thread: 2009-07-26 : Very Briefly about Authority
On 2009-07-27, Gordon wrote:
One reason why this matters (it seems to me): moment-to-moment assent is *always*, by definition, about a concrete, in-front-of-us-now issue/event relevant to the actual play currently underway. Our understanding (as a group or as individuals) of the nuances may be incomplete (do the rules technically allow picking up peaches? Is it a good idea - for the currently relevant definition of good - to allow the peaches to be picked up? etc.), but the assent/dissent is clear, specific, and informed by the current instance of play.
Pre-established authorities, while unquestionably useful, can never do that. Doing the pre-establishment closer and closer to the particular instance of play (crafting authorities specifically for a given game/type of play, or even formal customization by each group prior to play) obviously gets the agreement closer to the moment of play (and thus may - in many cases, I'd say, does - help improve the play). But if what we're interested in is finding meaning in the specific interactions that are happening *right now*, moment-to-moment assent will always be better informed than pre-established authority.
NOTE: If you're not interested in having *unexpected/uncertain* meanings emerge from play, maybe pre-existing authority isn't quite so disadvantageous. But I haven't really thought that through yet; I suspect there's only a subset of the possible meanings of "unexpected/uncertain" for which that might apply.
