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Not As It Was, But As It Should Have Been
May. 5th, 2014 04:03 pmTruly I am watching history being made.
I'm reading the current traffic on the Carolingia list about the Baronial Succession Debate (BSD).
Let us not forget that the consequence of going to the mat -- and some of us burned breathtaking amounts of social capital demanding that the Barony treat the process seriously, in the face of stiff opposition -- was that after eight months of people saying, "Why are we wasting all this time and effort deciding how we'll elect [NAME REDACTED]?"*, we elected Aquel and Johanna instead.
Turns out that candidate slate that "everybody knew" was the one "everyone wanted to win".... wasn't.
In light of that, the ceaseless bellyaching about how much time we were spending on the BSD does not at all sound like "figur[ing] out contingencies while they were still theoretical, and could be debated without anyone taking the matter personally."
The subtext of the BSD was whether we were going to rubberstamp the preferences of a small old-boys/tinhat club, or whether we were actually going to hold an actual goddamned election. We held an election. The people won.
And that's a good thing. But I have to say, the fact we had to fight that out, over eight months, against opposition every step of the way... that was not so good a thing. It certainly plummeted my till-then reasonably high esteem of a number of people, and the barony's culture as a whole.
There are things I remember about the BSD that are so appalling, that to even mention them makes me the bad guy for ripping the scabs off old wounds. How nice to remember that "we brought in a statistician" to present on the different kinds of voting method -- do you also remember the mathematicians in attendence in a fury at how biased and factually incorrect it was? The heated interruptions? I remember. I could name the names. I won't, because the one thing Carolingia has least been able to handle is facts; let sleeping dogs lie, etc. That is the least of what I recall.
But, O Carolingia, don't mind me. Carry on with your myth making. I love your myth. It's beautiful. Would that we had been that. We weren't. We were nothing so worthy. But do, do remember us thus. Remember it all thus. Not as it was, but as it should have been.
* Pretty much actual quote of an actual email to the Carolingia list.
I'm reading the current traffic on the Carolingia list about the Baronial Succession Debate (BSD).
One of the most notable aspects of the whole thing at the time was that, after *many* months of sometimes heated debate about the process, the actual election was remarkably calm, quick and uncontroversial...And surprising.
Let us not forget that the consequence of going to the mat -- and some of us burned breathtaking amounts of social capital demanding that the Barony treat the process seriously, in the face of stiff opposition -- was that after eight months of people saying, "Why are we wasting all this time and effort deciding how we'll elect [NAME REDACTED]?"*, we elected Aquel and Johanna instead.
Turns out that candidate slate that "everybody knew" was the one "everyone wanted to win".... wasn't.
In light of that, the ceaseless bellyaching about how much time we were spending on the BSD does not at all sound like "figur[ing] out contingencies while they were still theoretical, and could be debated without anyone taking the matter personally."
The subtext of the BSD was whether we were going to rubberstamp the preferences of a small old-boys/tinhat club, or whether we were actually going to hold an actual goddamned election. We held an election. The people won.
And that's a good thing. But I have to say, the fact we had to fight that out, over eight months, against opposition every step of the way... that was not so good a thing. It certainly plummeted my till-then reasonably high esteem of a number of people, and the barony's culture as a whole.
There are things I remember about the BSD that are so appalling, that to even mention them makes me the bad guy for ripping the scabs off old wounds. How nice to remember that "we brought in a statistician" to present on the different kinds of voting method -- do you also remember the mathematicians in attendence in a fury at how biased and factually incorrect it was? The heated interruptions? I remember. I could name the names. I won't, because the one thing Carolingia has least been able to handle is facts; let sleeping dogs lie, etc. That is the least of what I recall.
But, O Carolingia, don't mind me. Carry on with your myth making. I love your myth. It's beautiful. Would that we had been that. We weren't. We were nothing so worthy. But do, do remember us thus. Remember it all thus. Not as it was, but as it should have been.
* Pretty much actual quote of an actual email to the Carolingia list.
