An Elitist Casual

Here’s a quote I came across today regarding styles of leadership, taken from 19th-century Russian anarchist Pyotr Alexeyvich Kropotkin’s Memoirs of a Revolutionist. It is originally quoted from Eric Steven Raymond’s The Cathedral and the Bazaar:

Having been brought up in a serf-owner’s family, I entered active life, like all young men of my time, with a great deal of confidence in the necessity of commanding, ordering, scolding, punishing and the like. But when, at an early stage, I had to manage serious enterprises and to deal with [free] men, and when each mistake would lead at once to heavy consequences, I began to appreciate the difference between acting on the principle of command and discipline and acting on the principle of common understanding. The former works admirably in a military parade, but it is worth nothing where real life is concerned, and the aim can be achieved only through the severe effort of many converging wills.

As we start fleshing out the site, my hope for ElitistCasuals.com is to be able to exchange ideas with other like-minded gamers, and this quote seems to tie in as great advice for the leadership of raiding guilds of all calibers.

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General by Easttuth