Welcome to the bikepill manifesto.
In this written work, we aim to aid you in your discovery and help you to develop your realization that you live within a world that has put your health, safety, and overall well-being in the backseat in lieu of the interests and apathy of cars and those who drive them.
Please consider this work to be something of a living document. Yours is not the only opinion that is changing: ours is as well, and we intend to update this document to provide further evidence of the violence that is being enacted against you by virtue of living in a automobile-centric society.
Where to Begin?
The foundation of this manifesto, the thesis statement if you will, could best be paraphrased as follows: The automobile is inherently violent towards itself, its passengers, its mechanical compatriots, the immediate environment within which it operates, and ultimately, the Nation of Earth itself. Our reliance on the automobile is destabilizing our health, our infrastructure, our institutions, and our very way of life.
That’s a pretty bold statement, one which requires some explanation. We’d recommend giving the New York Times article from noted contemporary philosopher and published author Theodore Kaczynski a read for a foundational (and admittedly better written) understanding of this topic, but it is optional.
What is the bikepill?
You may find yourself wondering why on a website entitled bikepill are you hearing so much about cars. We insist that “taking the bikepill”, so to speak, would not be necessary were we not living in a world that had been bent to the will of the automobile. That is to say, taking the bikepill is the full rejection of the automobile and the acceptance of other more fun, economical, environmentally friendly, and healthy (emotionally, mentally, and physically) forms of transportation. We suggest the bike because it’s fun as hell, the walking and public transportation are equally important pillars to be had.
You may find that taking the bikepill will lead you towards interest in other economic models. You may find yourself interested in different forms of urban development. You may find yourself believing that something much closer to a utopia is not only feasible, but already exists in other parts of the world. You may find yourself angry that it once existed in your corner of the world, but was stolen from you… and for what?
What is a car?
For the purposes of becoming bikepilled, one must shift one’s mental construct of the car to be that of a weapon with many spears. We believe that currently, for most people in the New World, the car exists in a Greater Cultural Context as something more than just a tool, more than just a means of transportation. After all, there are many means of transportation that can bring a person to their place of work, to home, to the grocery store.
However, advertising firms working for automobile companies that sit next to board members of oil and gas companies have worked tirelessly to construct the automobile as a literal and figurative vehicle for freedom. That is to say, owning a driving a car will grant you the freedom to go anywhere.
Make no mistake reader, this is an absolute lie. This is advertising planting the seeds of worms in the folds of your brain, and taking the bikepill will lead you to believe that this American dream of owning a gigantic truck is an American fucking nightmare.
Consequently, we have composed the Spear Theory of the Automobile: that cars are weapons. They are weapons that deliver a multi-faceted and soon-to-be fatal attack to our people, our communities, our species, and our planet.
Worse than that, we conceive that this Greater Cultural Context of the automobile has created an unknowing army, each soldier armed to the teeth and going to battle with themselves and each other, every single day.
Every driver is both an occupying force and an occupied territory.
The true horror of this Greater Cultural Context is that we have created such tightly interwoven infrastructural nightmares that facilitate and require the usage of more cars. How does someone navigate a god-awful city like Phoenix, Arizona without one? One cannot. It is nigh-impossible. Consequently, one buys a car and becomes another unwitting soldier, and another unknowing victim.
Firstly, we must acknowledge the victim. The victim here is the person who, needing to get to and from work and home, to and from the grocery store, must rely on existing infrastructure to do so. It is no secret that the Greater Cultural Context is to blame for this infrastructure almost entirely being highways and roads that can only be navigated by car.
How often do you hear someone say “oh, well, you need a car to get around, it’s so much easier”? It isn’t easier because cars make it easier, it’s easier because everything was built for cars.
But easier is a weasel term. It is shit language for idiots. It is (supposedly) faster to drive, but it is not easier. As we will get into, driving and all that goes along with it exacts a heavy toll. This is why every driver is a victim, because every driver must pay this toll, and they may not even realize it.
Simultaneously, every driver is a soldier and an oppressor. The act of driving is an act of violence, to oneself and to every other driver on the road. Think of your daily commute. Do you find yourself kind hearted and forgiving? Do you find yourself having a good time? Do you sit and smile patiently as you watch a red light that you missed because the person in front of you was going the speed limit?
More likely, you find yourself cursing your fellow man. You conceive of him as your enemy. You swear at him under your breath. Your fantasies turn violent.
Every single driver thinks this way. They treat the road as some strange boastful battlefield, and seek to impose their right of way upon every other driver. It is inconceivable how badly we all behave when behind the wheel of a tank.
We are soldiers because we knowingly inflict this violence on each other. This violence is part of the rules of engagement. We even have a name for it: road rage.
So, the question becomes - if we’re simultaneously an unknowing victim and an unwitting soldier in this bloodsport, how do we morally extricate ourselves from this ghoulish game?
The only winning move is not to play. Unfortunately, given the Greater Cultural Context, this may not be a valid option in some locales. The next best move then, is to become a knowing soldier, and to fight the game itself. To challenge the Greater Cultural Context.
The only winning move is to take the bikepill.
This work is hereby divided into the following sections:
The following sections will extrapolate on the various Spears mentioned above. As described, the Spears are the various means in which we are hurt by cars.
The titles should give some indication as to the directions we will go from here, but we must start with the Spear of Cost.
