To Be Or Not To Be Politically Correct.

Article By: Chris Callen

Over the past decade there’s been a huge effort to become more politically correct in this country. The longer this goes on however, the dumber I think it’s made the average person. Not from a lack of intellect, but more from not knowing when to say what, or in what context someone might take what you ARE saying. This doesn’t mean that I feel we should advocate exchanges like those of Michael “Kramer” Richards at the Laugh Factory that made recent headlines, but feeling that we need to walk on egg shells about everything we do and say, needs to be re-evaluated, and quickly.

Lately though, it seems that being politically correct is a necessity in the business world and not offending this or that group has led some of the biggest corporate decisions at the end of the 20th century. Barbie dolls made in a variety of nationalities, safety minded cartoons, family sections at sporting events, where no swearing is allowed, and multi-lingual ATM machines are all signs that political correctness can be monetarily beneficial.

Now that motorcycling has arrived at the level of popularity which makes it a thriving business, that P.C. frame of mind has started to take control of the industry it supports. With growing numbers in minorities and women, many businesses have set a standard based on the need to “Love All Serve All” as the Hard Rock Cafe puts it. But one has to wonder if in some way we’re not forgetting the fact that we are all bikers, even the people who some call wannabes still want to be bikers.

Throughout the history of motorcycling, individuals who were a little on the fringe of society, have always participated in it. They were rarely P.C. and rough around the edges, but the bottom line is they were staunch individualists that lived motorcycling before it was a trend. Over the years, motorcycling has started to “Clean up its act” and I say that with one eye squinted, all in an effort to include the family market among its ranks. Taken away is the rough and rowdy atmosphere that used to make up national rallies, where scantly clad women entertained big tattooed men riding down main street. In their place today, you can find ferris wheels and petting zoos, a scene that is safe, sedate and almost blasé to the average rally goer.

So is this all really raising the amount of families or good moral individuals that attend events? I’m not so sure. After all, I think a certain amount of them attend just to find a life-style outside of their own. And families have always been a part of motorcycling, all the way back to the days when the AMA had a more active role in the American biker scene. The only difference then was we had the ability to govern ourselves. There were places that you could take the kids and places you couldn’t and it was up to you to make that decision because they were your kids. Many of the early rallies had reputations for wild behavior as the midnight hours approached, but that was OK, because night time was reserved for adults and that was just implied. Motorcycle magazines didn’t need plastic wrappers at that time because you didn’t have to worry about little Johnny looking at the ol’ man’s scooter rags. He knew he’d get his ass kicked if he touched them. Of course, the average magazine wasn’t on the shelf at Wally World then either, and it makes me wonder, was it worth the trade?

This all ran through my head the other day as I flipped through a 1982 SuperCycle magazine. It’s just what I do to keep myself grounded, don’t ask. There in its pages I found a very different depiction of the motorcycle culture of that time. It was on top of a stack of other old scooter mags so I just kept flipping through pages I found really dedicated to the “Pro-Freedom” and “Not Letting The Bastards Get You Down” mentality. I chuckled at cartoons which depicted scenes that would land their authors in civil court by today’s standards. There were ads for sneak-a-smoke pipes and pages with casual nudity, not the kind that is blatant, just a reflection of this culture. In one issue of EasyRiders, I found the first interview with David Alan Coe. Reading it I wondered if anyone could even print words like these today; there’d be no way. I realized, nearing the end of my old magazine collection, that something is missing from all this; freedom. Not the freedom to travel down the road on your scooter, which thanks to the general acceptance of motorcycling is much easier, but the kind of freedom to just be who you are, openly and publicly.

Before I start getting bags of hate mail, I’m not saying that we should go back to days where the American motorcycling scene openly advocated drugs and free sex, but we shouldn’t deny who we are just to convince some uptight right wing conservative to buy a bike. The fact that we have allowed a list of overly capitalistic products like the one pictured here (next page), to infiltrate our beloved lifestyle because of these “Family Values” is just sad. I mean c’mon man, can you imagine a Miraculous Mutha’ or Righteous Products Guy, Pez dispenser????? Who comes up with this shit?

We need to be careful here that we don’t give up the reflection of our culture to the point that it becomes hard to distinguish from the average model train and hobby clubs. Motorcycling, or living the biker lifestyle, is so much more than just a casual hobby for most and it’s unfair to sterilize it.

There have been many benefits from the P.C. approach the motorcycle industry has taken and even our own magazine has cleaned itself up considerably over the years, so I don’t want to sound like it’s been all bad. After all, in today’s world our industry is made up of a much more diverse crowd. The responsibility of including them all needs to be on the top of the list, I do not, however, think it should be second to staying true to ourselves. We can’t forget that a large part of the new comers to motorcycling got into it because they looked over at some tramp and said “God I’d like to be that guy" and not “Boy, if motorcycling were a little more civilized, I’d spend some money in it.”

The main reason for bringing all this up is to start you thinking about how history repeats itself and that we stand on the apex of another round. This issue of the Cycle Source is titled, “Generation Next” and we did this to take a closer look at the new generation in motorcycling. Made up of the 25 to 40 crowd, so many are coming on board now and their cultures are blending so fast, it’s hard to keep up with at times. Their designs, based on previous influence from dirt bikes, BMX racing, skateboarding and sport bike riding have started to cement themselves firmly into our scene, making it as much theirs as it is ours. Still it seems as if the industry at large doesn’t really know how to communicate with this crowd and in some cases fails to represent them accordingly. What we’ve noticed, while all this is going on, is that the young crowd is a lot more like the bikers of the seventies. Now I know that it’s impossible to repeat a generation, or their culture, but the basis for a lot of what they are doing today has roots deep in the staunch individualism that made that culture what it was then. They like it a little rough, they sleep in tents and sleeping bags, they’ll ride across the country in the name of experience and if you don’t like it, then it’s “Up yours pal, cause this is what I’m diggin’ on.”

What we hope to do in the pages of this offering is take an indepth look at what makes the next generation tick. What do they dig and what motivates them towards the biker lifestyle. Maybe by pointing out the similarities that they share with the founders of our culture, we can stop the idea of segregation in our part of the world. Afterall, we’re all on the same trip man, but there’s no need to get into the same boat as everyone else just to make sure you get there. Enjoy.

Wild Man