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flattop32355 wrote : Chris isn't the only one from the "dark side" who has softened the rhetoric:  In a number of private messages and emails, some of the seemingly more "militant" CPH'ers have expressed similar views, often prefacing their remarks with "I know you think I'm an SOB, but...".  I don't see that as a selling out of their principles, but a realization that a significant fraction of the mainstream is not that far behind them and capable of working with them in at least some cases, to the benefit of both, if we can get past the hard and inflexible stands taken in the past. There seems to be a growing number of folk who are becoming comfortable moving freely between the upper-middle and high ends of the hobby.

If I had to say why, I'd say it's because:

C/p/h reenactors have reached as far as they want to go at their events, so there's no incentive to put in effort to try to improve them further. The objective now is bigger, not better, which means reaching out to the upper mainstream.

They also realize that they enjoyed being farby/mainstream, and look back at what they left behind in the EBUFU movement with homesickness, so want to be able to attend events with lower standards because they enjoy being inaccurate.

That would be the more cynical spin on it, rather than the spin where everyone holds hands and sings kumbaya.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net  

--Last edited by hanktrent on 2008-03-17 09:00:50 --

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hanktrent wrote :   That would be the more cynical spin on it, rather than the spin where everyone holds hands and sings kumbaya.

Hank,

I not sure your analysis is cynical, but it may be accurate to a point. I don't think we've reached the pinnacle of authenticity in the Hobby, but I do believe that for some people at some events, bigger is indeed better. I've said this before, but nothing I've done in the Hobby was as memorable to me as the Pickett's Charge scenario during the 135th. Gettysburg. There is also something to be said for sitting around a campfire with a few likeminded friends; having a couple of beers and just shooting the bull. I can truly believe that some members of the CPH fraternity would be interested in doing more of these less stressful events. I also doubt they are going to abandon the more authentic events.      

Allow me, Charles:  SOYA = Sit On Your Arse

Hank, I gotta agree with Bill, here.  I don't think we'll ever reach the end point of improvement in the hobby.  By the same token, it seems some, if not many, of the CPH are discovering that it isn't a sin to ease up at a given event, that the highest level of "authenticity" doesn't have to be eternally maintained at each and every event, but must always be so at those events requiring it.

All of the phases that the hobby has passed through are just that; phases.  More phases will come, individually and collectively.  Our trick is to take the good from each one, and carry that through the next phase, while discarding those things that didn't work as well as we thought they should.

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flattop32355 wrote : All of the phases that the hobby has passed through are just that; phases.  More phases will come, individually and collectively.  Our trick is to take the good from each one, and carry that through the next phase, while discarding those things that didn't work as well as we thought they should.

Doctor, is there anyway you could write that as a prescrïption?  There are people down here desperately trying to hang onto their “phase” that need a serious dose of this medicine.

Curtis,

A good dose of Black Draught ought to work just fine for that purpose, and I know you are old enough to remember that foul concoction.  

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Curtis Makamson wrote :   Doctor, is there anyway you could write that as a prescrïption?  There are people down here desperately trying to hang onto their “phase” that need a serious dose of this medicine.

Unfortunately, I am not licensed in MS.  However, feel free to quote it as often as you'd like.