From a friend:
10 Signs of a Mountain Biking
Cult: (also on http://www.myspace.com/mocrael)
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") [They also, dishonestly,
exploit children to further their goal of spreading mountain biking and making
it seem less harmful, by pretending to be taking kids
mountain biking to benefit the kids. Mike]
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!
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"Mama's, PLEASE don't let your babies
grow up to be mountain bikers…"
