[MR] opinion on peerage...

[Britni Newton]

Honestly, I kind of wonder what politics are supposed to be played in order to "win".  Everyone says "politics" with disparaging tones, but what do you mean by politics?  

If by politics, do you mean making efforts to teach / share your work/ build better mousetraps / fight a lot of knights [and win]?  Then yes, like several others said before I got around to hitting send,  you do have to demonstrate that you are providing a positive influence, sharing your knowledge, leading battles, teaching / helping others, working your tail feathers off to make the kingdom better.  Peers are supposed to guide and help others, and you can't do that if absolutely no one knows who the heck you are.   If you know of someone who is super awesome and overlooked, why haven't you  (nonspecific you intended to convey general rhetorical opponent) written them in for a recommendation yet?

If by politics do you mean making the effort to be a calm, rational voice in the kingdom, attempting to remain on the higher moral ground despite the sometimes severe urge to go stomp mudholes in people, and demonstrate the courtesy and grace that we all strive to exemplify?  It'd be nice.  You don't have to be a Peer to want to try to make our society a nicer place.  But everyone's screwed up after a bad day.  Some of us multiple times.  Nobody expects perfection, just the constant effort to be better.

If by politics you mean having to dress a very specific way, then no.  I've never worn Elizabethan in my life, and it's only by the long-suffering efforts of very determined friends that I ever manage to look presentable at all.  Much props to those who can manage to look awesome and be awesome at the same time, but I have a magnetic attraction to ink and will be happy to admire from the splash zone.  

If by politics you mean finding the peer group of your choice and kissing ass for years on end?  Probably not.  Amazingly enough, it usually still matters whether you're putting in the time, love, and effort to improve your art / prowess / service. 

If by politics you mean hanging out with the cool kids, well, we're ALL the cool kids.  If you're picking your friends by how well they can reflect light into space, you're missing out on getting to be friends with a LOT of super nifty people.

If by politics you mean attaching yourself to the King and Queen like a limpet, I don't know of anyone who got a Peerage in retaining (despite some of them probably deserving it.)

For the TL:DR crowd - There are no politics.  Go be awesome, have fun following your bliss, and be excellent to each other.  Seriously.  Relax.  We are really all too lazy/busy to foster conspiracies and secret cabals.

Livia Z., (OL) -  who would like to lobby for kingdom law to include the phrase "Be excellent to each other."
 


> Date: Mon, 2 May 2011 08:25:47 -0700
> From: kyrilex at yahoo.com
> To: atlantia at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org
> Subject: Re: [MR] opinion on peerage...
> 
> I am just wondering whether it's an absolute necessity, as it seems to be, to 
> play the politics in order to be recognized. I have a very dear friend who' been 
> a superb woodcarver for the last 30 years, teaching, doing everything one would 
> expect a laurel to do and beyond...it would appear that if she was willing to 
> 'put on elizabethan garb and hob-nob with the right people', she would have been 
> a laurel decades ago. However, she (and other similiar folks I've known over the 
> years) dances to the beat of her own drum and cares not for the drama...if we 
> were in Tudor England, one would say that we do not care for 'life at court'.
> 
> 
>  -- Isabelle LaFar
> http://www.HouseBarra.com
> Experience is what you get, when things go awry.
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