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funny things to do on a bike



 
 
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  #21  
Old May 7th 04, 01:48 PM
Badger_South
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Default funny things to do on a bike

On Thu, 6 May 2004 21:58:19 -0700, (Tom Keats) wrote:

cannot respect people who use their bicycles to sneak up
behind pedestrians and scare the livin' daylights outa them,
as 'cyclists'. They'll just have to make do with being
People On Bikes. As a matter of fact, most of the time I just
regard myself as just a 'rider' -- it feels less onerous.


Yet every day, I pass a Ped with three dogs and one or more of them
suddenly start barking like crazy and scare me enough to make me jump; yes,
even though I partially expect it.

I often feel the urge to go up behind the Ped on the second lap and start
barking like a maniac. ;-p

Sadly, my better judgement takes hold and I say and do nothing.

-B


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  #22  
Old May 7th 04, 04:00 PM
Terry Morse
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Zoot Katz wrote:

I think he used to also quote Murphy: "Do not ascribe to maliciousness
what can be ascribed to incompetence, ignorance, and insensibility."


I think you're referring to Hanlon, not Murphy:

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?HanlonsRazor
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terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/
  #23  
Old May 8th 04, 04:30 AM
Zoot Katz
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Fri, 07 May 2004 08:00:44 -0700,
, Terry Morse
wrote:

Zoot Katz wrote:

I think he used to also quote Murphy: "Do not ascribe to maliciousness
what can be ascribed to incompetence, ignorance, and insensibility."


I think you're referring to Hanlon, not Murphy:

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?HanlonsRazor


You're probably right. Thanks for the correction.
I pasted it from a document attributing it to
Murphy. I'd searched on "ascribe to maliciousness" looking for a
reference.

http://www.virginia.edu/uvanewsmaker.../oconnell.html

Hanlon's uses "malice", a better word. I wasn't comfortable with the
repetition of "ascribe" in the quote I'd found, just lazy.

I prefer the phrasing of the translated version attributed to
Napoleon: "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by
incompetence."

Thanks again.
--
zk
  #24  
Old May 8th 04, 10:47 AM
Just zis Guy, you know?
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On Fri, 07 May 2004 20:30:05 -0700, Zoot Katz
wrote in message :

"Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by
incompetence."


That is, in my experience, the usual form of words ascribed to Hanlon.
And thus we come full circle, sort of :-)

Guy
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  #25  
Old May 8th 04, 04:15 PM
Tom Keats
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In article ,
Zoot Katz writes:
Thu, 6 May 2004 20:01:28 -0700, ,
(Tom Keats) wrote:


....

Bike-haters were just born that way.


The stereotypes and prejudices are built into the car-centric culture,
language and infrastructure. It's reinforced by restrictive
legislation and redneck radio.


There are some who really have a hate-on for bikes and the people
who ride them. I think it springs more from nature than nurture.
These people seem to have a pathological need to hate something/
somebody, and bikes are one target of opportunity. I suppose
there are elements of both nature and nurture in their attitudes.

Few drivers envy us even when we're
scooping them. Instead they resent us and so blame us for their
impotence in gridlock. We threaten their paradigm.


Most people, when annoyed by someone on a bike for some reason or
other, will feel some consternation with that individual; then
they'll get over it and move on, and think about what's for dinner
or something, instead -- without deciding that all cyclists are a
blight on society. And then there's the few for whom the mere
presence of a rider on the road, doing nothing wrong, sets them off.

We've heard the conjecture that this is the result of accumulated
bad experiences & encounters with cyclists. I don't believe it is.
I think their anger and hate is simply innate; it's their natures
to be like that. That's what I mean when I say bike-haters were
just born that way. In which case it's futile to ride extra
'nicely' just to prevent them from going off on a jag and griping
about cyclists not contributing road taxes, and demanding that
we pay insurance/registration/license fees just like drivers
(we here know many cyclists do, in fact, contribute all that.)

So, maybe some few times it /is/ malice rather than ignorance,
incompetence, or insensibility. I'm almost tempted to email
Mordecai Richler and ask him what he thinks about it, but I
might just **** him off for pestering him. I don't even know
if he rides.


cheers,
Tom

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  #27  
Old May 9th 04, 10:35 PM
Claire Petersky
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Default Why they hate us, was ( funny things to do on a bike)

"Tom Keats" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Zoot Katz writes:
Thu, 6 May 2004 20:01:28 -0700, ,
(Tom Keats) wrote:


Bike-haters were just born that way.


The stereotypes and prejudices are built into the car-centric culture,
language and infrastructure. It's reinforced by restrictive
legislation and redneck radio.


There are some who really have a hate-on for bikes and the people
who ride them. I think it springs more from nature than nurture.
These people seem to have a pathological need to hate something/
somebody, and bikes are one target of opportunity. I suppose
there are elements of both nature and nurture in their attitudes.


This is how I see it. There are some people who believe that the world is a
nasty, competitive place. They live as atomized individuals, and see the
world as made up of individuals, all of whom need to step on each other to
get ahead.

In addition to lacking a sense of connection to others, and seeing the world
in these bleak terms, they also feel relatively powerless. Working class
people by the very nature of how our society is structured do not have a
great deal of control over their work lives, and don't have a great deal of
money to change things.

So here they are, feeling powerless, fearful, and disconnected. They have no
ways to be compassionate towards themselves and this powerless, fearful side
of themselves. Instead, they despise this part of themselves, which they
understand to be weak.

One way people deal with hating a part of themselves is that they push off
what they don't like on to other people. In the case of these people who
feel fearful and powerless, they instead identify others as weak, and then
hate them for having those characteristics. It's much safer to hate others
than to hate yourself. Also, it is easy to fall into the belief that if you
only get rid of those people who embody that which you can't stand about
yourself, then everything will be all right.

Cyclists are identified as physically weak compared to cars. We don't go as
fast, we don't have a steel cage around us for protection. Thus, as
something that is weaker than the motorist, we are despised. But we are only
despised to the extent that the motorist hates his own powerlessness in
traffic.

That "redneck" stations should encourage violence against cyclists is not
surprising. Working class white men are in an interesting situation. As
whites and men, they have a certain sense of entitlement, but because of
their education, background, etc. they will not be among the power elites.
There's a certain amount of frustration boiling in them. At the same time,
working class white men are among the few in American society (not sure
about other countries) where they have had a certain amount of tolerance, if
not outright encouragement, in externalizing their dark sides on to others,
and then committing acts of violence against those others. In this
situation, we get outright encouragement.

We've heard the conjecture that this is the result of accumulated
bad experiences & encounters with cyclists. I don't believe it is.


I agree.

I think their anger and hate is simply innate; it's their natures
to be like that.


It is the nature of our ego minds to try to externalize what we don't like
in ourselves on to others, and then try to eliminate that characteristic in
them, or in a more extreme form, eliminate those people all together.

However, we don't have to collapse into that sort of behavior. If we
acknowledge our shadow selves, the parts of us that are violent, angry,
fearful (etc.), and are compassionate with ourselves for being that way, we
are then facilitating our own healing, rather than sending out destructive
feelings and actions into the world.


Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato and .net for .com
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky



  #28  
Old May 9th 04, 11:43 PM
Mark Hickey
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Default Why they hate us, was ( funny things to do on a bike)

"Claire Petersky" wrote:

working class white men are among the few in American society (not sure
about other countries) where they have had a certain amount of tolerance, if
not outright encouragement, in externalizing their dark sides on to others,
and then committing acts of violence against those others. In this
situation, we get outright encouragement.


Hmmmm, I must not have been paying attention in school when I got this
"lesson". Perhaps they didn't teach me to commit acts of violence
because of my American Indian blood (only 1/8th, but I suppose you
can't be too careful when you're teaching an entire population to
"commit acts of violence").

Was it taught in social studies, or maybe in shop? I didn't take
shop, so might have missed my opportunity to be encouraged to commit
acts of violence.

Mark "probably not the only thing I missed in my education" Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $695 ti frame
  #29  
Old May 10th 04, 02:21 AM
Zoot Katz
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Default Why they hate us, was ( funny things to do on a bike)

Sun, 09 May 2004 15:43:58 -0700,
,
Mark Hickey wrote:

Was it taught in social studies, or maybe in shop? I didn't take
shop, so might have missed my opportunity to be encouraged to commit
acts of violence.


Off the top of my head:
Language, Football, War toys and entertainment, Wild West myths
sanitising genocide and occupation.
--
zk
  #30  
Old May 10th 04, 11:00 AM
Stephen Harding
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Default Why they hate us, was ( funny things to do on a bike)

Zoot Katz wrote:

Mark Hickey wrote:

Was it taught in social studies, or maybe in shop? I didn't take
shop, so might have missed my opportunity to be encouraged to commit
acts of violence.


Off the top of my head:
Language, Football, War toys and entertainment, Wild West myths
sanitising genocide and occupation.


I didn't know Canadian education was so multi-dimensional.


SMH

 




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