StatCounter

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Kings and peasants



I’ve a lot of friends who participate in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronisms.) Basically, they are Medieval reenactors. They have a good time. They dress up, eat and drink well, play Medieval music, shoot crossbows and have battles. A lot of old skills are kept alive because of them.

There is one thing that prevents me from joining: royalty. They take their Medieval society stuff seriously enough to have kings, queens, and all the rest. I’ve a dislike of royalty that goes all way down to my DNA. It’s so bad that even phony pretend royalty, all in fun, triggers an aversion response.

One can imagine my distaste for real royalty is much greater. It’s one thing if a country like England wants to keep pet royalty, but why should other peoples care? When Americans fawn over visiting royals, it turns my stomach. Didn’t we have a revolution to do away with such foolishness?

Of course, I dislike anyone who claims authority over me. Yep, I’ve got a real problem. Maybe it’s never outgrowing my teenage rebellious years? I actually wasn’t all that much trouble as a kid. My folks and I got along well, as I respected them. Some teachers had problems with me, but I still got decent grades.

As an adult I was a Firefighter. My commanding officers had earned my respect so following their orders only made sense. I trusted them. What about the occasional officer who didn’t have my full trust? Frankly, then it was a matter of picking and choosing what commands to obey. How could that happen? Any number of ways. Let’s just say in the chaos of a fire, all commands are not followed. Sometimes the radios just go dead. It helps if your buddies back you up.

Government officials, both elected and unelected, don’t automatically get any respect. I judge them as individuals. Titles and badges carry little weight. Kings and royalty, are the worse. We are supposed to respect them because of an accident of birth? At least some titles are earned and have qualifications. Being born in an ancient band of thugs who crawled to the top of the heap should be an embarrassment. There are a few “royals” who’ve made a mark in the world, not because of their birth, but in spite of it.

My aversion to royalty has plenty of logical reasons, but there are enough of those. Who knows, maybe I got caught poaching on the king’s land in a former life.

-Sixbears



13 comments:

  1. My wife once asked me how people became kings in the first place. I told her that, generally, they stabbed their cousins in the back before their cousins could stab them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sorry mate but you fought the war against taxes, not the royalty per se. And it is not England, it is Great Britain or the United Kingdom if you like. That will not change your opinion but will make you better informed.

    Not arguing with your views, just the facts around them. US history is just as screwed up. Why aren't Native Amiracans running the country?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Native Americans aren't running the country because disease destroyed them. Until that happened, they did fine. The Vikings couldn't get established here.

      Yes, it was taxes, but royalty wasn't too popular either. Maybe getting rid of them was just a happy byproduct? :)

      Delete
  3. Lord Sixbears, there's always aversion therapy...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ah, The SCA... A lot of them cringe when I show up. I do 6 th century Celt. As a life long blacksmith I could put most of their fighters in the dirt using those gelded rules of combat. The brewing and wine making competitions are WOW. There it ends. I don't do snobbery and shivalry.... and shiv is right on the money...Back stabbing, and there the fun ends.
    My 8 year old niece got me started in SCA archery. They said I wouldn't amount to much as I had waited till my 40's to get started. Today I shoot for money and while I still practice with sca folks, I do not compete with them any longer, as they aren't competition any longer and there are some good archers out there.
    But to be fair, I do owe a debt of gratitude for the one society member, an retired olympic coach, for getting me on the right track.
    I'll make ya grin, I went to an event on my birthday some years back and got wasted with a former queen of our kingdom. She was cute and could drink like a celt. She was late to court the following day and pizzed off the baron and baroness. Acktttthhhhbbttt!The rest of the court whom tried to keep up, light weights all, were holding their heads.
    To give them credit, They were holding their own until I brought out my gallon of honey meade and when it was gone brought out the gallon of moon shine with cherries. I'm not invited back.... : )
    My Scottish side holds with hanging all kings and nobles and such. The english crown has always tried to get rid off some esteemed members of our families and even and entire clan. S' rioghal mo dhream...
    To them I say missed me. I'm still standing. My head is still attached to my torso... Grin.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good fun!

      Ah, those darn rules of combat. I decided to not play with them as it would ruin years of training with a staff. I worked hard to learn all those dirty tricks.



      Delete
  5. I don't know why you can't just be a paragon of obedience like I am.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That might fool someone who doesn't know you . . . at all.

      Delete
  6. "Pet Royalty"... such a great term, and true.

    ReplyDelete