Re: [bmsbase] The BASE Zone
A silly question is quite different from a lazy question. I have asked my fair share of silly questions, but I challenge you to find a lazy question in my posting history. I have put a large amount of work into my BASE career, both in preparation and since I started jumping. I don't think that makes me a great jumper. On the contrary, I have made my fair share of reckless jumps and emptied my luck bucket a long time ago.
However, there is varying degrees of greatness. On a technical level I am one of the worst BASE jumpers around. My reputation for being a dumbass is well known. But on a spiritual level, I would venture to say that I'm not doing too bad. Unfortunately it's a very subjective measure. The spirit of BASE jumping can mean something entirely different between two people, and what I may think is appropriate another person may not care about.
My annoyance is not about the clutter on this forum. I participate in online communities for a living and I'm quite adept at handling poor signal to noise ratios.
I get pissed off because I see people that expect things handed to them on a silver platter. Each time we give these people what they ask for, we reinforce their belief that this is the way the universe works. Mind you, this sort of behavior is not limited to prospective BASE jumpers. I see it all around me. It's been around forever, and I don't expect it to go away in the next ten millennia.
The reason I get so worked up over it here is because BASE is precisely the activity where a silver platter philosophy doesn't work. It is the one sport where it is truly up to you, and you alone. Every time we hand-hold a person into the sport it is an insult to what I believe is the spirit of the sport.
Which brings me full circle; what you believe is the spirit of the sport may be different. That's fine, I'll respect that, and I'll have a discussion about what BASE can mean any time of the week.
But make no mistake, whenever one of the silver platter people hurt themselves they'll be the first to say: "Geez, I just broke my back. How did that happen? I didn't know I could actually get hurt doing this. I mean, I read about it. But not me. It can't be my fault. It must be the wind, the gear, the color of my pilotchute..."
And that - that's not an insult to BASE. That's an insult to being human.
, heerlijk. 
