 
> "Troll" offends the vast majority of the populace, then by all means change it.  
> And for those of you who think it is "just a word", please rethink that, a 
> word would not cause this much drama to ensue.

It has nothing to do with being PC or trying to not offend anyone, it's 
a question of just how medieval we really want to be.  There was a 
thread recently about how the other historical groups look at the SCA 
with contempt, as if it were just a LARP or something similar.  I 
remember many years ago how the SCA looked down on groups like Dagorhir 
(I was in Dagorhir then) for similar reasons.  I think it ultimately is 
the underlying attitude that using invented terms that are part of SCA 
traditions but are not medieval is less "fun" than using the more 
accurate terms (and I personally find being medieval "fun", it's why I 
joined the SCA, and I presume it's why most people joined the SCA, to be 
medieval, right?)  Changing words like "troll" and "farspeaker" is 
really just treating the symptom... there's still the underlying 
attitude that simply cannot be regulated.

-- Istvan
                                           http://www.chapelperilous.net/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
		-- Albert Einstein