by Sonny Barger
You Win a War by Kicking the Enemy’s Ass, Not by Negotiating with Them
Conflict is a clash of thoughts on the same idea between two parties. Simple enough, right? But the end result of conflict is victory, and many times that gets foggy. The biggest reason it does is that we start bartering, negotiating—whatever—and don’t get something resolved quickly.
We go to war so that we may live in peace. I see value in war, although it’s an expensive proposition and should be your last resort. War requires absolute commitment. Peace won’t come until you’re entirely prepared to confront your enemy and make sacrifices back home.
In a declaration in the 1960s to Lyndon Johnson, then president of the United States, I offered to go out and fight the war in Vietnam along with quite a few of my friends, as private citizens. Whether or not that war was winnable is still hotly debated. My thought was that we would win some battles, but, more important, we would become a symbol for the rest of the American public to get off their asses and get involved. Just get the damn war over with, we thought. As history tells it, we were not granted the right to go over to Vietnam and fight. The war went on and on, lots of money was spent, many people were killed, and if you ask me today what was accomplished, I couldn’t begin to tell you.
I am using the example of Vietnam for a reason. The conflict began for a reason, but as the days and months grew into years, that conflict, that major disagreement, grew so intricately muddled that after a while people didn’t even know what they were fighting for. At the end, nothing was really resolved. The years of skirmishes and battles did not result in a victory or even a resolution.
I fear the same is now going on in the Mideast. What is the battle plan, what is the war we want to win? The enemy is not defined; he is invisible. It is big government money against goatherders, it seems. But again, innocent people are being killed and the majority of the people in this country only have a vague idea of what is really going on, what the conflict is, and what we are trying to accomplish.
Conflict is a part of everyday life. Accept that and you are ahead of the pack. Identify your conflicts and “kick ass” in any way you see fit, from the easiest method of simply leaving and avoiding it to the most direct method of using your fists. A conflict is resolved only if it is addressed.
37
To Get Wet You Have to Get in the Swimming Pool
Democracy isn’t a spectator sport. It is very much a participatory one. To make it work, everyone has to play.
While I tend to resist government intervention by not relying on the government to solve my problems, I strongly believe in the democratic form of government, and I recognize that voting is a fundamental right, privilege, freedom, responsibility, and obligation.
Half of America seems to be sitting on the couch criticizing; the other half seems to run things. Have you taken charge, beginning with your own life? Or are you sitting on the sidelines watching and critiquing less talented people who are running things for you? One of the penalties for refusing to participate in a democracy is being ordered around.
That’s why we motorcycle riders are forced to wear helmets. If everyone who rode or owned a motorcycle objected to the government’s insistence on helmet wearing, then the helmet law could be done away with. But some riders don’t care, are too lazy, are sheep, and go along with everything, so…the helmet law exists. This is an example of democracy in action. And dealing with any form of governing body within a democracy works the same way.
This is not a call for you to run for office. Far from it. This is a call to the wild and the young to instigate the next wave of change. Think about how much better life might be if we weren’t so content watching mediocre a-holes run our affairs. There are no honest people in the wings waiting to take over from the mediocre and the dishonest. It’s down to you, and believe it when I say that one person can make a difference. Whether it’s work, play, government, relationships, or family, you’ve got to jump in, take charge, and accept responsibility. Don’t wait for another man to come along and steal your old lady. Don’t wait for a government or social-service agency to come along and raise your kid.
Be the best you can be, and then use your talents to have a positive impact on others. Jump in and put experience, good sense, and expertise back to work. Get what you want, make the world a better place for yourself, and then it will be a better place for others, too. Otherwise, we’re doomed to continue living in a world where the richest and not necessarily the most honest and selfless rise to the top of the power heap. Do you know somebody with an untapped mountain of potential and strength? If only we could see the same potential in ourselves as others see in us. If only we could swap brains and vantage points and see ourselves through the eyes of those who admire us. We would go through life walking taller, with more confidence in our actions, our ideas, and ourselves.
During the fifties and sixties, America was more of a nation of joiners than it is now. There was an abundance of hot-rod and motorcycle clubs, social clubs, bowling leagues, various kinds of special-interest clubs, lodges, fraternities, sororities, sporting teams, charitable groups, church and religious groups, and business associations; people of all ages joined and belonged to such groups. Now everything is far more specialized and suited only for the individual.
Now we seem to be a country composed of many little societies. Everything comes through the television and the Internet. Everyone has become a vicarious watcher, an ogler. We are amused and captivated by these screen technologies. We order gifts and buy land over them, jerk off in front of them, order plane tickets, play combat games, and here’s the important part—we watch the NASCAR races instead of racing on the back streets ourselves. We watch sports rather than participate outdoors. We’ve evolved into a nation composed primarily of watchers and critics instead of doers and participants. Our heroes have become those who have the courage to do what we’re too damned lazy to do ourselves. Americans sit in front of their computers, soaking in porn privately instead of hitting the streets and attracting and interacting with real women. I make it a point to get on my bike at least once a day, fly my colors, ride fast and loud, and show the town and myself that I exist.
If you sit back and watch while others do, especially if you have talents, leadership abilities, answers to questions, or solutions to problems, you’re guilty of promoting mediocrity. If, out of laziness and complacency, you’d rather let somebody else “do it,” whatever the reason, get up off your ass and get out there. If you’re a master mechanic, there’s a bike club that could use you. If you’re a lawyer, there are organizations that need help getting their people out of trouble. If you have a nose for money, there are lots of people that need to know how to raise funds in order to survive. There’s not an organization out there that couldn’t use a little more help from talented people.
What angers me is when America sits on its lard ass. What’s worse is when we sit on skills that could be put to use for the greater good.
If you don’t like what the people in charge are doing to your neighborhood, city, town, or state, you have the right to vote them out. If you think the guy in the White House makes Americans look like mugs to the rest of the world, then vote him out. If you don’t want your kids to inherit the leaders we have, then vote them out. If you’re sick of the two-party system, then vote for a third party.
Get in the pool and get wet and splash around and make a difference because if you don’t, then you’re just another critic, another complainer, who is bringing nothing to the table but a plate of excuses.
38
Don’t Trade Freedom for the New Security
What patriot needs a PATRIOT Act?
Be that person who stands up not only for your immediate family circle, your old lady, your brother, your coworker, and your friends, but also for the neighbor down the street you hardly know. There’s a quote written by a minister, Martin Niemoller, in Germany, in 1933: “First they came for the Jews…and I didn’t speak up
because I was not a Jew…then they came for me and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.”
I’ve lived (by choice) in the crosshairs of my adversaries and my country. While for years I’ve enjoyed the support of a brotherhood, I’ve seen a lot of people look the other way when the cops were breaking down my door. We may think we live in the freest nation in the world, but that doesn’t mean you can relax for even a second. The day after they come for me, they might be coming for you next. Sound paranoid? Not so fast.
Over the past few years, since 9/11, we’ve seen our federal government grab more power with the passage of the PATRIOT Act. Since 2001, it’s much easier for our government to define an unrecognized group’s activity as terrorism, targeting not only scary people on motorcycles, but also various religious and ethnic groups. The potential danger to our liberty and freedom is now twofold. First, if you’re seen as a “subversive,” and second, if certain of your acts are perceived as “subversive activity,” you can now be prosecuted for committing terrorist acts. The government today is operating with unprecedented power and leeway. Look out for your constitutional rights to free association, speech, and travel. The rules have been amended a bit since 9/11.
Government intervention spills over into our daily lives, at home, on the job, and on the road. In doing everything from putting money in the bank and obtaining a driver’s license to the simple process of boarding an airplane, we are now subject to a whole new set of rules and regulations since the passage of the PATRIOT Act. They say it is for our protection, but it is simply not being done right. In short, a lot of the new screening and protection methods are being carried out in a humiliating fashion and by robots in rote step-by-step methods that insult the average American.
In theory, when a government increases its power during times of emergency and war, such an extension of power is intended to be temporary. Most governments somehow fail or forget to give power back to the people once the peace is restored. Too many Americans seem resigned to hand over their rights in the name of security and this endless war on terrorism. Unfortunately, the PATRIOT Act doesn’t make me feel safer or more secure. It disturbs my libertarian heart much more than it comforts it. As Ben Franklin once warned us, when we hand over freedom for security, we deserve neither freedom nor security.
The best way to protect freedom for ourselves is to protect freedom for everybody.
39
The Bigger the Group, the Smaller the Ideal
The world we live in, our society, our culture is a product of what we all have made it. The oversize government and all of the organizations have been created because of our failure as individuals to stand up for ourselves. Today, these overruling powers tell us what we really want, how we should be living, and almost how we should conduct ourselves every day.
On the street level, I think that we can all get along if we want to. It will take a lot of individual effort and respect. We’d have to learn to leave one another alone. People can interact to bring about changes and accomplish things without having someone overseeing everything. But a lot of people don’t see it that way and this brings into play forces to look over us—bigger companies, bigger government, more policemen, more enlisted men, armies, more people in uniforms. Every day the other side gets bigger.
Some years back, a bunch of bike clubs proposed to sit down together and talk about becoming a more united front against our common enemies, forming a coalition of sorts. In other words, one big giant bike-rider conglomerate.
I was against it for many reasons. What was being proposed was a situation that I considered unthinkable. We were going to fight fire with fire and what was the point? We get bigger and bigger, but what happens to the individual and what he wants? Where does the “I” fit into such a large group?
These were just some of the questions I brought up and that led me to believe that fusing a bunch of bike clubs together was not the best idea to cross the table. I wanted to belong to a group that I could put my arms around, a group where I knew everybody and their characteristics rather than a lot of stats and numbers. I didn’t want to belong to another army. I wanted to still see and be myself, do what I wanted to do, and not be influenced by a group that didn’t even know my name.
40
Give Your People the Freedom to Screw Up
Everyone should have the freedom to screw up.
We learn from our mistakes, pure and simple. Most of us can only improve after we know what it feels like to have screwed up.
Running an organization with an iron fist and by instilling the fear of failure just doesn’t work. To be productive and creative, your people need room to move, air to breathe, space to expand, and, most important, the opportunity and luxury to plain mess up once in a while. If you run your ship in a climate of fear, it breeds distrust, backstabbing, disharmony, and, worse, mutiny. The overthrow comes when someone else who wants to step up and run the show comes up with a better definition of fear.
While I was an officer in one of the most renowned bike organizations in the world, I, of course, got challenged for that position many times. I came to expect it and it kind of kept things going. I never backed down and never lost the position until I resigned. But that didn’t mean I didn’t have to keep my guard up at all times. There was always someone, be it a cop or a biker from another club, who wanted to go from a zero to a hero by trying to knock me off. No one ever did because I never let them.
The positive effects of good and strong leadership last well beyond the influence of one person’s ego or even the life of a single organization. Being in an organization where, if you screw up, you are hung out to dry and ridiculed just doesn’t work. Where there is respect and action, and the freedom to mess up once in a while, you’ll find that your organization’s performance will not only get better, but its batting average between doing the right thing and screwing up will improve.
A failure is really a breakdown in operation. Two points don’t meet, two pieces don’t fit, and it is the wise leader who sees and understands that everything can be repaired to some degree, even if it ends up different from the way it was originally formulated. From failure comes one of two things: further failure or repair. I try to inspire those around me to go for the repair method. There’s no future in failure.
An exemplary leader inspires those around him to want to excel, exceed themselves, and do their best. That starts with a leader who trusts himself and his organization enough to accept failure and go beyond it.
41
When You Got Nothing to Prove, Just Put It on Cruise Control
Whenever I’m on a long haul on the interstate, I notice something different about Corvettes. Corvettes have always been one of my favorite cars, and years ago, I collected them. I entered the cooler ones in car shows and won a few trophies. I even got busted once, thanks to one of my Corvettes.
I had just entered my ’Vette in a car show in Oakland. She took second prize. The next day, they ran a picture of the car and me in the newspaper. All my friends saw it. Unfortunately, so did an auditor working for the IRS. After seeing the picture of the car in the paper, he looked up my tax return. Because of my reported income (low) and the value of the car (high), I got nailed.
Corvettes have power. I consider them one of the original American muscle cars. These days, they can carry up to 350 or 405 horsepower with a 5.7-liter V-8 engine, a six-speed manual transmission, and titanium exhaust components. With power to spare, these babies can reach speeds of over 170 miles per hour, though I rarely see them do it. Today, most of the Corvettes I pass on the highway cruise the slow lane, purring along, with absolutely nothing to prove.
In my book, that’s the way to be. Like a Corvette. Powerful. Fast. Smart. Beautiful. With absolutely nothing to prove. That’s why you often see Corvettes rumbling slowly down the highway—that is, until it’s time to put the hammer down, step on the gas, and blow everybody away.
There’s something to be said for having stren
gth and power but not using it. Having strength and power while others know you have it, but still not using it. Saving it for the times that matter. I like the idea of keeping power in reserve until it’s time to use it. Part of the privilege of power is traveling at your own chosen pace.
42
Trust Your Gut. It Doesn’t Need Any Oil or Batteries.
I do a lot of signings at Harley dealerships. They used to be the places where guys who worked on their bikes went when they got stuck, needed some advice, or needed a part. Today, Harley shops are dealerships and department stores combined, with as much of the store devoted to leatherwear, wallets, jewelry, sunglasses, and clothing as for motorcycles and service bays.
Recently, I noticed a display on the countertop, a fancy chromed oil temperature gauge. A couple of the guys stood around looking at it and chuckling. I learned it ran about three hundred dollars.
“Not on my bike,” said one rider, laughing.
“Me neither,” said another. “I don’t need a damned chrome gauge. I can tell the oil temperature by touching the oil tank with my thumb.”
Of course my friend was joking. I don’t recommend taking your bike’s temperature by touching the tank. What he wasn’t joking about was not spending three hundred bucks for a dipstick with a thermometer. Instead of ponying up three bills for a chromed goodie, guys like him would much rather rely on their instincts and their “feel” for their machines. Riding along the road, you can reach down and feel the heat right below you while still looking ahead, as you ought to.
