[r-t] Fwd: Motion F

[Don Morrison]

Apparently the list doesn't like messages to multiple recipients, so trying
to send this this way instead.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Don Morrison <dfm at ringing.org>
Date: Sat, May 27, 2017 at 11:38 AM
Subject: Motion F
To: Mark Davies <mark at snowtiger.net>, Peter Niblett <
peter.niblett at btinternet.com>
Cc: ringing-theory at bellringers.org


I read your thoughtfully composed letter to the Ringing World this week, a
reply to mine of the preceding week, with interest.

If I correctly understand it, you are arguing that the Methods Committee
needs to have the power to unilaterally resolve method naming issues on its
own as an efficiency measure, and that it will be an aid to bands that it
does. While I may not be convinced of that myself, I do not wish to quibble
with it at this time.

Rather, I am more concerned about two different problems.

The biggest damage in motion F, to my mind, is that it does far more than
that. It gives the Methods Committee the power to unilaterally state the
"definitions and requirements" of what calls people may use in peals, and,
indeed, what does or does not constitute a peal. I remain completely
baffled as to why the "Methods" Committee believes it should wield this
overarching power over all aspects of ringing, rather than just methods.
Can you help me understand why you believe this to be necessary?

The second is a smaller, but still relevant issue. Even limiting its
purview to methods, the committee has recently shown it is not just trying
to ensure consistency and conformity to the rules. Rather, the Chogolisa
experience appears to show that the committee is also trying to foist its
tastes on others, as its justly reviled predecessor, the Legitimate Methods
Committee, did. If I correctly understood Mark's letter last week you took
pains to convince Rob that one extension is subjectively better than
another, and that he should change his mind in its naming to coincide with
your tastes. If, as it seems, you did convince Rob and his band that a
different name is better, then, of course, the name should be whatever that
band now wishes it to be. But it does seem bordering on inappropriate for
the committee to be using its bully pulpit uninvitedly to tell bands what
are or are not "better" extensions when there is no objective rule
regarding same.


-- 
Don Morrison <dfm at ringing.org>
"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
         -- Albert Einstein, letter to Jost Winteler (1901)




-- 
Don Morrison <dfm at ringing.org>
"After all these years I have observed that beauty, like happiness,
is frequent. A day does not pass when we are not, for an instant,
in paradise."
        -- Jorge Luis Borges, _Los Conjurados_, tr Willis Barnstone
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