The nihilist bicyclists of the West

From Matthew Parris’s column in the Times of London, it appears that Britain has the same type of aggressive bicyclists as in New York City, who wiz by at high speeds within inches of pedestrians. This is modern liberalism. There are no boundaries on individual desire, and everything is permitted, except for smoking tobacco and criticizing minority groups.

The title of Parris’s article is “What’s Smug and Deserves to be Decapitated?” An inadvertent answer is provided by the article adjoining Parris’s: a column by Stephen Pollard, entitled “A delightful, religion-free December 25.” Expanding on his blog entry at the Spectator, Pollard smugly celebrates the fact that Christmas has supposedly become entirely secular, so that Jews like him can now enjoy it. But, as a commenter at the Times notes, if Christmas has been stripped of all its meaning, what is there to enjoy about it? If it’s just a day off from work to shop and eat with relatives, why not have it in the summer, when there are more shopping hours? So obviously there is something about that supposedly secularized holiday that is still derived from its spiritual origins—the glow of good will, of family love—and that makes it pleasurable to Pollard. It’s bad enough to be a parasite, but Pollard is something worse. He is a resentful and ungrateful parasite, who glories in his contempt for the organism whose dying remains he enjoys consuming.

However, let us realize that a vile little creature like Stephen Pollard is not the problem, any more than vile creatures like Al Sharpton or the leaders of CAIR are the problem. These people, their attitudes and their words only exist because the majority culture brought them into existence, which it did when it adopted liberalism as its guiding philosophy and thus gave up its identity and legitimacy as a culture. Once that happened, the minorities, who previously would have deferred to the majority culture, became free to act out their animus.

- end of initial entry -

Kevin V. writes:

When Parris is on, as he is here, he is just one of the best essayists in the world. (See his four-part essay that appeared in the Times in the ’90s, in which this son of Rhodesia called for the re-colonization of Africa on humanitarian grounds.)

Here in Portland, as you probably can imagine, this problem is all around. In its desire to be green and hip, the city government made bike, roller-blade and skateboarding in streets perfectly legal, the end result of which is punks on skateboards coasting at a snail’s pace in a center lane on 4th Avenue. No, wait, I’m sorry: we’ve just re-named 4th Avenue “Cesar Chavez Avenue”. I have to get this stuff right.

In any case, just like our friends the bike riders, the boarders treat this as a way to stick it to Mr. Squaresville Suburbs in their cars doing something boring, like, you know, trying to get to work. As soon as their fun ends, they hop back up on the sidewalk. I mean, yes, they are treated as vehicles, but only until they decide it’s inconvenient to them; then they run through reds, make snap u-turns, hop into pedestrian right-of-ways, etc.

The oh-so-alternative bike messengers are, as in every city, the worst. Appallingly needy for attention, these “look at me! I have piercings!” types zoom within mere breadths of pedestrians and delight in doing so. A few months ago, one zoomed in between me and my 5 year old son and as I realized he was doing this anger welled up in me and I knocked Mr. Alterna-Dude on his ass.

His reaction was instructive. He was angry, yes. But most of all he was outraged. Indignant. I swear an “How DARE you?!?” almost escaped his lips before he got another look at me and decided that fighting the power through song is one thing while getting one’s hippy ass kicked is indeed another.

N. writes:

Also consider the “Critical Mass” group of the San Francisco area.

Once a month, or so, they ride in a large mass of bicycles on a set of streets making it impossible for motor vehicles to operate. This is supposedly a protest against “the car”, but it also makes a street impassible by pedestrians for some time as well. It seems to me to basically be a demonstration of power; “Look at us, we can shut down traffic on Van Ness as long as we want!”

Terry Morris writes:

Kevin V.’s account of his encounter with the bicyclist is hilarious. I just about fell out of my chair laughing when I read it. But truly, it’s good to see that there are still decent people, and men, in Portland. I know the look he’s describing.

Harry Horse writes:

Kevin V. is the classical poet/warrior of Western Civilization, and deserves accolades! hip-hip-hooray!

James W. writes:

Eric Hoffer informs us that a dissenting minority can feel free only when imposing its will on the majority.

Since it is also true that we receive no more respect than we demand, our lack of expectation fans the worst instincts of others.

Civilizations die by suicide, not murder—Toynbee

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 27, 2007 02:58 PM | Send