I was just reminded of this debate I had with lux a couple of days ago.....
about how she can't respect people who race around for a living. because they don't contribute to humanity. she condemns sportsmen too. all of them except long distance runners and sprinters.
its easy to put anybodys profession down, or diss someone. especially if ur not aware of what they do, why they do it and what effect it has on everybody else.
aerobatic flying and air races.
had those nutters not been craving for speed, and the ability to out manoeuvre their opponents, we could never have had the engines we have today. the aircraft engines of today are something amazing. compare today with a day 50 years ago. thats it. 50. you can get around the world in less than 24 hours thanks to those non-respectable buggers flying their machines out of their skin. aviation as we know it today stems purely from the world war era, and of the air race era before that. man has always wanted to go faster, fly higher, reach for the stars.
had those motherfuckers not been whizzing around in their tiny incredibly dangerous little prop planes, we would have no space program. most of the aeronautical engineering that we know today is a direct lesson of that era.
everyday, people can get into their cars and drive safely to work at a nominal cost. nominal, because the car itself doesnt cost that much (its the oil, that we've seen for millions of years thats the problem). My friend had an accident. crashed his car into the barrier, survived thanks to airbags, a crumple zone in his front fender and a safety catch in his fuel pump. all these innovations come from formula 1 racing.
these racecar drivers wanted to make 1 litre of petrol last longer so theyd have to wait longer to refuel, and thereby beat their opponents. this led to sevaral automotive engineers struggling to make engines more powerful and efficient. remember the mileage a car used to give 30 years ago? now think of the modern car. 5 times as powerful, 5 times less thirsty. all thanks to formula 1 racing.
innovations all around us. things that make us more efficient, faster, economical can source their origin to one of two things: sports or war. case in point- the jet engine.
today Lux is 3 hours away from home because the nazi bastards made a plane that could fly faster than a prop. this brings me to my other debate.
sports is war. but not as bloody. man, of all shapes, colours and form, is competitive. even if everything was ok, everyone had food, shelter whatever, some bastard would come up and start attacking the other guys to gain more. greed, aggression and ruthlessness is an integral part of the homo sapien. now that we have organised sports, most people who in barbaric times would have attacked each others countries and gone to war now support their world cup teams in soccer. hilarious? am i retarded? yes and no. think about it. ever wonder why there are stadium fulls of people who wear their colours, yell and scream and dance their victory dance when their player scores a goal. well, is it so far removed from the thousands of soldiers on a battlefield wearing their army uniforms carrying their nations flags battling each other.
we are human, we want to feel superior to other humans. wars in the past have not been purely for survival. no. a kingdom who was at peace. had all the natural resources it could need, still had a massive armies and occupied territories it could easily do without. why? because they could.
we are assholes. all of us. thats the beauty of the human race. sports just gives us a place to vent our aggression, where millions of people dont die. thats the beauty of sports.
ever wondered why the olympic games came into being in ancient greece? some crazy motherfucker like me realised that instead of fighting wars, lets just let athletes sort this shit out. so different 'countries' trained their athletes....spent money on them, the athletes were a source of pride for a nation, they commanded certain respect. they competed in sports which required the athletes to have the same abilities that a soldier would need in war. speed (sprinting), strength (weight lifting), stamina(long distance running), accuracy with a weapon(archery) etc...........
the wars of today are complicated. now we have sophisticated weapons. fighter aircraft that require skill, and the clarity of thought that is required at mach 2 to act and win. thus we have high speed racing.
speed, skill, patience, brute strength, strategy are all integral to the sports we see today.
football can bring nations together, unite people of different class, creed and colour. fuck that, u can have a kid in south africa, india, russia and greece supporting the same team. might not speak the same language, different lives, culture etc....but when the motherfuckers scores....they all jump together. that is fuckin beautiful.
now im not saying that all sportsmen have these noble intentions of bringing the world together in peace and harmony. no. they do it cause they like it. football, racing, flying is their passion. just like lux's passion can be money, security, stability. if she can follow her passions, why should these athletes not follow theirs.
fuck that. golf. golf requires no skill, strength, speed, accuracy....right? just go to a golfcourse once and swing at a ball. ul realise what its all about.....
its so easy to diss someone else, their passions, their beliefs.
any athlete can come up to me and tell me that i am nothing but a guy who takes other peoples money and bets with it to make money for myself. he wouldn't be far from the truth. he can go to lux and tell her that she works towards making companies more efficient. by making them more streamlined, so people lose jobs, automation takes over. and these companies can make more profit, and their ceo's take home a bigger bonus while their marketing campaigns helps them charge a higher price for the same goods.
who is right, and who is wrong?
no one.
we should all go after what we want. Mr. Valentino Rossi wants to be the best racer ever, be the best of the best, be internationally famous.....he goes for it. and does it. i want to be rich, i should go for it too.
it doesn't fuckin matter what u do. just do what u do to the best of ur ability. have ur own goals and fulfil ur ambitions.
btw, u know the one reason why i like sports. its the desire to be the best. to have no equal, in the world.. combination of speed, skill, talent, endurance and effort.
rossi, has 5 world titles. more money than god. more fans than anyone else. he is racing his team mate lorenzo in this clip. lorenzo has 1 world title. team mates. talented. but the desire to win is so strong in both of them. winning, being the best matters more to them than money, fame, publicity, whatever. that is what makes them great. check my lord and master Valentino Rossi in this clip.
whole race gone by.....last 2 laps.
wow.
at that last lap. each of them had only one thing in mind. winning. not the money. not the fame. but being able to control a machine that does 350 km/h better than the other guy. to be able to control a machine at 200km/h at a turn where they are leaning their bikes at 50 degrees and still out-think anyone else. that is something...