Saturday, 12 May 2012

Post No. 383 - Guilds

Guilds, when I first came across them, were explained to me as being a bit like a union, only also concerned with making sure their members had the appropriate skills to be able to practice their work. Now, I'd say that's not quite correct, and that I tend to see guilds as a bit of a gatekeeper deciding who is and who isn't allowed to practice a particular job first, and the worrying about skills comes second.

As an engineer, I am a member of a professional body: the Institution of Engineers Australia. That body doesn't decide who can and cannot be an engineer (that depends on universities and a few sets of Government regulations), but it does provide a Code of Ethics, ongoing training to help maintain standards and competence, and - very importantly - audits to make sure of things like doing enough ongoing training (I passed my last audit, just over a year ago, and have just under a couple of years until my next one). They also receive and investigate complaints about the conducts of engineers, but complaints can also be made to several Government bodies, and through the courts.

Unions act to get the best employment deal possible for the workers they represent (and there is, by the way, a union for engineers in Australia - APESMA).

So, in my experience, guilds don't seem to exist much anymore - but they have been around, and fairly recently. The friend who started my journey with runes has referred to a rune guild when talking about this early training (and I know, for instance, that they use slightly different pronunciation on some words than I do). Has the ready access to information of the Internet killed off such matters as guilds? Has more widespread democracy and the social changes of the last century and a half or so, with the reduction of the class system and the notion that some people are better than others (mind you, I actually do hold to that view - and I note that Dr Martin Luther King Jr never said people shouldn't be judged, only that they shouldn't be judged by the colour of their skin ["where ... are judged, not by the colour of their skins, but by the content of their character" - or words to that effect]) made the notion of someone choosing who can or can't be "in" unacceptable?

I tend to think demonstration of competence is the best way to demonstrate one's suitability to do something, but that relies on giving people tests albeit under supervised circumstances - and ignoring clashes of personality, notions of having "served one's time", etc. It also assumes that such matters can be adequately tested - which they could, in the case of a trade-based guild from the Middle Ages, but is harder to do so in the case of a complex profession such as engineering.

When you come to something like runes, or psychic ability in general, where do you begin?

I've been led to this contemplation because I am rereading some of Jim Butcher's "The Dresden Files" books, and am somewhat unimpressed by the Council he describes as overseeing wizards. Mind you, in one of the books (I'll post the reference if I can find it again PS - it is "Turncoat") he also gives a fair defence of their apparently simplistic, off-handed attitudes towards enforcing the rules around magic in the Dresden-verse.

In real life .... I think a visible and genuine commitment to a credible Code of Ethics is probably the best we can do [1]. There is just too much in the realms of psychism for any one group to have a realistic hope of enforcing standards (for instance, think of the broad range of paths in Wicca: who would presume to enforce anything in that world????).

Hmmmm. Not sure where this leads me to, but maybe it is of some benefit to someone out there.

There's another thought I've had as I re-read Jim Butcher's "Summer Knight" for the third time, and it has come about as a result of his commentary on the alienness of meeting someone in the fae, and how the Unseelie weren't all anti-human (my words), and the Seelie weren't all pro-human. The problem is the arrogance of humans, who see themselves as being above other things. This is a little like an earthquake, which possibly causes damage, injury and illness. The earthquake didn't say "I will seek to be evil", it was something that relieved stress in the Earth. Our problems were ... too small to register in that awareness, in a sense. Ever step on an ant? Ever think anything of it? I know some people - particularly Buddhists, Jainists and those in some Asian cultures - have, but for the rest of you, think about what you did (even if it was  accidental) from the perspective of the ant: maybe you will feel a little like the human suffering from the effects of an earthquake. Were you evil? If you did that deliberately, perhaps; if it was genuinely accidental, and there was some valid reason for you not to notice the ant, possibly not.

As another example, consider what happens on a playground. Some adults consider kids should sort their arguments out themselves; based on my experience, that risks leading to an opinion that the so-called "Law of the Jungle" applies, and that physical strength matters more than right. Others tend to do the helicopter parent thing, and get over-involved, which prevents kids from learning and developing in much the same way that an environment that is too clean can prevent their immune system from developing. Very few are capable of keeping an appropriate perspective on their kids' problems, and help the kids see that and grow the character strengths and skills they should.

There are greater forms of life than humans in this universe (there is even an idea that the ultimate expression of life is as a sun, which then gets into the whole solar systems are like atoms thing, and maybe all the suns together are art of something greater, just as each of our individual cells is part of something - well, bigger (us).

And now, more reading.


From "The Age":









Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear") 
 May the world of commerce & business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.

Notes:
  1. Consider the following, from my post "Reading and registers":
  • through this book, I came across an organisation called the Australian Psychics Association (which voted the author "Australian Psychic of the Year" in 2005), which has a Code of Ethics for members, and obliges prospective members to provide both a Statutory Declaration that they are who they say they are (i.e., an accurate psychic), AND three Statutory Declarations from satisfied past clients.
I think the idea behind the Australian Psychics Association is interesting, but my Wiccan background leaves me wary of the prohibition they have against misuse of spells in their Code of Ethics: it is well intentioned, and I can't specifically fault it, but I consider recommending that any use of witchcraft/spells be in accordance with the Wiccan Rede would be more appropriate.

There are other matters I would include also: directly mentioning respect for free will, acknowledging that all this is subject to the law (it is, you now - you can no more deliberately commit an act of fraud as a medium than as any other person), and specific coverage of avoidance of discrimination. In fact, I think this (a register of mediums/psychics/alternative healers who are ethical) is something that can go over to the Order of Hermes, with appropriate checks on prospective listees around their knowledge of and attitude to LGBTIQ people, different races, different religions, etc. (A comment should also be included for anyone who uses the website to find someone, that customers are ALSO obliged to obey the law, and are as ethically/morally bound to be honourable as the psychic/medium - so no lies, abuse, etc.)
Tags: ethics, perspective, professionalism,

First published: Laugardagr, 12th May, 2012

Last edited: , 12th May, 2012
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