There once was a very wise man who said this:
"Be Nice.
If someone gets up in your face and calls you a cock-sucker, I want you…to be nice.
If he won't walk, walk him. But be nice.
If you can't walk him, one of the others will help you, and you'll both…be nice.
I want you to be nice, until it's time to not be nice anymore."
"Well, uh…How we supposed to know when that is?"
"You won't. I'll tell you when."
There is no percentage to be gained by being a raving douche-nozzle.
There is no percentage to be gained by making enemies that you don't have to make.
There is no point in going to formal court with the idea in mind of acting up, Hogging the spotlight, and then taking a huge dump on the rug.
Carthians who do this sort of thing give us all a bad name, and while they are inevitably a self-correcting problem…they can do a great deal of damage before they are…Corrected.
The machinery of social interaction requires grease to function properly. Politeness IS the grease, and in NO society is it more necessary than in a society of predators, liars, murderers, and monsters. Politeness allows us the ability to interact safely. and is one of the reasons why Elysium is such an important tradition to our kind.
Elysium is SO important that it creates an office. Elysium is SO important that when some prince attacks his enemies in an elysium, it usually mean that Prince, or that city's domain is not long for this world. You cannot wipe your ass with the tradition of Elysium without dire consequences. And if you cannot be trusted to follow the tradition of Elysium. You can't be trusted for much of anything else. Many kindred will assume you're feebleminded or two steps off from wassail.
Being Nice is simple. It's not necessarily always EASY, but it IS simple.
Call people what they want to be called. Use a person's titles without rolling your fucking eyes. Unless a state of war exists between your covenant and another covenant, don't go cruising for a bruising. Keep it in your pants. If you want to argue, save it for the Carthian hangout. If someone says something to you that's liable to get you riled up, excuse yourself and go talk to other kindred until you cool off. If that Asshole won't leave you alone. Speak to the keeper. If the keeper does nothing. Leave the Elysium. If the asshole follows you, make him wish he hadn't. If you want to leave, and you're fairly sure you can't take that guy, gather your fellow Carthians and leave en-masse. Once you've left elysium, speak to the Harpy and inform him that you and your fellow carthians will no longer be attending Elysium until the asshole is publicly censured.
Live by the dictum: Don't start none. Won't be none.
You may find, that there are political compensations to be had for this effort. That you can become known as a "reasonable" carthian. A possible "back-channel" into other covenants.
And if you're whole covenant hews to this idea then YOU become known as a covenant of vampires that is easy to work with and respectable.
How many times have YOU personally, been saddled with an unfair characterization because of the public relations problem of our covenant.
Who needs that shit? Nobody.
Am I saying that it's important to roll over and show your belly. No. Far from it.
But seeing as how we are passionate and excitable creatures, we don't always have a good yardstick for knowing when a fight is called for. I say to you:
If you would be a moral and ethical vampire in this modern day and age, That you should start no fight, but always be ready to finish one.
“There is nothing in our book, the Qur'an, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone lays a hand on you, send him to the cemetery.”
- Malcolm X
In fact, as a Carthian we should want to adopt the basic premise of the Hell's Angels. "Raise a hand to one of us? You raise a hand to all of us."
This of course requires a caveat for any Carthian with poor impulse control. If YOU started the fight, and there didn't NEED to be a fight, then you're going to get the shit kicked out of you by all of us, twice as hard afterwards.
This will occasionally mean that you'll end up fighting with someone who you consider a friend/ally simply because SOMEONE decided to be ignorant. All you can really do is say, "Hey. Sorry about this…" and maybe send them a nice gift afterwards.
Hey. Who knows. Maybe if we adopt the basic idea that fighting with us isn't consequence free FOR ANYBODY. Then maybe other covenants will do the same.
But, i'm not going to hold my nonexistent breath.
Look. there are entirely too many motherfuckers walking around with the attitude that you only give respect to those who respect you in return. This is, at its basis, the philosophy of the self-justified asshole. You give respect to all beings until they stop being worthy of it. And if you do so, you in turn, earn the respect that you are given. and Hey, if YOU are respected, and someone loses YOUR respect, they are likely to lose the respect of all who respect you. Win/Win.
It takes so little time and effort to simply be polite, I recognize that many Kindred are emotional cripples or burn victims. But I still don't see how kindred go from social engagement to social engagement and are unwilling, or unable, to extend basic courtesy to one another.
I recognize that following this pillar is a bit like walking a tightrope. But within all philosophies are dichotomies. All of existence is walking one tightrope or another.
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