Preferring Rogues to Slaves

Decades ago a friend and I were walking down a sidewalk at a strip mall when some a biker caught our attention. He made a cross with two fingers - the traditional way to ward off vampires - and when we followed to where he was aiming, we saw a 400-pound landwhale waddling down the sidewalk. We could barely contain ourselves.

I mentioned to my friend I had known several bikers and got along with them just fine, which surprised me. A lot of them were a cut above the average guy. I never had thought about it, when when I did I realized they weren't terrible Hell's Angels types (for the most part, but some certainly are) but were guys who didn't want anything to do with the rat race and wanted to be free. All of them were a bit of a rogue, but they were a hell of a lot more interesting than the average wage-slave.

These days a number of pretend-bikers are accountants, doctors and lawyers who get together and ride on weekends. Again, it's all about freedom. They're oppressed by their high-paying mundane lives.

I knew a few bikers years ago who used to make their living smuggling cigarettes across the Canadian border. These were not good guys. A lot of the border is rural, so they'd meet up with Canadian bikers and swap cigarettes for money. I understood why they were doing it. No working 9-5, no idiot boss, no being part of the Machine.

I had a bike, too, and on weekends sometimes would go ride by myself. One of my biker friends said he used to do the same thing. And he was more than a little bit of an outlaw.

It has been noticed for a few thousand years that part of us wants to be a slave and part of us wants to be free. For some, the desire to be a slave is greater than the desire to be free. For others it's the other way around. That is one of the reasons there is much conflict - it's between those who want to impose slavery on us (they always call it "security" and those who want to be free).

Seems like most don't know it these days, but the reason that Moses wandered in the desert for 40 years was so that the slaves and their diseased mentality would die off.

I have mentioned before that of the detective novels I've mentioned my favorite is John D. McDonald's Travis McGee. McGee doesn't work, except for hunting down the Bad Guys. He lives on a boat, "The Busted Flush," which he won in a poker game. His best friend, a economist/intellectual named Meyer, also lives on a boat. They are free men.

I see the same thing with F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack, who is New York's version of McGee. He doesn't work except for hunting down the Bad Guys. He lives completely off the legal grid. Both he and McGee are outlaws. I'm surprised that neither of them rides bikes. They have dropped out of traditional society. They want nothing to do with the Machine and in the case of Repairman Jack he avoids it at all costs.

The Machine has gotten huge. Think the Eye of Sauron. Think of the Panopticon.

I have mentioned before about the Machine State vs. the Natural State. You can see that theme in The Lord of the Rings. Sauron is the Eye of the Machine State, wanting to absorb all freedom and suck the souls out of people. The Shire of the Hobbits represents, of course, the Natural State. (Sometimes I have this fantasy of Hobbits on Bikes).

I expect to see more and more people, in one way or another, dropping out of the Machine. Moving to a rural area, pulling their kids out of public schools, dropping out of the corporate rat race. It's the desire to be free, to have control and mastery over your own life.

It is, in many ways, that outlaw biker mentality.