BEST OF JODY’S BOX: MEMBERSHIP IN A COUNTERCULTURE SPLINTER GROUP

To the uninitiated, romantic or armchair racer, the life of a motocross racer may seem to be idyllic. Motocross, as a lifestyle, has all the prerequisites of any subcultural group. In sociology and anthropology, a subculture is a set of people with distinct sets of behavior and beliefs that differentiate them from the larger culture of which they are a part. The subculture may be distinctive because of the age, race, ethnicity, class, gender, activities, religion, occupational or a combination of these factors.

There is no doubt that being a hard-core motocrossers requires meeting the most stringent requirements of membership in a counterculture splinter group. For those of us who never thought that being a motocrosser was counter to the dominant culture think again. Here are the tenets of sub-culturalism. Do you fit in?

(1) Shared rituals: Be it tugging on your goggle strap to clear fogging, yawning on the starting line or bouncing your front wheel into the backwards falling back three times before settling in, motocross racers worldwide know and understand the rituals that every racer adheres to. In fact, when Steve McQueen wiggled his bike back and forth to hear if there was gas in the tank in the movie “The Great Escape,” every knowing motocrossers knew that he was one of us.

(2) Secret language: Doctors, lawyers, physicists and motocrossers have their own language. Much like the French, members of a counterculture groups have a different word for everything. Bog, berm, big-end, Bing, black box, bleeder, boost, bore, BDC and bottom out are the motocross equivalents of bequeath, bequest, brief, breach, bar, bench and beneficiary. Why do we speak a jargon all of our own? To keep outsiders from knowing what we are talking about or pretending to be one of us.

THERE ARE POSERS ON THE FRINGE OF EVERY SUBCULTURE; WHITE KIDS WHO TALK WITH BLACK ACCENTS; SNOWBOARDERS IN KANSAS; VIETNAM VETS WHO NEVER LEFT FORT HOOD; AND MOTOCROSSERS,
WHO TALK THE TALK AND WALK THE WALK, BUT OWN AN XR400.

(3) Uniform: One of the primary goals of a subculture is to separate itself from the dominant culture. The most visible way for a motocrosser to put a barrier between himself and the rest of the world and to identify other members of the subculture in a crowd is distinctive dress. The obviousness of motocross gear is not what I am talking about here; wearing garish, gaudy and harlequin-style motocross gear is more of a “shared ritual” (identical to the headdresses of primitive tribes) than an subcultural uniform. The style of racing gear has little connection to its functionality, but it is a motocrossers true-believer uniform (because he only wears that gear in the presence of the group). However, the true uniform of a motocrosser is a T-shirt with a cryptic symbol on it (that only a member of the subgroup could identify); a baseball cap with a different cryptic logo; cargo shorts with the tiniest of logos; and the accessories of the group. The uniform of the moment never really changes from one generation to the next, only the crypticism of the brand names.

(4) Common beliefs: Much like Maoist, communists, Presbyterians and Moonies, motocrossers all share the same belief system. They spout the party line with amazing conformity. The guiding principles of motocross revolve around fitness, bravery, craziness, stupidity and speed. Paradoxically, the larger cultures most admirable traits, intelligence, thoughtfulness, kindness and fairness, are not valued unless they culminate in fitness, bravery, craziness, stupidity or speed.

(5) Pecking order: Although subcultures typically reject or modify the status quo, they, paradoxically, have their own social hierarchy. In academia, the top of the pecking order is dominated by those who published instead of perished; On Wall Street, honor is distributed solely on net worth; Motocrossers proffer status on the speed of the rider. The faster the rider, the higher he is in the pecking order. As in Serengeti baboon society, where the strongest male rules the group by brute force, the fastest motocrosser holds the most exulted position. Once the star (baboon or racer) is beaten, he is expected to shrink from prominence.

(6) Membership: Douglas MacArthur may have said that, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away,” but in motocross membership only accrues to those who are active. While the world may recognize ex-racers, retired racers or guys who raced once back in 1993 as part of the motocross subculture, true believers don’t. Paramount among the common beliefs of motocross racers is that the only people who are motocrossers are those who race. The social status of a rider who misses a weekend can survive, but skip two, three or four races and you are persona non grata. Having raced is not the currency that the subculture of motocross trades in. If you don’t race now, you might as well never have.

(7) Poser firewall: A poser is a person who wants to belong, but fails to meet the prime criteria of being a motocross racer—which is racing motorcycles. The subculture of motocross requires that its members be constantly vigilant for fakes and expose posers at every step. Why the harsh line? The integrity of a subcultural group comes from its purity of motive. Posers gain entrance by false pretense, thus the rigidity of a subculture’s standards must constantly rise to weed out those who would co-op the lifestyle without paying the price. There are posers on the fringe of every subculture; white kids who talk with black accents; snowboarders in Kansas; Vietnam vets who never left Fort Hood; and motocrossers, who talk the talk and walk the walk, but own an XR400.

(8) Rebellion: Most motocrossers feel that they are unique, special people who are rebelling against the mundane constraints of society by engaging in what most of society sees as antisocial behavior. To those rebels it must be disheartening to know that in the process of rebelling against the mass culture, they are joining another one. It reminds me of Groucho Marx, who upon resigning his membership in a private club, said, “I don’t want to be belong to any club that would have me as a member.