I don’t know what it is about hobby groups that cause such heated politics.  Maybe it’s like my wife says: “The politics are so high because the stakes are so low.”  Perhaps I should give some background:

 

I am a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a historical re-creation group which focusses on the time period between the fall of the Roman Empire (~900 A.D.) to the death of Queen Elizabeth (1603 A.D.).  This group is broken up into Kingdoms which encompass the various continents around the world.  The kingdom in which I reside is known as Ansteorra, which covers Oklahoma and most of Texas.  These kingdoms then contain localized chapters known as Baronies, Shires, and Cantons.  The Barony of Namron is my local chapter.

 

I joined the SCA back in 1993 because my wife had been playing for some time.  Being interested in her hobbies, I decided to accompany her to events and participate.  These events usually have fighting, arts and crafts, a “Court” where the King and Queen (and Baron and Baroness of the hosting chapter) reside and give awards.  I found this rather amusing at first, definitely better than sitting on my butt watching the boob tube all weekend.  However after a couple of years, I began to see the less appealing sides of our kingdom:  politics.

 

Most of the Oklahoma membership of the SCA aren’t that well-off.  Therefore some of these less well-to-do people wind up spending most of their time and spare income on the SCA, thus making the SCA their second life (or first life in a few cases).  The SCA becomes a part of their self-worth.  This unfortunately causes some serious issues when their self-worth is challenged or denigrated by being denied an award, or left out of decisions, or whatever they might take offense at.  Some of these people have made the SCA so much a part of their lives that they have earned awards in the SCA while neglecting their real-world responsibilities.  There’s one in particular who has 2 of the top level awards in arts and crafts, and service, plus a “hat” (or coronet for service to the crown).  This person (let’s call them Fogey) has no job, lives in a run-down rented house, and does nothing but play SCA politics.  Fogey has actively slandered many in this group and campaigned against them getting well-deserved recognition simply because Fogey doesn’t like them.   Fogey has spoken out against newcomers, saying “Why can’t these new people just leave so things can get back to the way they were?”  This is the type of person I simply do not understand.

 

 

I love my job.  I love my wife.  I love my son.  The SCA is a hobby.  The awards from that group do mean something, but not enough to attack people for some petty reason, nor enough to take such personal abuse.  I am very reluctant to invest emotional stress into something that in effect means absolutely nothing to my overall self-worth.

 

Fortunately, my wife and I are attracting a new breed of SCA member:  people with means and perspectives like ours.  We hope to form our own household and have our fun despite the petty players.  We see our local chapter heading for a brick wall, where the Fogeys are coming back into “power.”  We believe our local chapter will eventually go through political upheaval due to the Fogeys and the incompetence of young, inexperienced people being placed in a leadership role.  We don’t feel inclined to prevent this because we’ve already tried, but said inexperienced leadership won’t listen to us.  They cover their ears at the first mention of anything bad and go “LA! LA! LA! EVERYTHING’S FINE! LA! LA! DON’T WANNA HEAR POLITICAL CRAP!”

 

So let them burn.  I’ll be enjoying a drink with our new friends and having my own fun despite the Fogeys.  Once the flames die, we’ll be there to help those caught in the crossfire and offer a place to live out what any hobby is supposed to be:

 

Fun.