Re: AIS: HIST: REF: Early Checklists

In a message dated 8/2/2007 12:22:28 AM Eastern Daylight Time,  
jijones@usjoneses.com writes:

You know I was new to irises in 1992, and I don't remember having  any  
difficulty understanding what "standards" or "falls" were or  getting  
acclimated to any of the particular jargon used by the AIS  and  
irisarians, nor do I think is is or was elitist.
 


That is the way it was with me, too. I wonder what we are doing  or saying 
that is reckoned to be so daunting?
 
A presumption appears to have gained favor in some AIS circles  that new 
folks are alienated by rhetoric or concepts at any level  above the most intuitive 
so that AIS' posture must be elemental in the  extreme to protect them, and 
the society, from the effects of  their own timidity. 
 
I hope I am reading things wrong, because think this is a  really unsound 
presumption. 
 
I don't think most people are that timid. I don't think people with  adequate 
self-esteem are intimidated by awareness of their own ignorance. I  think 
people join special interest societies in part to  remedy ignorance of a subject 
about which they decide they want  to know more. 
 
They also join to hang with folks and have some fun. This does not mean  hang 
only with people just like they are. A person has to be prepared to  hang 
with all sorts of people who are interested in irises if that person  joins AIS. 
This could mean people who approach the subject from entirely  different 
perspectives, and entirely different backgrounds, with entirely  different 
mindsets, and entirely different vocabularies, some of whom may  turn out to be people 
with whom one would not hang were one not  interested in irises....too 
highbrow, too lowbrow, too fond of scolding other  folks, too competative, boring, 
whatever.
 
Anyway, I think there is something vaguely condescending about the  
presumption. I won't say it is elitist, because I don't think it quite  rises to that 
level, but were I a new person, I might not welcome the  awareness that someone 
assumed I required such obvious  coddling. 
 
Of course, the last and best word on all this sort of thing  was provided by 
Eleanor Roosevelt, who observed,  "No one can made you  feel inferior without 
your permission." 
 
Cordially,
 
Anner Whitehead
Richmond VA USA
 
 
 
 



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