Note:  This is from a post from my local groups e-mail list in response to comments on my level of activity recently.

Warning:  Extreamly opinionated article.  If you are the kind who thinks the SCA can do nothing wrong or if you believe in "The Dream" tm. Hit the Back button now.

    Recently it has come to my attention that some people feel I haven't been
entirely honest about my lack of activity.  People want to know the real
reason I haven't been coming to feast and fighter practice.

     Well those people were right. I have not been honest with you or myself.
This is an honest and sincere reply.  This is not an attack or rebuttal on
my part just as much honesty as I can come up with on the subject.  This is
not aimed at any one though Rory's comments both in public and in private
have made me re-think things again.  It's not his fault and I hold no
malice against him for his words I just feel that he and you all deserve an
explanation for my actions.

     Sorry I know there are new people here and people who don't know me very
well but I feel everyone needs to hear this.  Don't let my thoughts color
your perception of the SCA.  If it's fun for you then your in the right
place.  This is just the reason it's no fun for me anymore.

    You want the truth.  Well here it is.  I'm tired and fed up with the SCA.
I don't really want to even be a part of it any more.  It's got little or
nothing to do with Lost Forest.  The SCA is just not the kind of group I
want to be a part of any longer.  I do not fit in.  I care about
authenticity too much.  I hate demos.  I hate the way everyone does them
not just us.  I've never been to one that was educational.  Not a problem
at a fair type demo but a big problem for me in a classroom demo.  Every
time I get one thank you for trying to promote authenticity or help someone
towards that goal I get five or six who oppose it for one reason or another.
 I'm not going to change my stance on it either.
     IMHO the SCA is not a medieval re-creation organization by any stretch of
the imagination.  Just because you can learn some medieval crafts in the
SCA doesn't mean we re-create the middle ages.  It's a fantasy LARP.  Which I
wouldn't have a problem with if that's what we said it was.  Instead the
SCA is a big lie.  It says it's one thing then does another thing.  It
hasn't fooled anyone but itself and grade school teachers.
     It's not fun for me.  Some people may like the fact that the SCA has no
standards.  I don't.  It just makes for one big mess.  I keep coming
across LARP groups with more standards than we have.  Both socially and in
the rules.  Yet we keep saying that we are doing it the right way.  That we
are re-creating the Middle Ages "As they should have been".  The only way
to re-create anything is "As it was" or as close as you can get within
reason.  A lot of the things we do are not even within reason.  And we do
so without shame.  And we still say we're the best.  How can we know since
99% of our population hasn't experienced anything else.  We say our knights
are the only true knights.  We berate all splinter groups regardless of
what they are doing.  But what the hell are we doing? I couldn't tell you.
The only thing I could apporximate it as would be a fantasy LARP with few
rules of any kind.  It works amazingly well in that respect but not at all
in any other.
     So I have three or four options.
    I could say "Screw it" to the SCA but then where would I get the
satisfaction of having a good medieval outlet.  I would have no way to
participate in the thrill of armoured combat. The problem is you can't just
have the combat and the armour.  You have to put up with all the other
crap.  I would also miss my friends.

    I could just give up on authenticity and jump into the goob sea.  I've
always wanted to make a suit of fantasy armour.  Authenticity is a pain in
the ass anyway so why bother especially when I get more scorn for it than
praise.  But I know better so I am forced to do better.  I cannot force
myself to compromise any more than I do now and I can only see myself
moving forward in that respect.

    I could start my own group.  I've tried.  I haven't pursued it to the level
I would like to but I may decide to do that soon sink or swim.  I've been
trying to get the Tournament companies to make their own organization.
While I have recieved some positive feedback most people are hesitant to
leave an organization they have grown so use to.  Note I did not say fond
of.  Many of the TC members have just as many gripes with the SCA as I do
but it's all they know.  Further many are Knights, Counts, and Dukes.  Many
are also Laurels as well.  The have worked for years getting where they are
and if they start into a new group they will suddenly be on the same
footing with everyone else.  Though many of them deserve the respect they
get without the title they have grown use to the respect it buys them from
people who don't know them.  I don't think it's concious but it's there.
They all say they want to lead by example and change the SCA from the
inside.  But you can only lead those who will follow and you can't change
an organization that clearly isn't going to change.  They are as
frustraited as I am with many of the SCA practices but few of them are
willing to look at anythig else for fear of being called sepratist.

    I could go on like I'm doing now.  Why?  Because the SCA needs me?  Because
withough people like me what would there be to legitimize the SCA?  What do
I get out of this?  Friends?  Yes but I would imagine I could get the same
number of friends if I were doing American Civil War or Buckskinning or any
other far more satisfying re-creation.  Yes if I quit I might loose some of
the friends I have now but the real ones would keep in touch.(or at least I
would like to think so)Yes I do get put up as an example of authenticity in
the SCA and it makes me feel good.  I don't know how many times I've seen
someone point to the Tournament Companies when someone from outside is
verbally attacking the SCA.  That's nice but almost as soon as those folks
go away the pedestal is yanked right out from under us and we're reminded
that we're not playing the "True" SCA way.

     I've stayed in because of my friends, my love of fighting, and The
Stronghold of Lost Forest.  That's it.  There's a lot more to the SCA out
there and unfortunately I'm at odds with 90% of it.  I can only take this
organization in small doses anymore.

That's the truth
Duncan