...Pumping out a Feanor?! 
Thanks! ummm... I think?
Ok, I'll pump one out...
It's often difficult to grasp the specifics and significance of the current social attitude when you reach too far back into the cultural psyche.
Certainly, blacks, in many ways, have quite a long way to go and alot more to gain than they have in certain parts of the country, but at the one end, they were beaten and killed for forgetting to sweep the floor, and today, we have a black man putting in his real bid for President of the United States.
I believe its more applicable to talk about the social impact of "acceptance", rather than it is to think about people becoming "rational" and "reasonable" Such things are typically forced issues.
Are there people on this board that remember when killing someone with your car while you were driving drunk was treated with MUCH more lenience? This was in fact due to the fact that drinking (and smoking) was so much a normal part of society, that the negatives were seen as reasonable by-products of the behavior.
With the onset of more organizations like MADD, and more evidence of the addictive drug like qualities of alcohol, the image changed, and the byproducts of those activities changed as well. Going from "Of course he hit somebody, he was drunk!" to "He was driving after he'd been drinking?! What the hell is wrong with that idiot!"
Right now, you and I are living in the motorcycle era where the image of the criminal on two wheels, or the outlaw of the same, are more subliminal thoughts than they are behavior modifying beliefs. Right now we are inthe zone of apathy. The general populace look on motorcycles as a confusing oddity or interesting and sometimes irritating anomaly.
We are in that same zone as when driving drunk was expected to cause deaths and "accepted" with far more leniency than now.
Read any police blotter from any state in this country, and set side by side the stories of how Lady X driver turned left in front of motorcycle Y, killing the rider, and as a result Lady X is charged with failure to yield and a $270 fine, and then how Rider X hits a small sedan broadside, killing the driver and how he is charged with vehicular manslaughter and sentenced to a dozen years in prison.
The list of such inequities is endless and though perhaps not a motivator of opinion against motorcycles, it is certainly an indication of such.
I used to believe that the cause was lost, and that nothing could effect the levels of apathy and irritation that we are viewed with from the driving public, but I have seen glimmers of how things might turn around everyday, and these things give me heart and hope.
And though motorcycles will not enjoy the same kinds of positive boosts that villifying alcohol did for the stigma of drunk driving, there are other influences just as powerful. The rising cost of gasoline will force more and more people to look toward two wheels as a reasonable choice, for themselves, and if not for themselves, for other people. Traffic congestion and ways to avoid it (note I did not say prevent it) will have a huge influence on how the choice of riding a motorcycle is viewed, and a list of many other positive outcomes that I cannot at this time predict.
I believe that we are on the fringe of the beginning of a much more accpeted time for two wheels (despite the best efforts of squids and idiots to ruin it)
Like drunk driving in the 60's as viewed now, I think that in 40 or so odd years, technological and social advances and environmental factors will drive the situation toward the benefit of two wheels, and this will skew the perception in our favor as surely as looking at a polyester leisure suit and saying "What the F*#& were we thinking!!!"
I know, rose-colored glasses, but I prefer smoked visor
The stigma of drunk driving became "bad" and with that the penalties and perception followed suit... I believe the stigma of riding a motorcycle will eventually become "good" or at least "reasonable" or worthy of envy, and this will drive both legislation and perception. Laws do not change perception, acceptance changes perception, and that takes less time for some things than people might imagine...
XRSick50, it was a good post, because it invokes thought, and shows you to be thoughtful as well...
Stefan
Thanks! ummm... I think?
Ok, I'll pump one out...
It's often difficult to grasp the specifics and significance of the current social attitude when you reach too far back into the cultural psyche.
Certainly, blacks, in many ways, have quite a long way to go and alot more to gain than they have in certain parts of the country, but at the one end, they were beaten and killed for forgetting to sweep the floor, and today, we have a black man putting in his real bid for President of the United States.
I believe its more applicable to talk about the social impact of "acceptance", rather than it is to think about people becoming "rational" and "reasonable" Such things are typically forced issues.
Are there people on this board that remember when killing someone with your car while you were driving drunk was treated with MUCH more lenience? This was in fact due to the fact that drinking (and smoking) was so much a normal part of society, that the negatives were seen as reasonable by-products of the behavior.
With the onset of more organizations like MADD, and more evidence of the addictive drug like qualities of alcohol, the image changed, and the byproducts of those activities changed as well. Going from "Of course he hit somebody, he was drunk!" to "He was driving after he'd been drinking?! What the hell is wrong with that idiot!"
Right now, you and I are living in the motorcycle era where the image of the criminal on two wheels, or the outlaw of the same, are more subliminal thoughts than they are behavior modifying beliefs. Right now we are inthe zone of apathy. The general populace look on motorcycles as a confusing oddity or interesting and sometimes irritating anomaly.
We are in that same zone as when driving drunk was expected to cause deaths and "accepted" with far more leniency than now.
Read any police blotter from any state in this country, and set side by side the stories of how Lady X driver turned left in front of motorcycle Y, killing the rider, and as a result Lady X is charged with failure to yield and a $270 fine, and then how Rider X hits a small sedan broadside, killing the driver and how he is charged with vehicular manslaughter and sentenced to a dozen years in prison.
The list of such inequities is endless and though perhaps not a motivator of opinion against motorcycles, it is certainly an indication of such.
I used to believe that the cause was lost, and that nothing could effect the levels of apathy and irritation that we are viewed with from the driving public, but I have seen glimmers of how things might turn around everyday, and these things give me heart and hope.
And though motorcycles will not enjoy the same kinds of positive boosts that villifying alcohol did for the stigma of drunk driving, there are other influences just as powerful. The rising cost of gasoline will force more and more people to look toward two wheels as a reasonable choice, for themselves, and if not for themselves, for other people. Traffic congestion and ways to avoid it (note I did not say prevent it) will have a huge influence on how the choice of riding a motorcycle is viewed, and a list of many other positive outcomes that I cannot at this time predict.
I believe that we are on the fringe of the beginning of a much more accpeted time for two wheels (despite the best efforts of squids and idiots to ruin it)
Like drunk driving in the 60's as viewed now, I think that in 40 or so odd years, technological and social advances and environmental factors will drive the situation toward the benefit of two wheels, and this will skew the perception in our favor as surely as looking at a polyester leisure suit and saying "What the F*#& were we thinking!!!"
I know, rose-colored glasses, but I prefer smoked visor
The stigma of drunk driving became "bad" and with that the penalties and perception followed suit... I believe the stigma of riding a motorcycle will eventually become "good" or at least "reasonable" or worthy of envy, and this will drive both legislation and perception. Laws do not change perception, acceptance changes perception, and that takes less time for some things than people might imagine...
XRSick50, it was a good post, because it invokes thought, and shows you to be thoughtful as well...
Stefan
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kinda look.
She walked out and started to comment.
"
, though I can only represent myself, others don't see it that way. There is no "you" in MY SELF CONTROL. And I choose not to let others effect me.
