Loyalty isn't something thats prevalent in our society anymore!!! In days past, men have always been loyal to a few things; such as a brand of smokes, a certain beer, a particular car make and sometimes a women. But the one thing that you could write down in your little proverbial black book was the loyalty of and to your buddies, your amigos, your brothers, that my friend was a given!!!
Today, not so. Perhaps there are many reasons why, but mainly it has to do with a lack of integrity on some people's parts. What caused this downward spiral? If I had to guess, I'd bit on drugs. When men started producing and using some of these synthetic powders that made you feel like you were having a 30 minute orgasm, it changed things. Just as a crack head will do whatever (even menial degrading tasks) to get his fix of the dope, so too will many of the "brothers", even making deals with the cops in order to walk free. It's got to the point where men are ratting on their bros to stay out of the pen on a daily bases, even though they are just as guilty as the ones they're squealing on, and after their so called buddies are locked down, these two face snitches continue on living and trying to reach that "feeling" they get from the "monster" as if they did nothing wrong.
Some of you may be thinking, why is this cat slamming those of us who do a little "jolt" from time to time? I'm not, unless it has caused you to become a snitch and someone that cannot be trusted. Ask any brother that has been locked away from his friends, freedom and family, that was put there because of another brother's habit, what it feels like to be betrayed. Addiction to the feel and the money has devastated loyalty and as someone wrote on the Cycle Source forum a few months ago, killed brotherhood, and I agree. As the counselors preach, "If it controls you, rather than you controlling it....", well you get the point.
Many that are a part of our life style has rolled over and become a rat because of the afore mentioned, but that's not exactly what I want to make my main topic in this writing. You see my friends, drugs do not have to be involved in today's biker society to cause disloyalty, rather it's caused more by men's drive for success and money that seems to be the monster here in 2010. Up and coming entrepreneurs use friends as stepping stones to climb the ladder of prominence in America's dog eat dog society, even in the realm of where we all live.
A person can do a friend a favor to help them get started in business, and then the next thing you know, they are sitting pretty upon that throne of importance, looking down on the very ones who gave them "all their breaks in business", " deep discounts" and "introduced them to the throngs" that made them one of the elite. It breaks my heart to see good men forget where they came from. I know they were raised differently and this isn't the real them, yet they sway back and forth on the drug of infamy and are not only loosing touch with reality, but crushing the very souls of those who propelled them upon that pedestal. These people are no longer loyal to their friends and brothers.
In the magazine business, I see it monthly. I give a shop the biggest break I can, many times charging them exactly what I pay for the ad, yet every time a new rag comes shaking their short mini skirt ass towards them and lifting that pretty stocking covered leg up on a bar stool revealing as much skin as possible, for the purpose of intentionally seducing the owner with there "better deal", they forget what I did for them and they are now in the "new" mag. Dudes, I get shit on like that here in the Daytona area about every thirty days.
In the motorcycle shop business, you cut a customer some slack on his parts every time he comes in, but one day he sees a tire at J P's that's $4 cheaper than what you offered it to him for, and he buys it there, and to pour salt into the wound he brings it to your shop to install on his bike. I've seen shop owners suck it up and go ahead and mount the tire, but for me this is nothing more than a slap in the face to a business man who has gone farther than necessary to please you and to help keep you rolling, only to be paid back with disloyalty.
My favorite one is when customers think there are better than you because they have money and you don't and they hold it over your head by saying, "I can either buy it here or down the road", as they wave the old check or credit card under your nose. This may work on a franchise, but to do that to an honest "independent" business owner who has treated you like family is a disgrace and should never ever be a part of being a biker. This is not how it all started!!! Men were loyal to each other in brotherhood, in business and in bikerdom, not because we "had" to be to make money, but because it was a part of who we were back then. It was something that was bred into us as Americans, and we graciously offered a helping hand to our counterparts daily, because we believed in each other and wanted to be treated the same way we treated others.
Loyalty is a forgotten trait in today's fast paced, new age culture and it has crippled our nation to the point of "we are no longer one", but fragmented, broken to the extreme, perhaps almost beyond comprehension and salvation. Each doing their own thing, dancing to the beat of their own drum, and crapping on everyone, including those who got them started in the right direction. I ask you to remember those old men, those old friends, those little people who, along with "your" grit and determination help make you who you are. It's the right thing to do and "that's the way it was and still should be".
Cochise
http://www.cochisechops.com
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