i have been thinking a lot about two things over the last few days. i know what you're thinking; but it's not this or this or this or this.  no, i've been thinking about my flat at poolesville and the fact the people have started calling me a communist.  now both of these things are wrong, but for different reasons. 

the first thing is that my flat at poolesville was just wrong.  i had been riding okay, nothing great, but 50 miles into the race and i'm beginning to think about how it will end for those of us who are still a full four minutes behind the break.  eli caught a flat and i remember telling him he had a good race and patting him on back as i went by.  and you know what i got for that good karma: 100 meters down the road, blammo, my front wheel is shot heading into the deep gravel.  joy.  no wheel van in sight.  no nobody in sight.  my high hopes come settling down along with the dust cloud my fellow riders have left.  a minute later, the wheel van comes ripping by (driven by our old friend pete lindeman) and it's empty and doesn't stop.  it's been reassigned as the follow vehicle for the race. 

the second thing is that i am not a communist.  i have heard people throwing around labels, mostly in jest, and the jests are usually pretty funny as well.  we revolutionaries do have a sense of humor after all.  but it is incorrect to call me a communist.  i could go on and on about the distinctions between various ideologies, in both theory and practice (think manifesto of marx and engels vs. animal farm) but you'd be bored.  the differences between leninism, maoism, troskyism, et. al. are significant, but they often seem to reduce themselves to self-parody.  it puts one in mind of the nice piece of humor from the life of brian on the judean people's front and the people's front of judea.

i would like to clarify that i personally am really more of a collectivist.  and i'm hardly alone in this.  you may have seen recent news articles illustrating these principles on a much larger scale.  and since the revolution is proceeding apace, it might be helpful to let you all know what you can expect in the very near future.  in very simple terms, property will be considerably less private and considerably more public.  the things surrounding you will belong to, and be used for, the benefit of all of us. 

here's an example of a hero of collectivism:

and an anti-hero of collectivism

still not quite sure what this all means?  let's try again by going back to the topic i initially introduced in this post: my flat at poolesville.  i got a flat and was forced to pull out of the race.  why did this happen?  what was the real problem there?  if you said that my team car was derelict in it's duty, you're as far off as you can be.  the revolution will not allow team cars, opting instead to sieze them and turn them over to small farming communes where they can be retrofitted with more-ecologically friendly engines and help the workers in their daily chores.  if you said the wheelvan didn't bring me one, you're still in way too bourgeois of a mind-set.  property will be collective.  when one person flats, another individual will share what they have with them.  so the real problem at poolesville was that the collective of racers (them) did not support their fellow racer (me) by providing another wheel when one was desperately needed. 

i know some of you are still struggling with this so i have added a sample problem which should really help to drive the point home. 

question: we're riding together at hains point.  it's the thursday before a big criterium and we're doing a good sprint workout to polish the skills in positioning and finishing.  i have a tire that's going soft.  what do you do?

answer: if you said "attack!!!", that's wrong.  very, very wrong, and we have work camps re-educational facilities to help disavow you of those notions.  similarly, if you said "sprint away giggling" you're not thinking in a collective mindset.  the correct answer is to tell me to slow down so you, a fellow bike rider and racer, can collectively help me to work towards the greater glory of the cause by providing a wheel for me to finish the workout.  bonus points if you mentioned getting off your bike and changing the wheel for me a fellow racer or gave me a fellow racer a push start to help me a fellow racer catch back up to the group.

still not sure what's going on?  look at the following pictures.  this handy guide can be printed out to assist you in managing your actions such that the collective benefit is realized.

	not yours, but ours to help fulfill the aims of the revolution
	still not yours, which is an outmoded capitalistic concept, but ours which is a welcome, progressive way of viewing property.
	to be used, collectively, for the cause. not yours.
	for the good of all, to be given to me your fellow racer.  now.

- - - posted by scott