[*BCM*] Observation

[list at moz.geek.nz]

Anne Wolfe said:
> The Boston CM ... is intentionally aggressive, in your face, and obnoxious
> just for the sake of being obnoxious... What makes it illegal are when CM
> choosed to defy any relevant parade laws or traffic laws or safety laws.

You say that as though it's a bad thing. Obviously not everyone does, or they
wouldn't do it.

Tony said:
> Moz's description is irrelevant here, since CM represents only a tiny fraction
> of the people who ride their bikes in the city.

How can what Critical Mass is (worldwide) be irrelevant to what Critical Mass
is? And especially to who rides in Critical Mass? If you want to talk about
bike activism in general they I suspect you'd be welcome to, but you and
Anne seem to be talking about anti-Mass activism, which is not the same
thing (Sydney has that too, a bunch of lily-livered liberals who decry
Mass and pretend that kowtowing to bureaucrats achieves pro-bike aims
despite the evidence).

Saying you should have Critical Mass but it should be unlike Critical
Mass anywhere else in the world is a bit oxymoronic - like the "world naked
bike ride" in Sydney that turned into the "body art ride" when it became
obvious that the organiser was serious about banning nudity on the ride.
It seemed he just wanted topless women...

> Moreover, though Moz might be an anarchist and ride CM, not everyone who
> rides CM is an anarchist

Viz, Mass is an anarchist event, those who ride it are therefore a bunch
of anarchists. I'm using the term as a political description rather than
one of abuse. Much as it's possible to say "libertarians" or "americans"
without necessarily meaning to defame the people you're describing. You
could look over www.anarchy.org if you haven't been taught what anarchy
as a political philosophy is (it's a direct ancestor of libertarianism, for
example)

It's possible in theory to have a non-anarchic Mass, but I suspect it would
be very hard to do and probably grind the organisers out of existance very
quickly. The amount of work involved in getting a permit, arranging marshalls,
keeping order and dealing with the bureacrazy every month would be insane.

One alternative is the "nice mass" a la Chicago, which was set up and run
to make it obvious to the disruptive minority that their behaviour did not
have wide support. I believe that worked, and encourage you to try it.
But note that the "nice mass" was still blatantly illegal and made no
attempt to pretend otherwise - they did not get permits and they did
block traffic.

I suspect the discussions are on the net at
http://listserv.uic.edu/archives/chi-crit-mass.html
but I can't see them, and it may be older than that archive. I'll have a look
at home tonight where I have way more stuff available.

Moz