Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 13:36:22 -0500 (CDT)
From: Antistoicus
To: Bob
Subject: Change in plans


Bob, I would like to start with an apology. I've never seen you be anything other than a nice, reasonable guy. (*) Certainly, it is a very rude thing to issue an invitation and then take it back. But it would feel very awkward to have the High Priest of the Blessed Village Shrine in attendance, when its high priestess has decided to make herself a personal enemy, and, to be quite frank, one of its leading members (Frank) has impressed me with his moral cowardice. So much so, that I've made it clear that I never wish to associate myself with him, again.

To be direct, I, and the members of the group, have grown weary of the personalities, the cliquishness, the power politics, and the contempt for the very concept of fair play, that has come to characterize far too much of the established Pagan community. To sort out the good people from the bad has become an impossible task, in a subculture in which reality is not what one sees before one's eyes, but whatever one's most influential "friends" say it is. Of what use is it to ask people for information, when they don't even believe that there is such a thing as the truth?

So, we're walking away. Oh, we'll still network. But not with the established community. No, with the new groups coming up. This approach has the virtue of flushing a lot of bad people and a lot of bad stuff, out of our thoughts and out of our lives, at least as a group. Unfortunately, we'll also end up flushing a lot of good people, but there doesn't seem to be a good organizational alternative to a clean break with a corrupt and largely uninspiring past.

As me, just (name deleted), I know you're an asset to any community you're part of. As Antistoicus, the group organizer, I can't ask a group of people who I still have to earn the trust of, to make a special exception to a policy that Sally's behavior has clearly shown to be a prudent one, just on my gut reaction and my say-so. So, unfortunately, I have to ask all community elders to stay away, even the ones I like.

Sorry about the breach in decorum, but I am very new to this, and some things that it will eventually be second nature for me to foresee, I didn't this time.


..................... ..................... ..................... Yours, in respect and regret,

..................... ..................... ..................... ..................... .............................. Antistoicus


PS. My response to Franks's letter is below, and his letter is below that, if, for some obscure reason, you are actually interested in our little squabble. (material excised from this file)

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(*) Ah, the power of self-delusion! Bob was the very high priest, mentioned elsewhere, who we mentioned flying into a rage over the suggestion that not all Pagans practiced Wicca (and Staci was the high priestess who silenced us when we tried to respond). Somebody was too eager to find that decent elder, so much so that he blinded himself to reality.

"In retrospect", he says, "explaining why I expected better out of these people is hard to explain. Suffice it to say that the moment that was the Reader Circuit in the 1990s had a spirit, and if you weren't there, it is a hard one to appreciate."