The Joys of Trad Bashing
Oh the fun... let's find ourselves a trad we don't agree with, and bash them up one side and down the other. Let's get ourselves a Live Journal blog and kick the crap out of a trad we don't belong to. Yeah! What a wonderful way of passing the time.
Yo, people, have you ever thought about how that looks to the non-Wiccans out there? We look like a bunch of in fighting little children who are so jealous of the "others" that we can't focus on our OWN glass house rather than throw rocks at someone else's.
Today I saw a Live Journal blog having a great time at bashing Witchschool.com. One person even advocated shooting all of the Correllian Nativist Tradition. Well gee, how Wiccan of them. That's exactly what people who accuse Wicca of not being a "real religion" love to see as "proof" that we don't practice what we preach.
Every tradition that I have seen has something to "bash." It's pretty simple; you don't like a tradition - DON'T JOIN IT! Gee, how difficult is that?
Yes, there are things in the Correllian Nativist Tradition that I don't agree with. And yes, I am a member of that tradition, among others. However, those things I have disagreed with, I have noted to the heads of the tradition who are actually in a position to change things. I have done so with what I consider to be reasoned arguments and respect. In some cases, the things were changed. In others, they were not. I have no right to join someone else's tradition and expect it to change to fit MY desires. My choices are 1) find a tradition that incorporates ALL of my beliefs and desires (pretty damn difficult if you ask me, although CUEW is closest and I'm already there :-)) 2) live with the disagreements if there are other good reasons to stay (i.e. most of the stuff makes sense, and the people are really great) or 3) get off my own sorry butt and do the insane amount of work necessary to start my own tradition and make it exactly what I want until someone comes along expecting me to change it to fit THEIR desires and beliefs :-).
There are ways to bring up disagreements with anyone's tradition or the way that they are doing things. Those ways do not necessarily include relatively anonymous bashing in forums that the leadership of the tradition likely will never see. But then, I suppose that much depends on your motivations for the critiques. Do you want to draw attention to yourself and how much "better" you are than THEY are, or do you want to effect change? If the former, by all means, get yourself a blog and rant on. If the latter, try a reasoned argument presented to the leadership of the trad in question.
Feh!