[CMI-CM] More Radical and Not So Radical Thoughts

[Zachary C.Miller]

Some thoughts on Critical Mass this week and in general.

Can we even build the mass for this Friday?

If we break out of the campus box we can. Instead of thinking "hey
this is the holidays so everyone is going home", lets think "hey this
is the holidays so everyone will be _at_ home". 

The question then is who will be in town on tuesday, wednesday, and
thursday so we can do some publicity? I'm willing to help out with
just about anything if there are some others to help me. Lets start
brainstorming some ways to get the word out to people in town.

I know at least three people who will be there. Pipe up if you will be
there and let us know what you want to do.

Should critical mass be confrontational or friendly? Why do I ride?

For me critical mass is as much for its riders as for anything
else. Critical Mass is a place for a bunch of bikers to get together
and have a sense of community and to express ourselves however we
happen to feel like.

We chant slogans and cary signs because its fun and because we hope to
get the _idea_ of bikes out there bubbling around in people's minds. I
don't expect that many people go home and say "gee maybe I'll go fight
for bike path construction" and I don't expect the press to come out
and see our little group and say "gee bikers are a huge force to be
reckoned with in this town". That kind of stuff is totally secondary
to the event. All I hope for is that the image of a bunch of bikes on
the street gets into a few peoples heads, that is an image that it
completely foreign to them and it can't help but make them think a
little bit differently. We're growing people's mental vocabulary of
ideas to include the idea of us. 

Do we care if some angry drivers feel we are being oppositional? I
don't. Take a look at one of our rides and see how many drivers
happily honk "hello" at us or wave at us. Way more drivers are
positive towards us than negative. And more importantly pretty much
_every_ biker or pedestrian we see is positive towards us. These
people generally have no idea who we are or what we are doing but it
is an _image_ or a scene that sits well with their minds, gives them a
little smile or chuckle, and is generally positive. The angry drivers
probably don't ride bikes, won't consider riding bikes, and generally
don't get it. I don't really care what they think and actually I get a
secret joy out of exposing their inner anger merely by being
happy. Its a very funny contrast.

What we should be concerned about is whether or not what we are doing
is fun and comfortable for us bikers. That should trump considerations
of whether what we are doing is "good press" or "bad press". I'd
rather be seen in a vaguely bad light than not seen at all and
completely ignored. But if we aren't having fun and if we aren't
comfortable than no one will come to Critical Mass and we won't be
seen and we will be ignored.

Remember we are critical. We get to say what is good and what is
bad. And we are a mass, we get to have different opinions.

So should we do this thing at the mall?