Re: The Glorantha Digest V6 #555 from Brian Tickler on 1999-04-27 (Glorantha Digest Vol 06)

From: Brian Tickler <tickler_at_netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 10:57:51 -0700 (PDT)

> Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 16:33:58 EDT
> From: <Kmnellist_at_aol.com>
> Subject: Re: The Glorantha Digest V6 #545
>
> Brian Tickler:
> << leaving Prax is not really an option, as other cultures will reject your
> average Praxian if they don't "civilize" themselves somehow, and leaving
> your tribe is pretty much unthinkable for your average Praxian anyway...>>
>
> I think there are plenty of examples of Praxians who have left Prax - mostly
> to raid admittedly, but several times to become part of the culture that they
> invaded - I'm thinking of some Bison riders who became the lords of part of
> Peloria for a bit, the Sable People of Hungry Plateau.

Yes, but these were whole groups. An individual Praxian who's not a bigwig of some kind would have a pretty hard time picking up and leaving, which is what I was referring to.

> Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 12:04:33 +0100
> From: simonh_at_msi-uk.com (Simon Hibbs)
>
> >Ummm, when I made the analogy above, I was referring to military in the
> >RW...you know, like I did further down with Catholic priests? How this
> >translates into your understanding that I'm saying that Stormbull is the
> >miltary arm of Waha...*especially* given the discussions we've just waded
> >through...well, its Befuddling :).
>
> If you were not comparing 'the military' to the storm bull cult,
> what were you doing?

I was comparing the tendency in Glorantha to stereotype Stormbulls to forms of RW stereotyping. Pretty simple, really.

> None of these opinions have been expressed by anyone other than you in the
> above paragraph. There are enough straw men in there to field an army of the
> damn things.

Yep...funny how when I do that, though, it's "straw manning", but when it's done to me (or others who may post controversial viewpoints), it's seen as "paraphrasing". Maybe you hadn't noticed ;), but I have to pepper every post I make with smileys and disclaimers simply to avoid the next straw man going up. They go up anyway, of course, and I have to post copiously just to tear them down, if I can. It's the preferred form of arguing points in this forum, IMO, so I find it hypocritical to come down on the "minority POV" when they use it, yet ignore that it's happening when employed to espouse the "majority POV"...

Examples of straw men of me that are still burning unchecked:

Brian hates everything about HW (when I've said I will actually use parts of it)
Brian hates everything about Issaries, Inc. (when I've said I want them to succeed, just disagree with several decisions)
Brian hates anything after RQ2 (when I own and haved used most every post-RQ2 publication)
Brian is the ultimate powergamer; he only plays with the "power" cults (when I'm in fact arguing for Stormbulls in Prax to be played in a very "non-powergamer" fashion)
Brian and his play group, and every play group he knows, are all munchkins (no way to disprove that one unless you play in one of our games, I guess)

There are actually more that I was about to post from older threads; then I realized that the very act of posting them would just perpetuate them. I can't "win" in this forum by arguing anything out of the mainstream view held here; I've already accepted that. Now I just try put my POV out there, make sure it isn't distorted beyond recognition, and I'm happy if I partially succeed at this.

> >Anyway, this thread seems to have run its course (at least for me), since
> >I'm mostly having to defend myself in the last few posts, and not my opinions...
>
> Being above miss-characterizing anyone elses opinion yourself, of course.

Not at all.

The way I know when a thread is over is when all my posts are just "parrying" posts with no new content coming from either side. Like this one. Good day... :)

-- Brian T. Tickler

End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #557