10 Signs of a Mountain Biking Cult

Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 13:51:43 -0700
Subject: 10 Signs of a Mountain Biking Cult

1) The hard-core mountain biking community ("The Community") is
elitist, claiming a special status for itself.

2) The Community has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may
cause conflict with the wider society.

3) The Community feels it is not accountable to any authorities.

4) The Community implies that ends justify whatever means it deems
necessary. This may result in adherents participating in behaviors or
activities they would have been considered reprehensible or unethical
before joining the group.(Wrong becomes the new "right". Everybody is
doing it! The media glorifies it! The public landowners, authorities,
and many politicians condone it.)

5) The Community induces feelings of shame and/or guilt in order to
influence and/or control adherents. Often, this is done through peer
pressure and subtle forms of persuasion. (If a mountain biker gets
injured and sues, "the Community" will revert to using various
underhanded methods of harassment, in order to get the injured
person(s) to stand down, lest "the Community" lose their "sacred"
mountain biking trails over it. Many adherents eventually buckle under
these pressure tactics, even if they are not part of "the Community",
itself.)

6) The Community is preoccupied with bringing in new adherents by any
methods it can. (Just look at all the mountain bike media hype, press
releases, websites, blogs, "bike camps", etc., and even this one:
http://www.velotracts.com/Velo.swf - a mountain biker website
encouraging people to "buy a bike" and "join THE CHURCH OF THE
ROTATING MASS")

7)The Community devotes inordinate amounts of time to the group and
group-related activities.(riding, building,proselytizing, riding and
building and proselytizing some more, etc., etc.)

8) The Community mainly socialize with other community members.

9) The most loyal members of the Community (the "true believers") feel
there can be no life outside the context of the Community. They
believe there is no other way to be.


(You don't believe me? How much time does a friend, spouse, or
co-worker spend on mountain bike websites, mountain bike trails,
riding, or building, etc.? How many times have injured mountain
bikers been shushed, and "suck up" horrendous injuries? How many
"naysayers" and mountain bike cult opponents been threatened, even to
the point of grave physical harm? The addiction of mountain biking can
only be described as cultish. So can other extreme sports, but
mountain biking is a new kind of sport/cult/lifestyle that is breeding
discontent on the trails, and inside our natural and wild places, all
over the world.)


10) The mountain biking community's behaviour is eerily similar
throughout the world. IMBA (The International Mountain Biking
Association) is its "leader."


There is a sameness about them that can only be described as a cult!



************************************


"Mama's, PLEASE don't let your babies grow up to be mountain bikers…"
--
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)

Please don't put a cell phone next to any part of your body that you are fond of!

http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande