We haven't done this much..talk about our slowly fading sport in a broader social context.

But maybe we should...
Here's a link to a nice thoughtful article and i think it applies here as much as anywhere, especially when we consider the anomalies of rally here versus many other places, the strange beliefs spouted as certainty and wisdom, the strange priorities..

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/how-america-lost-its-mind/534231/

How America Lost Its Mind
The nation’s current post-truth moment is the ultimate expression of mind-sets that have made America exceptional throughout its history.

When did america become untethered from reality?

I first noticed our national lurch toward fantasy in 2004, after President George W. Bush’s political mastermind, Karl Rove, came up with the remarkable phrase reality-based community. People in “the reality-based community,” he told a reporter, “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality … That’s not the way the world really works anymore.” A year later, The Colbert Report went on the air. In the first few minutes of the first episode, Stephen Colbert, playing his right-wing-populist commentator character, performed a feature called “The Word.” His first selection: truthiness. “Now, I’m sure some of the ‘word police,’ the ‘wordinistas’ over at Webster’s, are gonna say, ‘Hey, that’s not a word!’ Well, anybody who knows me knows that I’m no fan of dictionaries or reference books. They’re elitist. Constantly telling us what is or isn’t true. Or what did or didn’t happen. Who’s Britannica to tell me the Panama Canal was finished in 1914? If I wanna say it happened in 1941, that’s my right. I don’t trust books—they’re all fact, no heart … Face it, folks, we are a divided nation … divided between those who think with their head and those who know with their heart … Because that’s where the truth comes from, ladies and gentlemen—the gut.”

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Don't be so hard on yourself John.

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Last Updated, May30, 2022

That is an interesting article, fun to read and reflect upon. Thank you for sharing. I'm going to finish it and this obsidian stout but will reflect and comment more tomorrow.

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Grant Hughes

Interesting article. Being a Pilot I

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frumby
Being a Pilot I...

...should really concentrate on flying this plane full of passengers safely rather than let myself get distracted by posting on t'internet.

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Disappointingly not yet a Jackass

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danster

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frumby
Being a Pilot I...

...should really concentrate on flying this plane full of passengers safely rather than let myself get distracted by posting on t'internet.

That’s funny! I typed a paragraph on the amazingly popular chemtrails conspiracy theory. And the fact that those who subscribe to the conspiracy don’t listen to the experts (pilots) because we would be the ones ‘in’ on the spreading of mind controlling chemicals.

Unfortunately my current aircraft doesn’t have internet. My last one did!

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frumby
That’s funny! I typed a paragraph on the amazingly popular chemtrails conspiracy theory. And the fact that those who subscribe to the conspiracy don’t listen to the experts (pilots) because we would be the ones ‘in’ on the spreading of mind controlling chemicals.

And what an excellent jazz band they are. A lot of folk just haven't heard of them because google filters and restricts the search results when anyone is looking for info on their gigs and albums.

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Disappointingly not yet a Jackass

Quote
frumby

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danster

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frumby
Being a Pilot I...

...should really concentrate on flying this plane full of passengers safely rather than let myself get distracted by posting on t'internet.

That’s funny! I typed a paragraph on the amazingly popular chemtrails conspiracy theory. And the fact that those who subscribe to the conspiracy don’t listen to the experts (pilots) because we would be the ones ‘in’ on the spreading of mind controlling chemicals.

Unfortunately my current aircraft doesn’t have internet. My last one did!

Hi Jason! How's life in Hawaii been treating you? You still doing the Ultra-marathons and crazy shit?
Still in the Navy??? What's this about passenger planes????

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Hi Jason! How's life in Hawaii been treating you? You still doing the Ultra-marathons and crazy shit?
Still in the Navy??? What's this about passenger planes????[/quote]

JV... still in HI. Five years now. Definitely doesn’t suck! One year left in the navy then on to find a real job. Passenger jets... who would’ve thunk it ten years back? But I’ve seen the world flying these things, so it’s been great! How’re the girls?

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frumby

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Hi Jason! How's life in Hawaii been treating you? You still doing the Ultra-marathons and crazy shit?
Still in the Navy??? What's this about passenger planes????

JV... still in HI. Five years now. Definitely doesn’t suck! One year left in the navy then on to find a real job. Passenger jets... who would’ve thunk it ten years back? But I’ve seen the world flying these things, so it’s been great! How’re the girls?

One more year...heard that many times..My "little" nephew whois an electronics Ossifer on some cruiser based out of Yokosuka..He was jus' sayin' "yeah maybe one more year"
> He went in as a swabbie and just a week ago made Commander and since he taught himself to read and write and speak Japanese, he's making noises like "well maybe DLI in Monterey, then maybe some liaison position with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces"

Any ideer where you want to be when ya get back? A year flies by. Putting out any felers or sniffing around who's hiring? I read there's going to be orders of magnitude demand in China next 20 years.. They're buying hundreds of short/medium range regional size things like 737s and now building their own..Their middle class is now about 400 million and they are on the move.

Wifey and the girls are doing fine...10 1/2 and 12 1/2..They're about 2 years ahead of their class or age and so there's some issues with crushing, paralyzing boredom..Anna in in 7th Grade but after a week and 1 test her math teacher suggested she get moved in an advance math class for 8th graders which means it's high-school math and it is "fun algebra" but she's responding by bearing down and doing it..
Both have wicked sense of humor and are pretty good at wise cracking>>I wonder where they got that?

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2017 03:48AM by john vanlandingham.

So what's your thesis on this John?

Politically, I think the author harps on the kooks on the right, which are certainly the most visible, while down playing some of the kooks on the left, but I certainly don't feel Mr. Andersen's observations are too far off the mark.

It seems that in terms of Motorsport, people are leaving in droves. The roundy-round stuff is drying up in my neck of the woods (the south-east) as evidenced by the closing of one of the biggest deal Nascar sanctioned weekly-run circle tracks, which was once the proving ground for the Tiger Woods-esc young-uns in "stock car" racing. Over time the big money teams traveling up from Charlotte (Earnhardt and Hendrick backed affairs) in support of some prodigy pushed the local teams out of contention. Local interest waned, and attendance fell...

Is this attributable to the "rich-get-richer" situation fostered by nearly three decades of economic policy that doesn't favor the middle class? Probably, among other contributing factors.

However is this a lack of rationality and tendency to accept mysticism while rejecting science the down fall of Rally? I'm not sure, but perhaps it's a contributing factor.

I think unrealistic expectations are to blame, although I suppose they could be linked to the lack of realism/rationality as perpetrated by the internet.

The average person who thinks they might be interested in Rally has never actually been to a Rally event. Instead he or she sees some video of WRC, (European) Rally Cross, YouTube videos of Group B and Group A cars and some Ken Block junk... IF they investigate further, they find a bunch of Subaru press videos for CRC and Rally America, highlighting the "harrowing" exploits of $250,000+ factory backed efforts here in North America and how those teams fielding those cars fight "adversity" when their nearest competition might be some dudes in a $30,000 car.

So now, with their head filled with unrealistic expectations, they discover how much it would cost them to try to get into what they think is a "real" rally car only to discover it is beyond their means. The cars they can afford are way too uncool... Bloo Subaroo peoples want to be Colin McRae/Ken Block and they think they need 400hp and AWD to do so and a VW Golf or 90's Escort or even a Volvo 244 is long way from "living the dream" for them.

So instead they give up, plug up their X-box and live out their dreams digitally.

I know, John, you say over and over again that no one competes in Rally to get rich in North America. I agree with you and I'm enough of a damned fool to still be looking into eventually living the dream. I'm just throwing out my take on the situation, especially given the article.

It

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frumby
It

Huh?

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Quote
frumby
It

Was

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Ask for work.
If they don't give you work, ask for bread.
If they do not give you work or bread, then take bread.

- Emma Goldman

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frumby
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Self-righteous douche canoe