Tag Archives: Motorcycling

Philosophy

Americana

So, recently I went riding around North Cascades. To the west of this wilderness is a set of towns hemming the US-Canada border. You can actually ride straight up to the boundary, and there were these twin roads separated by international lines. Speed limits posted in miles/hr on one side and km/hr on the other. But unlike the great wall of southern border, this was just more like a neighborhood fence. There were also strikingly similar ranches and farms on both the sides. But, of course, properties in the US had quite a few Trump/Biden signs. Thanks to the ongoing reality show.

Without being derisive we can all agree it’s sort of reality show right now. But this drama is not uniquely American, it’s quite common in all democracies. Electoral processes tend to exploit all our lower level instincts, and it’s only human to fall for it. Framers knew about this aspect to the masses, so they rightly engineered some institutional checks. In that sense, from cultural or Constitutional perspective, moving beyond baser instincts is something which makes Americans unique. That’s something which separates Americans, and in general the English tradition, from the rest.

So, minding your own business might be more American than political activism. Wearing no signs is probably more American than Black/Blue lives matter badge. Waving/burning flag probably makes you less of an American compared to not caring about the flag itself. Same is the case with worshiping political idols, celebrating defense, law enforcement etc. All these things are common across the world, nothing uniquely American about it. In short, American exceptionalism is about avoiding these very trappings. It’s about employing slightly higher levels of cognition, sensibility etc.

From the perspective of the framers, being American is about focusing on the underlying truth and not getting distracted by symbols or personalities. It’s about seeing subtle and often harsh truths, and acknowledging them. It’s about realizing world is more complex than we can comprehend. It’s about being aware that actions even with good intentions can have negative consequences.  Eventually you don’t have to read extensive literature to be an American, you don’t even have to read the Constitution. In general, just being a decent, responsible individual would automatically make you a model citizen. Seems like, being a real American is not that difficult, but it’s still quite uncommon.

Philosophy

Hand Waving Rules

Quite like Jeep owners, motorcyclists also wave at each other. It’s one of those unenforced etiquettes of the road, creating and maintaining that sense of fellowship among riders. Such rules serve a purpose, so they also tend to have consequences, good and bad. For example, creating that sense of fellowship among motorcyclists leads to a relatively benign culture, consequence is on-road and off-road cooperation. This is quite the opposite of how motorcycle gangs operate. Actually you do not typically wave at these “outlaws”, because they have their own code and different purpose/consequences to them.

Like how merely waving at each other can create/reinforce a cooperative framework among unknown riders, other cultural norms/rules can also have its own consequences. Such norms and rules can also be more abstract and elementary. Sort of like building blocks of a social order. For example, preference for obedience over individual responsibility is such an abstract rule. This rule/norm will then determine what is considered as just or acceptable within all formal and informal social spheres. It’s sort of like the underlying ethics of an order. Respect for seniority, class, gender etc over merit is another such rule; we can see that these rules do have consequences – in this case they tend to emphasize the collective over the individual. In short, these are the characteristics of static hierarchies. In that sense, they share traits with feudal or aristocratic organizations. The other end of the spectrum would be individual responsibility over obedience and emphasis of perceived merit over everything else – these are the essential characteristics of dynamic hierarchies. So, seems like hierarchy itself is inevitable, only difference is the underlying rules.

Such norms/rules are also like the genetic code of a civilization, we sort of repeatedly apply them in different political, social and economic contexts to create higher level laws, Legislation, institutions etc. For example, paternalistic institutions will be perceived as just when obedience is considered as a higher virtue than responsibility. While they’ll be seen as oppressive in an individualistic world. Reality is anyway more complex, because there are always conflicting norms and ethics. In short, no society is absolutely static or dynamic, it’s just a matter of degree. But there are real implications to that static v/s dynamic contention.  A changing world requires us to adapt, which is at odds with a purely static structure, but these static structures could also embed some implicit wisdom from the past. While purely dynamic hierarchies enable quick adaptation, without the implicit wisdom of the past those adaptations may not be sustainable. Challenge seems to be about reconciling them.

Philosophy

I-Postcard

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Over a decade ago I had shot this glistening sun bathed view of a Lighthouse. It sort of happened during one of those long motorcycle rides, and in an obscure part of the globe. Few years ago someone actually contacted me, and requested permission to create a post card from that exact photo. Of course, I obliged! Recently, just out of curiosity, I Googled for postcards based on that Lighthouse, and ran into this interesting WordPress link – Remembering Letters and Postcards. There are visible paper wrinkles and postal stamp watermarks on that photo, and also a copyright Mahesh printed at the bottom left corner!

Just another one of those motorcycle rides, and just another one of those photos. But it caught the attention of a Lighthouse Thematic Philatelist, and it turned into a postcard. Someone actually bought that postcard, and mailed it to a lady residing in a distant part of the world. Who then scanned and uploaded it to her website. And now I Googled to find my own photo! But, now my memories of clicking that photo are also perceived in a totally different context. Basically, that simple act now feels quite gilded and romantic. To quote a related earlier post – “with every single step we are progressively shaping our own trajectory, and at the same time influencing lives of others.” In this case, that mere instinctive act of capturing a Lighthouse in its tropical sunset splendor, ended up traveling across the world!

The lady who got the postcard, or the person who sent it to her, will never know the backstory of that motorcyclist who captured it. They simply derived some value from the unknown motivations of a photographer. Just like how I derived value from the unknowns who engineered that Royal Enfield motorcycle and that Nokia camera. And also just like how I now derive value from the actions of these unknown actors sending postcards to each other. They all created an elaborate feedback loop to my rather innocuous photo. To generalize all this — our ability to derive and add value to the unknowns, significantly more than to the known, tends to create unique value chains. It’s probably the most romantic side to this market based civilization.

This photograph incident just illustrates a general fact. If for the most part our actions help the unknown, than the known. It automatically implies that we also get most of our help from the anonymous. Grocery we buy, coffee we brew, roads we travel, clothes we wear, this sever hosting wordpress.com, everything! Leonard Reed has this famous essay, I-Pencil, explains how difficult it would be create a simple pencil with only known help. In short, we are always acting as part of different collectives. Just that it’s an anonymous group, and often transient and constantly forming and acting based on needs of the many. Quite like an organism which keeps adapting to emerging survival pressures.

Philosophy

Beyond Creation

Stunning autumn hues aside, motorcycling in Pacific Northwest is a lot about winding roads. It’s about navigating those curves at an optimal trajectory and speed, creating those lively moments when your foot pegs brush the tarmac. It’s about discovering that thin line, the line which separates recklessness from precarious optimism, that belief of everything beyond your control going just right! Discovering that trajectory requires a clear view, and an understanding of the full turn ahead. That along with instincts and skills tends to shape the plan on how to approach the turn, how to maneuver, at what speed etc. 

High level plan aside, how you actually cover every inch on this trajectory also matters, because this determines viable paths to cover the remaining part. In fact, at every point on that curve, along with basic physics, our own limitations and constraints of our machines determine possible paths. Essentially, it’s quite like working towards a long-term vision, while shaping the specifics of the path as we go along. Keeping the long-term line requires constant adaptation to what the road actually presents, not what you anticipated. In fact, this simple principle actually applies to even the most mundane activities in life. 

 

To quote the Canadian death metal band Beyond Creation — “Every decision we take. Every step we make. Every word we use. And every rule we choose.” – In short, even in our everyday life, with every single step we are progressively shaping specifics of our own trajectory, and at the same time influencing the lives of others. So, if you had a fortunate or an unfortunate accident, it might not be that immediately preceding step. It could be any action leading up to the accident, which actually set in motion that accident prone trajectory.  

The actual question is what are those steps which maximized the probability of that incident. It could be that disturbing conversation you had with the neighbor or that reckless driver on the freeway, or both. It could also be that this accident was just inevitable. With exhaustive variables at each step, identifying and modelling that action or sequence of actions is non-trivial. It sort of requires omniscience and infinite computing power. But a functioning society requires individual to take responsibility, with the fair assumption that our free will defines the path. In short, we shape our good and bad “accidents”, by acting or not acting to compensate for external pressures. 

To go back to the analogy of motorcycling PNW winding roads — there are always unforeseen factors affecting the specifics of its execution. Twigs on the road, strategically developed potholes or a friendly neighborhood deer cross the road — all these and more impact a motorcyclist’s vision of navigating curves with finesses. Accepting the realities of physics, skill and existence of unforeseen variables helps. But, consciously developed knowledge, skill, reflexes, and ‘experience-based’ judgement to overcome those unforeseen is the eventual goal in motorcycling and in life. 

Philosophy

Life at the Margins

The early morning buzz of an engine, or that moment when we ride off the garage onto the pavement, or that instant when we tear into a freeway ramp – these are all glimpses of riding at the margins, at the margins of transitions. From stillness to the rumbling promise of 1200cc engine, from being boxed in a garage to bustling downtown alleys, from constrains of 25mph to 70mph open landscapes. All marked transitions. Life actually resides at these margins, because these are the moments when we feel most alive.

Taking a 40 mph curve at 60mph is riding at the margins, but only until we conquer the very same curve at 80mph. If we want that exact same feeling, then we need to simply raise the bar. Doing the exact same thing twice does not help, because we have already moved the boundaries. Margins are now further away. We automatically strive to raise that benchmark because it’s that feeling at the margins which matter, rest is just a means to that end. This is true whether it’s at the margins of riding, or general pleasure seeking, or for that matter any human pursuit! We all seek that feeling — which a first sip of whisky provides at the end of a long day, or that first serving of frozen custard on a summer afternoon, or that satisfaction of solving a new problem at work. Second time around none of these feel the same.

The constant pursuit of being at the margins is visible across all the human spheres. We were probably happy with library until we had ebooks and Wikipedia, now we are only happy with augmented reality! We found happiness with no internet, but now we are unhappy with the internet speeds! We were also contented with Magna Carta or bill of rights, until we had a chance with modern republic with democracy. But, as expected, now we are not merely contented with these unprecedented freedoms. We are not contented with mere liberties which enable us to freely pursue our material goals. But instead we want to be at the margins again, where education, healthcare, transportation etc are universal. Undoubtedly, even if we manage to achieve them, we would simply raise the bar. It’s easy to realize, what makes us tick is this never ending journey to the margins. In short, the next time I clock 120mph, it just might not look as fast.

Philosophy

Hume and that cat

Once this motorcyclist asked me – “What do you call her?” – pointing at the motorcycle. I responded — “nothing!”, and casually explained how it’s just a machine. She was shocked, and retorted in a rather jovial way — “You called her a machine, now she will breakdown!” Sort of reminded me of this David Hume quote – “There is a very remarkable inclination in human nature, to bestow on external objects the same emotions, which it observes in itself; and to find everywhere those ideas, which are most present to it.” Hume goes on to attribute these inclinations to mostly children, poets and ancient philosophers. May be the lady was a poet? My own instincts tend to go the other way, I rather bestow on humans the characteristics of inanimate objects. We are also machines, just really complex ones. Guess I am no child, a poet or that ancient philosopher.

Hume’s insight is probably more prevalent, and often a cause for serious mischief. Recently I went riding to Orcas islands, but had an overnight stay at Anacortes to catch that early morning Ferry. Overnight motorcycle parking in a motel lot is always risky, so to minimize the attention I draped it with a dull two-wheeler cover. Next morning I noticed this feral cat sitting and staring at the motorcycle. In a parking lot filled with cars, this draped bike might have invoked his curiosity? We can actually never know. If I say the cat was curious, all that means is — if I was a cat, then I’d be curious. For all you know, that cat might have been a fan of Triumph motorcycles, and it was simply gazing in admiration. Or maybe it was just day dreaming. Possibilities are endless. Unless we place sensors in his brain, we can never truly understand that intend behind his action.

Not just in animals, we have this propensity to assume intend based on the actions of our fellow humans too. Sometimes it’s related to the curious actions of our spouse, or parents or maybe relatives. Our subject of scrutiny can also be the distant actions of some movie star or politicians, as seen through YouTube or TV. Lengthy contentious discussion on the behavior of such a celebrity is not that uncommon. But, whenever we assume intend based on actions, it only tells us more about our own mind, our own assumptions, which may or may not be relevant to the actual object, animal or the person being scrutinized. Not surprising that Hayek once said “We are studying mental and not physical events, and much that we believe to know about the external world is, in fact, knowledge about ourselves”

Philosophy

Causal Chain

Recently went riding at the margins of Olympic, was actually planning to do a loop through couple of forest roads, but eventually ended up running into a road gated shut. So, had to turn back half way, and ride across the same bridge seen on my way up. And not just the same bridge, I crossed paths with the same hiker who was now walking back from the other end. Clearly, even he was amused at this bizarre coincidence. How often do the path of a motorcyclist, and a hiker in the wilderness converge on a bridge — twice!

In a way, coincidences or accidents are just separate causal chains coinciding at some point. For instance — ferry time, riding pattern, not up-to-date maps on the GPS etc were all immediate preceding links on my causal chain. If we go further back, then there are other causal sequences explaining why ferry times are the way they are, or how I ended up riding in some quirky way etc. But, we can only speculate about the causal events related to the mysterious hiker.

 

In that sense, every moment is the consequence of a set of connected or disconnected and known or unknown preceding causal events. Actually, even in my case, we can only speculate whether it was the incorrect map or did someone just decided to shut that road the previous day? Or maybe my riding pattern was immaterial. That means if all the other factors remained same, all types of riders would have faced the mysterious hiker, twice! If only we could replay life, and control it for various factors.

Some coincidences are rare, but others tend to be recurring and contentious. For instance, rising college tuition, health care costs or govt deficit spending tend to be recurring and divisive. But there are also recurring less contentious coincidences – like plummeting smart phone or fast food prices! Rarely do we see political rallies about unaffordable fries. Recurring events tend to have some dominant agency – it can be some specific group of people, natural forces, or some incentive structure etc. But general discourse is rarely about correcting these complex causal factors, which led to the present contentious pattern. But it’s usually more about introducing new factors into the mix — like price/licensing controls, or a new tax, or may be a new war? So, instead of fixing the root cause we keep introducing workarounds. Sounds like another recurring pattern.

Philosophy

Identity Crisis

I was on a ferry the other day, and ran into that quintessential Harley Davidson motorcyclist. On a bagger with half helmet, Harley Davidson boots, and Harley jacket with that round emblem on the back – slightly wider than Captain America’s shield. The unmistakable cross-country rider to Sturgis. Which is among the bigger motorcycle gatherings on the planet. Absolutely a cheerful guy to converse with, but then also signaling a clear identity.

Not just in motorcycling, adopting identities wholesale seems like a human trait. Whether it’s politics, art, culture, or even technology — we seek to belong. We signal identity not just through clothing, but through gadgets, accessories, and through expressed opinions. Especially in politics or economics, we tend to state beliefs primarily to signal who we are, not because we believe they are absolute truths.  

Often, we become liberal, conservative, or libertarian not through expansive research, but through instincts. Research and study are expensive while ideological signaling is entertaining and cheap. So, it’s only human to pick where we want to belong and then adopt ideas wholesale. In fact, actual research would evolve our own thoughts, which makes it difficult to fit in. It also tends to make life lonelier.  

Seems like it’s not the truth that we seek – but it’s that identity. It’s common for all political factions to have quite a bit of infighting as well. Internal tussles over who is the true torchbearer are well-known. Our instincts will simply not allow that group identity to get corrupted. It seems like identity is an essential driving force in all our pursuits.  

Viewed through that lens, all contentious social convulsions are related to identity. Even the trivial ones. Recently came across this band Deafheaven — they trigger an identity crisis among black metal fans, especially the ones on Reddit. The band channeled all black metal influences without their aesthetics. Sounds like black metal but does not reflect the artistic roots. Essentially corrupting a pristine identity — wreaking havoc in a black metal-head’s otherwise serene existence. 

Seems like the world is constantly in this disruptive state, plunging from one crisis of identity to another. Each such crisis spawns new groups and personas. Whether it’s ‘true Norwegian Black Metal’, or capital (L)ibertarian v/s small (l)ibertarian, or convolutions like democratic socialist liberal or MAGA conservative. Reasons for the fractious factions could be many – tribal instincts, cognitive affinity to ideologies, packaging by intellectuals and influencers, or a combination of them all. Eventually, an ecosystem that thrives on fragmentation will fuel the divisions. But like most things, there is also a flipside to this. 

This identity crisis also serves a function — an essential pillar in Federalism. Madison eloquently stated — “the society itself will be broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority.” The gridlock and the quarrels prevent concentration of power, and concerted action at scale. In the long run, this becomes a favorable bias against transient emotions, prejudices, and fears of the masses from causing permanent damage to a republic. But the trade-off is — meaningful policy change at scale becomes harder.  

 

Philosophy

Group Code

Spring poses interesting opportunities, especially if you can manage to ride up to the mountains. It’s not every day you ride through icy roads on a bright day, at near zero temperatures, and with a backdrop of snow-covered mountains! Not to mention occasional water streams gently crossing the freeway, and a highway shoulder precariously stacked with freshly removed snow – guess this is why motorcycling is called sensory overload? As usual, the fuel tank was running low; the two-gallon tank has been a bit difficult to handle, especially when you go exploring. But, like every other time, when it was close to being empty, providence manifested in the form of a Shell gas station.

Group riding on this motorcycle is going to be a tad annoying for others. You don’t want to ride with someone who is constantly on the lookout for a gas station — it introduces unnecessary friction, especially if someone is ahead with a five-gallon tank. In that sense, groups do pose different trade-offs. We all prefer different riding patterns, different frequencies for stops, speeds, routes, etc. A 2-gallon cafe racer will find it hard to get along with a bagger.

Not just in group riding, even general social order demands a certain degree of shared compatible rule following.  Without commonly agreed code, large groups of people will not get along. For example — top-down hierarchical code is mandatory in the military. While role-based layering is common in private organizations. Government bureaucracies depend on documented processes and structure, where adherence to processes often becomes a primary objective. Achieving such goals at scale requires a rule-based coordination. These properties are often decomposed and applied at different layers of the system.

As evident above, the nature of this shared code also depends on the social sphere. The military has a targeted purpose and hence a strictly enforced structure. Here there is little room for malleability. While private organizations tend to have more abstract goals – selling products and services, and are therefore more open-ended, evolving based on contingent profitable circumstances. While a family tends to not have any specific goals, except to treat each other well or general cohesion – hence rules are informal. Societies also have shared laws and norms, but in general they are even more abstract and geared for coexistence. For example, we don’t need to be nice to our neighbors if we don’t infringe on their rights.

The pattern is clear – group goals are mapped to some shared code, and effective compliance determines the outcomes. The goals of a free civil society are not the same as the military; hence they have different codes. While peacetime goals are limited to prosperous coexistence, military code demands predictable and disciplined behavior. While creativity and exercise of individual volition are peacetime virtues, a volatile wartime environment prioritizes disciplined execution under pressure. A soldier is forced to apply predefined rules of conduct to moral choices while a free individual can exercise subjective ethical judgements. Soldier code has its purpose, just that it’s unaligned with peacetime goals.

To go back to the original bagger v/s cafe racer problem – their riding incompatibility is because their motorcycling goals and internal inclinations are different, and that same difference reflects in their machines and riding rules. Eventually, whether it’s riding or life, we’re always part of various groups – and what we seek is elusive harmony of goals, codes, and resulting actions. Peace relies on having that fabric of alignment across time, constantly evolving to satisfy the changing needs.

Philosophy

“I was alive”

Walter White from Breaking Bad famously said – “I was alive”. What essentially drove him to build that Drug Empire was entrepreneurship, that excitement of feeling alive. It was not about providing for family. Being alive is about being in direct contact with reality — absorbing and processing external signals. It demands constant awareness – processing stimuli, gauging situations, and adapting accordingly. In that sense, being alive is also a lot about being human. What separates us from animals, at least most of us, is that ability to not just instinctively react, but instead employ higher levels of cognition. Having that widespread opportunity to employ higher levels of thinking through individual ownership and responsibility deserves some acknowledgement. For most human history, this was a privilege reserved for the few.  

Being alive is quintessential Americana; few civilizations have managed to formally encode this at scale into a political Constitution and broader social fabric. Devising a layered framework to limit the collective while defending individual volition at this scale is unique, because arguments for such a framework run counter to intuition.  

Channeling essential English liberties and the Scottish Enlightenment, American Framers executed something different in terms of impact and scale. They made a well-reasoned argument for Federalism and achieved democratic consensus. A sufficiently intricate argument was framed, communicated to the broader population, and executed as an institutional change. Selling an idea this sophisticated is not easy – usually complex ideas find agreements within a limited minority and then the results motivate slow widespread adoption. But the American framers abstracted the underlying principles of the existing society to a higher level – to that of a union of states and drove mass consensus from there. Being able to execute something like this without corrupting those core ideas through demagoguery or personal agendas is uncommon. In fact, popular support of ideas which refuse to pander to baser instincts is an unusually rare phenomenon. 

There is an interesting scientific aspect to this. Being part of a collective is comforting. Whether it’s politics, sports or music, we tend to seek out that tribal identity. It’s probably our hunter gatherer instincts, constantly pushing us to belong. In that sense, American institutions elevated the overall social order by channeling the tribalism as a check. To paraphrase F.A. Hayek — ‘man got civilized in spite of his best efforts’.  

James Madison quite presciently stated in defense of Federalism — ” the society itself will be broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority”. Instead of enforcing compliance through centralized mechanisms, American framers accepted reality as it exists and attempted to work within those constraints. It simply grounded republicanism in a more realistic understanding of human nature.  

While many societies enforced conformity through top-down control and directed purpose, American framers showed unusual practical prudence. They allowed civil society, order and purposes to emerge through peaceful coexistence.  From that perspective, American Federalism created a framework of incentives favorable to formation of civil society. A society where individual volition can survive, where coexistence was the path of least resistance, and more importantly an individual could feel alive. 

Even though at a more basic level, riding motorcycle is also a lot about being alive, and probably more about staying alive too. For starters, you are always in touch with the realities of the environment. You’re expected to be responsible for your own safety. You’re not protected by the collective, their seat belts, or air bags. You must be aware of the lifted truck with no visibility or minivan with a driver busily sifting through the critical social media reels. You need to simply adapt your path to steer clear of them, or any other potential threats, social media driven or otherwise. But the flip side is, when you are riding, all the other travails blend into the background. So plugged in to that sublime present, there are no cognitive resources to think about an uncertain future, or that disappointing past. In that sense, you feel alive, but in a different mode of engaging with reality.