Dear Wiggo said:
No I am not.
I am equating going pro (chasing the dream) to starting your own business. You're selling a product (IMO) vs working for the man 9-5. I see it as a different style of vocation on a number of levels.
I don't see pro cycling as a 9-5 job as you seem to do. Or at least the alternative to pro cycling to my mind is more in line with starting your own business. Or doing something like photography for a living.
A guy started a cafe called "Roubaix". Specialized sued him. That's the sort of thing I am talking about where I see similarities of corruption in big business. I provided more above re: Walmart and the UK government.
Curious exchange - your (misunderstanding) confidence about what I am saying and also the rather hard nosed responses and almost dismissive attitude. And the absolutes (cycling or politics), all the while ignoring the dream these kids (and many, many other entrepreneurs are chasing, often similarly working for a pittance but loving what they are doing, naively expecting the best).
Not a biggie. But it does make the ongoing interaction feel somewhat antagonistic.
but who determines if one's solipsism and dream is authentic and legal and therefore deference should be acceded. (thats sort of a pleonasm, but you get the point).
a dream based on false foundations, should I as outsider, necessarily pay fealty to this? This would be obscene. So, in one sense, what ChrisE is saying, has validity, no one is entitled to the fruition of dreams and aspirations. invoke <Hobbes leviathan quote>
Its not either-or. Its not your position, but E is merely offering a devil's advocate. If cycling never existed sans biochemistry and doping, why does one now have an obligation to shift a playing field on behalf of one's aspirations. And as E implies, cycling is but cypher for life, like the Hobbes quote, and we in the West live such an indulgent pursuit of life compared to everyone who has come before us and lives on the alternate tiger/3rd world/subsistent nation states. We are still blessed, even when our dreams to be pro cyclists with April Macy as a third hand.
I think reading your post ^, your concerns and resent, is where the goalposts shift. Where you get sold the bill of goods.
But after assessing cycling for all the dark side characteristics, could one really claim they have been suckered?
P'raps Specialized do have a trademark on Roubaix. Do they have one on "cobbles". Or, Belgian Bluestone Beergarden, or Belgian Beergarden, or "cobblestones". The name of ones business should not necessarily be the key plank of the success and profitablity of the business. Otherwise, all you have is a business model based on ISP copyright and titular trademark. And you might be better advised to adopt a business based on ISP and trademark squatting. Afterall, Australia has a rich history in squattocracy and wealth so claimed in this manner.