[*BCM*] Re: All This Rubbish

[Matthew Arcidy]

On Tue, 8 Mar 2005 contraelolvido at riseup.net wrote:

> Yes, at critical mass lanes are indeed blocked as bikes drive by. Similiar
> to how when a car takes up space, it blocks bikes from being on that spot.
> It is neither courteous nor not courteous. It is simply transportation and
> traffic.

Not when it breaks traffic laws, which drivers, when caught, are punished
for as well.

> 
> Critical mass is the expression of the desires of the city's bikers for a
> both a more bike friendly city, as well as a the long term elimination of
> personal and excessive car use and other such pollutents. Critical mass is
> people actively living out and creating the type of transportation system
> that they want. How will we create a city with widespread bike use in the
> future if we're afraid to even ride two-fold today?

Ideally yes, however, CM presents the city's bikers as unworthy of such
considerations, because they are crass, crude, obnoxious, etc.  For the
most part, bike riders are not like this.  Unfortunately, the vocal
minority is speaking for the majority.  I thought you anarchists hated
that?  SYC anyone?

> 
> And once again, critical mass is neither a procession, a protest, or a
> parade nor any other of those silly garabage. CM is a direct manifestation
> of the type of transportation system we want. It's a place where we can
> both live out our dreams, as well as actively promote them. It's also a
> place where bikers empower themselves to keep on biking.

Well, it was originally set up to be.  So I guess someone twisted it's
meaning.  Empower is a funny word coming from an anarchist.  With no
tiers, how can there be power structions to move around in?  Abstract
ideas are hard.  Regardless, it may be your dream to break laws and piss
people off.  My dream is that people will start presenting themselves as
human beings instead of beasts, so that we can all live in this wonderful
dream world more than a few hours a month.

> 
> Parades, protests and other such wastes of time are where bikers
> disempower themselves by begging the state or appealing to the kindness of
> drivers (who will somehow go against their status qou if you're nice
> enough) to make biking better for us. If this is what you want, feel free
> to hold a little placard as we bike by you.

The point is to make everyone happy.  The cars lose very little road space
to bikes.  The PEOPLE in the cars, should they choose biking, benefit
more.  "status quo" is a term thrown around a lot by people who are
against it.  Generally anarchists are against the *idea* of a status
quo.  This isn't a bad thing, but lets be realistic when we talk about the
status quo.  "They" change to "Us" if the municipality becomes more bike
friendly.  "Us" needs more "They" to make the municipality change, since
the municiplaity is made up of "Us" plus "They", and "They" have more
people.  If negative behavior is directed at "They" by "Us", why would
"They" like "Us"?  This is called a "positively reinforcing system" in
which an increase in the input increases the output.  It's also called
positive feedback.  Positive here only means "increasing".  You're not
going to have a situation where if you act negatively towards someone, you
will get a positive(happy) reaction from them.  That's an opposing
reaction or "negative feedback".

Bikes also just aren't practical in every situation.  There is a maximum
distance that can be reasonibly covered in a time frame.  In the extreme
where cars are outlawed, the population of cities increases, other kinds
of polution increase, and there are STILL traffic laws to follow, because
300,000 people commuting to work are going to need some order to do it
efficiently.

Your arguments are so weak that it is so easy to think of general
situtions where they fall apart, and not just edge cases.  CM can attract
the general population, however, the fringe edge case looneys are taking
it off a deep end fast.  I would like to see it continue and am making a
stab at voicing how to correct it.

This is how the "anarchist" non-system corrects itself.  Consider an
anrchist system that is completely random.  Some order randomly arises
that pushes it a certain way, so some other order must arise in equal to
slightly greater proportion to push back, lest it dissolve into order.  

-Matt

> 
> -- 
> "The only advice I can give is, if [anarchism]'s allowed to continue, hang
> on. Once they get a foothold, they won't go away." - Capt. Thad Buchanan,
> Eugene PD
> 
> Capitalism, in effect, constitutes the point of absolute negativity for
> society and the natural world. One cannot improve this social order,
> reform it, or remake it on its own terms... The only choice one has is to
> destroy it. - Murray Bookchin
> 
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