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发表于 2002-6-11 02:05:28
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同樣的問題在美國的情況 給大家參考一下
Are You a Motorcyclist or a Biker?
by Don Sucher
The line at the parcel-delivery service center was moving even more slowly than usual because the clerk was feeling chatty. As each customer approached the counter he or she was engaged in a drawn out conversation. Maybe it was because of the strangeness of the situation (who ever heard of a cheerful postal clerk?), or maybe it was just their relief at having finally reached the end of that slow-moving line, but each customer semiwillingly joined in the banter. Then it was my turn.
I was shipping some motorcycle gear back to the manufacturer. Upon seeing the address on my package Mr. Friendly stated the (I suppose) obvious. "So, you're a biker, eh? (chuckle, chuckle)" "Actually no" I responded, "I'm a motorcyclist." As a blank "huh?" look settled on the clerk's face a collective sigh of relief passed through the impatient line behind me. At least this conversation, everybody realized, was to be a short one.
Now, if you are a motorcycle rider in almost any country aside from the U.S.A., reading the above interchange may raise a few questions in your own mind. "Not a biker, but a motorcyclist? What's the difference? Aren't the words interchangeable?" Well, actually, no, they are not. At least not here in the United States.
To understand why the word "biker" and "motorcyclist" are very different, and why I would bother to declare my identification with one, but not with the other, you'll have to understand something about the unusual place motorcycles and motorcyclists have here in America.
A Brief History Lesson
Back in the days well prior to World War II motorcycles in the US, as elsewhere, were simply a means of transportation. Their popularity was based on the fact that they were easier on the legs (and a bit faster) than a bicycle, and they were easier to feed than a horse. People from all walks of life rode them. But then Henry Ford brought out the Model T and that changed forever.
When mass production made the automobile cheap (indeed, cheaper than most motorcycles), people quickly traded in their two-wheeled transport. They did this for practical reasons. Why choose a potentially cold, rain-soaked, dirty and noisy means of transportation when they, their wife and the kids could sit in the closed comfort of a car? Why, indeed! Unless, of course, you were that odd type of character who chose to travel without the wife and kids, who didn't mind being cold, rain-soaked, and dirty and who maybe didn't even mind making a bit of noise.
Following W.W.II, returning soldiers were confronted with a choice. They could either choose a life of quiet 'normalcy' (a nine-to-five job, a wife, children, and a mortgaged home), or they could remain outside the mainstream and seek a life of excitement. Not surprisingly the vast majority decided that W.W.II had been excitement enough, thank you very much. Thus the late 1940s saw the number of the US motorcyclists shrink yet smaller.
The final divide between the American population as a whole and the nation's relatively small number of remaining motorcyclists came in 1953 with the release of the motion picture "The Wild One." This film, based on an exaggerated magazine account of a quiet California town that was 'taken over' by motorcyclists, stared Marlon Brando as a rebellious biker named Johnny. When in the movie Brando was asked "Hey, Johnny. What are you rebelling against?" and he gave his now-famous response "What've you got?" the separation was made complete. Motorcycle riders were now branded in popular culture as 'wild ones,' people outside the pale; dangerous and uncivilized. To some degree that viewpoint became a self-fulfilling prophecy. The "biker" scene was born.
In the movie "The Wild One" Brando's Johnny rode a Triumph. But the actual "biker" scene came to be centered on wildly customized Harley-Davidsons such as the "Captain America" bike seen in the 1969 film "Easy Rider." In that movie, Peter Fonda played one of the "heroes," a drug-dealing biker.
With the passing of time, as one biker film followed another, the term "biker" came to be ever more closely associated with irresponsible and antisocial behavior. The average motorcyclist paid the price for this, often feeling a need to hide his or her interest in the sport of motorcycling as if it were a vice or an aberration.
This problem, like most problems faced by democratic societies, has proven to be largely self-correcting. With the passing of time the "biker" motif has been borrowed (or stolen, depending on one's point of view) from the self-imposed outcasts, commercialized, and has become just another 'recreational style.' One that can be put on and taken off by weekend 'bikers' who are more likely to be involved in collecting toys for disadvantaged children than in marauding quiet towns or ravaging innocent maidens.
None-the-less, there is little in the image of the "biker," or in the biker scene itself, that relates to my personal enthusiasm for the sport of motorcycling. Some fellow riders would, I'm sure, just have let the postal clerk's comments pass. He was, after all, just being friendly. I won't argue with that. On another day I might have done the same thing. But I have to admit I feel pretty strongly about this little issue. I am not a biker. I am a motorcyclist. And I have to admit to something else as well. I really hate standing in slow lines.
See you on the road!
-Don
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