Last month at a huge bike night in Indianola, Iowa I ran into my brother and his toadies. As usual when he is with his HD buddies he started razzing me about my beloved Triumph. Totally against my will, and purely in self defense, I started sniping at his bike in particular and HD’s in general. I called it a 2 wheeled Winnebago and a Barcalounger on wheels. 1930’s technology married to 1940’s style updated only with 1990’s marketing. He made some disparaging remarks about the Blue Streak and we were even. While we were laughing and buying each other an adult beverage one of his cronies asked how much horse power and torque my bike had. I told him what the advertised specs are but added that mine had been slightly modified. He responded that his bike had a lot more torque than mine. When I asked him “So, just how much torque does your bike actually have?” he said “I’m not sure after all the performance modifications I’ve made to it, but it’s powerful enough to pull a stump!” I responded with “Great! If I ever need a chrome plated stump puller I’ll know who to talk to.” He frowned, all the others laughed, and we went on to have a very good evening. It reminded me of drinking with fighter pilots 20 years ago.

We all like to think of ourselves as rugged individualists. But when push comes to shove most of us are sheep who do what we are told. Worst of all, a lot of us become unpaid agents of whoever is controlling the agenda by enforcing the current dogma on the few rugged individualists who actually exist.