AMTGARD RESOURCES | MUSINGS, RANTS AND HOW-TO GUIDES
Practical Guide PDF Version (9/29/08)
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• Chapter I:
What Are Politics?
• Chapter II:
How Do I Get Involved?
• Chapter III:
On the Campaign Trail
• Chapter IV:
Wearing the Shiny Hat -
The Basics
• Chapter V:
Ethics and Decision-Making
• Chapter VI:
The Political Landscape
• Chapter VIII:
Image - Don't Be That Guy
A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO AMTGARD POLITICS
Introduction
A simple request for information quickly turned into a year-and-a-half long project- see what happens when you ask questions?
After numerous rewrites, several epic failures of the computer-crashing-and-losing-ten-pages kind, whole months when I refused to even look at it (or just didn’t have time) and countless minutes spent wondering if there’s any point to it (or if it will do more harm than good)- this is what I ended up with.
It’s fairly common in Amtgard to find someone referring to “politics” as though it’s inherently a terrible thing and to anyone who engages in “politics” as being a horrible person. It’s fairly clear that they are misusing the word, but so many seemingly intelligent people just don’t seem to get that- or choose to ignore it.
Most of what you’ll find here is the result of years of watching, listening, theorizing and experimenting. Quite a bit of it is simply common sense, but it is also largely based upon my particular opinions and points of view. Mine may not agree with yours, your mileage may vary and so on.
It’s difficult to take a hard look at politics without passing judgment; in the interest of trying to present this in as unbiased a manner as possible, I’ve included ideas and methods that I may not necessarily recommend… but knowing what may be motivating people can be the key to finding your way through a minefield. Ultimately (and you’ll likely get tired of hearing this), the choice between honest or dishonest, straightforward or manipulative, selfless or self-serving is up to you.
The first three chapters are intended for those who are interested in learning about politics and possibly running for office themselves; those who want to go a bit deeper can go to chapter four and likely will be perfectly happy stopping there.
Those who are planning a career spanning years, just want to delve even deeper or are looking for more things to disagree with may want to read further.
If you take nothing else away from it, at least try to remember this:
Politics aren’t bad- it’s how people choose to conduct themselves and execute their plans that makes the difference.
