A Most Uncivil Spat

Economics, when you boil it down to its essence, is about the allocation of scare resources. Politics, similarly, is at its heart about the gathering of support for one's faction (which, incidentally, is why the Founding Fathers were doomed in their attempts to create an Athenian political model - and for that matter why the Athenians were doomed in the end). In other words, politics is operable in any set of people where power (whether direct or because of reputation) is at stake, not just when dealing with government. ("Office politics" is not an analogy, but a statement of fact.)

It's also a fact that those with no skin in the game often cannot understand why certain disputes break out, and how they come to diverge from their apparent original point with such ferocity - sometimes to the point that the original positions end up reversed! Hint: it's about power, either direct power (such as the government has) or reputation (in most private spheres) or even perks (such as in large corporations). It's also sad to see factional struggles break out in a group to which you are much attached.

I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the dispute between AJ Drew and Ray Buckland, for three reasons: I don't know enough about it, I don't know enough about AJ Drew in general, and I owe a great deal to Ray Buckland (whose big blue book was the first book on Wicca I read, and whose later writings were very influential on my religious development). I do want to say one thing though: it's pretty crass for one to take out a domain name with the other's name just to criticize the other. Not quite up to Godwin's law standards, but certainly most uncool.

And, so far as I can tell, someone needs to remind these guys of the rule of threes.