Paradoxes of Cycling
Wees always obliged to dig far enuf in our pursuits to bump into paradoxes.
–We buy what we hate.
–We shop against our interests.
It’s all so obvious. It’s amazing how effective and insidious the BONKERS image consumer paradigm is.
How to fight it? Only via the next generation. We’re goners. Our only chance is in parenting/role models.
How to teach resistance to the paradigm? How to teach that resistance ain’t the same as REACTION? That fighting a good cause usually means sleeping much closer to the enemy than you can admit. Needing the enemy. Fighting, done typically, only makes it worse. Fighting by way of simply showing the truth, showing how truth works, showing where the real work is and why, that’s how to fight.
Start by reading Simone Weil! –I’ve been; she’s great. Start with obligation and necessity. Stray not. Whew! I think the AMISH are the role models here. (The bikin’ Amish of Napanee!)
Freedom ain’t the same as liberty. We forget that. Freedom is full-on restraint and discipline to be what you’re meant to be. (Passion leads you around by the nose.) Freedom has nothing to do with whim. So many LIES everywhere. All it takes is truth.
Like: bike racing is symbolically doing honor to bike commuters. A kid doing CHORES is higher up culturally than the local quarterback whose efforts, again, symbolize and honor the real role model: the kid doing chores.
But our kids are being lied to. Teach/show the OBVIOUS truth. Teach real pride, not false pride. Show how in all cultures that real pride means refusing to take credit, never doing something for the results, but instead coz it’s good to do. We have a big fight ahead and we’re our own worst enemy.
So ride that bike to town. But realize that commuting to rent that VIDEO is a sign of infancy. Someday when you don’t need that video, you’ve grown a bit. Hey, I’ve commuted for videos, but I know I’m only in kindergarten. Time to grow up! (Hey, lookit that: haven’t gotten a video in a coon’s age, maybe things are lookin up.) It’s not the bike that saves us.
