All My Gettings

Sometimes, when I've feeling excessively bad for myself, I like to remind myself of what I am. For one thing, I was not born in Burundi. If I were, I could expect to live approximately 50 years, only have a 1 in 2 chance that I'd be able to read, watch my wife (should I live so long) carry an average of 6.55 children to term, and be living in a country where the per capita income sits below $200. Oh, and there's a good chance I'd be massacred. So, being in the first world is definitely a good thing.

Another thing that I remind myself is that I do not own a single item that could be construed as chainmail. That site claims their hauberks are priced "so any peasant can become a knight". Two things: I knew the value of knighthood had gone down, but is all it takes really an expensive piece of costume jewelry? Do you think these people feel guilty knowing that the average Burundian would have to spend his entire year's salary just to buy the cheapest of their hauberks?

Yes, I did just manage to connect an improverished Subsaharan state with the Society for Creative Anarchonism. I have no regrets.

I'm also glad that I'm not the type of person who would cheer the SCA's hurricane relief, which seems to consist of granting extensions on the memeberships in certain ZIP codes since those folks paid but couldn't get their publications.

Lastly, don't you think the Luddite movement should rebrand itself as the Society for Destructive Anarchonism? I'm sure they'd gain a whole lot more momentum that way. Though they would run the risk of being confused with the Millerites. But who doesn't want that?