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maelorin at 03:58pm on 11/01/2004
maelorin at 03:58pm on 11/01/2004i have just posted the following to a pagan list i subscribe to ...
we are also a community of communities, and there is nothing wrong with that. considering the diversity of views, and the fact that paganism caters for diversity of views, this is no surprise. indeed, at times the surprise is how coherent the pagan community is most of the time.
there will always be individuals who, for whatever reasons, decide to go their own way, or to act in ways that do not support the community. we must remember that conformity is not a strong value in paganism generally - the opposite is usually true.
community survives because people choose it. those who choose to be destructive, well, they have left the community.
very ocasionally a community might find it necessary to eject a person because their conduct is damaging the community. it is the right of a group to define themselves, and to exclude others - at least, to the extent that the law of the land allows.
much of the difficulty facing communities arises when someone refuses to accept that their conduct has, or will, remove them from the community. communities exist by the consent of the people (groups thrown together by force may *become* a community, but not until they choose so). no one can force you to join a community, but the community can force you out.
the communities that comprise the larger, more general, and less defined pagan community have the same rights and responsibilities of any other group in our society (which is itself a community). how each group chooses to govern itself is their own business - again, unless there is some contravention of the law of the land matters are left to the people themselves to determine.
community dissention within the pagan community is no more unusual than anywhere else. it can have a dimension that is peculiar to spiritual communities, but not always. people fall out with each other for all manner of reasons.
a crucial consideration in all of this is to understand what community actually *is*. how a community is defined has an important role in the life of the community and the people who live within it. the definition determines who may be in the community, and who is outside the community.
by definition, i mean the *actual* *effective* definition - what the memebers of the community apply from day-to-day. some (precious few) pagan communities have formal constitutions or other statements of community principles and values. many *do* have formal mechanisms for handling new or potential members. every community has a notion of what it is about and what makes it special.
a major source of conflict arises when someone thinks they *own* a community. communities are not *owned*, they exist because a group of people choose to believe the community exists. communities are not *things* - they are a description of a kind of relationship between people.
from time to time we discover that one or more people think they own a particular community. they think they alone decide what happens, what is right, etc. from that moment they have actually taken themselves out of the community in question and created a new community of their own. you cannot force people to be in community with you. they either choose to, or choose not to.
another problem that arises from time to time centres around the definition of the community. particularly when the definition is unspoken, but also when the avowed definition doe snot match the conduct of the group. there are many instances where a community has broken up because there were in fact several different notions of what defined the community in the first place.
communities, like people, are complex.
what i refrained from writing, because i have learned to pull my punches for strategic reasons, is that certain people have assumed that they own the pagan community - or at least large chunks of it. and these people have also confused their personal lifestyle choices with pagansim. bdsm has nothing to do with paganism.
these people think of everything in terms of dominance and subservience. they also confuse them. stupid, arrogant, fucked-up, shits. whatever the fuck whips and shit have to do with spirituality.
to add to the excitement, they are paranoid and delusional. and i don't give a fuck if they get upset that i think so. all they do is rant and rave and treat others like shit. none of which has anything to do with paganism. just their own fucked up personalities.
unfortunately, as their rail and flail about in the dungheaps they have made of their own lives, they are dragging others down with them. i wouldn't want to be anywhere near them when the last of their karma finally catches up with them.
actually, i'd prefer it if i didn't have to live in the same state [geographically speaking].
goddess, some people are really fucked up.
we are also a community of communities, and there is nothing wrong with that. considering the diversity of views, and the fact that paganism caters for diversity of views, this is no surprise. indeed, at times the surprise is how coherent the pagan community is most of the time.
there will always be individuals who, for whatever reasons, decide to go their own way, or to act in ways that do not support the community. we must remember that conformity is not a strong value in paganism generally - the opposite is usually true.
community survives because people choose it. those who choose to be destructive, well, they have left the community.
very ocasionally a community might find it necessary to eject a person because their conduct is damaging the community. it is the right of a group to define themselves, and to exclude others - at least, to the extent that the law of the land allows.
much of the difficulty facing communities arises when someone refuses to accept that their conduct has, or will, remove them from the community. communities exist by the consent of the people (groups thrown together by force may *become* a community, but not until they choose so). no one can force you to join a community, but the community can force you out.
the communities that comprise the larger, more general, and less defined pagan community have the same rights and responsibilities of any other group in our society (which is itself a community). how each group chooses to govern itself is their own business - again, unless there is some contravention of the law of the land matters are left to the people themselves to determine.
community dissention within the pagan community is no more unusual than anywhere else. it can have a dimension that is peculiar to spiritual communities, but not always. people fall out with each other for all manner of reasons.
a crucial consideration in all of this is to understand what community actually *is*. how a community is defined has an important role in the life of the community and the people who live within it. the definition determines who may be in the community, and who is outside the community.
by definition, i mean the *actual* *effective* definition - what the memebers of the community apply from day-to-day. some (precious few) pagan communities have formal constitutions or other statements of community principles and values. many *do* have formal mechanisms for handling new or potential members. every community has a notion of what it is about and what makes it special.
a major source of conflict arises when someone thinks they *own* a community. communities are not *owned*, they exist because a group of people choose to believe the community exists. communities are not *things* - they are a description of a kind of relationship between people.
from time to time we discover that one or more people think they own a particular community. they think they alone decide what happens, what is right, etc. from that moment they have actually taken themselves out of the community in question and created a new community of their own. you cannot force people to be in community with you. they either choose to, or choose not to.
another problem that arises from time to time centres around the definition of the community. particularly when the definition is unspoken, but also when the avowed definition doe snot match the conduct of the group. there are many instances where a community has broken up because there were in fact several different notions of what defined the community in the first place.
communities, like people, are complex.
what i refrained from writing, because i have learned to pull my punches for strategic reasons, is that certain people have assumed that they own the pagan community - or at least large chunks of it. and these people have also confused their personal lifestyle choices with pagansim. bdsm has nothing to do with paganism.
these people think of everything in terms of dominance and subservience. they also confuse them. stupid, arrogant, fucked-up, shits. whatever the fuck whips and shit have to do with spirituality.
to add to the excitement, they are paranoid and delusional. and i don't give a fuck if they get upset that i think so. all they do is rant and rave and treat others like shit. none of which has anything to do with paganism. just their own fucked up personalities.
unfortunately, as their rail and flail about in the dungheaps they have made of their own lives, they are dragging others down with them. i wouldn't want to be anywhere near them when the last of their karma finally catches up with them.
actually, i'd prefer it if i didn't have to live in the same state [geographically speaking].
goddess, some people are really fucked up.
aggravated