Why do we argue

[Levi Battery]

Being new to the re-enacting game in this area. There is one ongoing trend that I don’t understand. Why is there so much fighting between us? I mean not only the men but the ladies also.

You’ve got the farbs, thread counters, want-a-be’s and so on. They all have on thing in common. They argue between each other or other units. They argue to the point that they want even go the same events.

One unit does not like the other unit or one person does not like the other so in turn, they won’t will play well with others.

We may not have the same political opinions, drive the same cars, make the same money or like the same music. That’s human nature but don’t we like re-enacting. So what’s the problem? If Lee and Grant could sign and come to a equitable peace accord, can’t we?

Have we not lost sight of what we are there for? Do you think those veterans are turning over in their graves?

Just wondering

[ejazzyjeff]

Any hobby or activity which you participate in, has the bickering, and the us against them. I have seen quite a few post here on the forum trying to find answers to questions that can never be answered. People just have different levels of opinions on how we should represent the Civil War. I just stay out of them and enjoy what I am doing.

If Lee and Grant could sign and come to a equitable peace accord, can’t we?

I believe it would be a cold day in you-know-where before this would happen

[hanktrent]

Have we not lost sight of what we are there for?

I think it's just the opposite. Reenactors argue because they do know what they're there for. At events, they want to follow their own passion, with the support of others, without being told the way they do it is wrong, not wanted, etc.

While there are some personality conflicts that keep people apart as always in life, there are a lot of reenactors who don't go to one event or another primarily because that event prevents them from doing what they enjoy, by setting the historical guidelines either too high or too low.

"Reenacting" is as broad an interest as "music," and if you can appreciate that people have different tastes in music, it's the same thing. Different approaches to reenacting are as different as heavy metal and classical music, and if the heavy metal fans are expected to discuss music with the classical music fans, there's no way they'll agree.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[huntdaw]

If Lee and Grant could sign and come to a equitable peace accord, can’t we?

If memory serves me right, it seems there was a bit of fighting before anything like this came about.

[flattop32355]

....be any different from the real world? Here, all the usual human foibles and flaws are just seen in microcosm, and so are more glaring. But there is little difference here than in any other hobby, job, society, etc.

It just pisses us off more here, because we're all supposed to be of a common goal (??) and on the same page.

If you remove all the human elements from the hobby, we'll all get along just fine.

[Justin Runyon]

That's just it Bernard, we are not of a common goal. As I have alluded to in the past, what was once a single hobby or past time has evolved into two very different things completely. These two pursuits (lets not label them or sing the priases of one over another) are based in entirely different goals and mindsets. We don't call these arguments us vs. us fights, we call them us vs. them. Clearly we are not the same pursuit as we once were. Comparing the two different hobby paradigms is an apples and oranges issue. These sorts of arguments are about as effective as a model railroader arguing with a guy who plays golf.

[MStuart]

Comparing the two different hobby paradigms is an apples and oranges issue. These sorts of arguments are about as effective as a model railroader arguing with a guy who plays golf.

And the arguements usually begin when one "side" denigrates the other, which begins the usual, and, all too frequent urinating contests. IF (and that's a big one) we could each stay out of the other's business, quit worrying about what the "other guy" is doing, quit trying to force my way, your way, another guy's way onto others, and concentrate on OURSELVES, I submit that we'd have a drastic decrease in those contests.

Also true is your contention that they do absolutely no good.

Is it all "human nature"? Probably. Still doesn't make it right.

Mark

[Spare_Man]

Read the history of the war and look at all the infighting between officers in the same army... between officer and enlisted... between regulars and volunteers... between fresh fish and veterans...

There were fist-fights galore in camps filled with bored men...

Fellow prisoners-of-war preying on each other...

Even seemingly innocent snowball fights often turned bloody...

And so we "fight" amongst ourselves, but we do it a little different. We mostly throw barbs at one-another and only simulate firing weapons at one-another.

Anyone remember what the country was like after 9/11? We all came together for a few brief weeks before we started the petty bickering again. Contrast that with how on the way into a big battle the men would cease their bickering and after the battle would forget about what they had been fighting about.

We are as human as the men and women we portray. Try to cope with the argueing by just thinking of it as a "soldier's fight." We don't really hate each other as much as it might seem sometimes.

[tompritchett]

These sorts of arguments are about as effective as a model railroader arguing with a guy who plays golf.

I personally think it is more like a fly fisherman who fishs for the experience as much as anything else arguing with the cane pole and bobber/live bait fisherman who is just fishing to take fish home to eat. Same hobby with radically different goals. Interestingly enough, in that sport you also have participants whose pursuit of the hobby ranges from those two extremes and who may on any given trip have different goals than the trip before.

[flattop32355]

That's just it Bernard, we are not of a common goal.

If you look reaaaaallllly carefully after that statement of mine, you'll see two question marks in parentheses, which reflects a casting of doubt upon whether the statement can really be considered fully accurate.

Both (All?) sides of the hobby do share some common goals. They do not, however, commonly share all goals.

Our tendency to focus upon the differences, rather than some of those common goals, is what leads us into the eternal battle of US vs THEM. While all members of the hobby may never reach the point of hand holding, it would be nice if we could at least get past the point of poking each other with sharp instruments.

Pogo: We have met the enemy, and he is us.