At the risk of putting myself in the doghouse again ("Move Over Rover, I'm Coming Over" Saint Jimi Hendrix), something that SalutGilles wrote just hit me as a fundamental problem that seems to form the basis of how we operate these days in forums like this one:
So I'm not going to rule out any era. they're all different, but they're all good, in their own respect, I guess.
Wow! I think is what some of us having trying to say about some things in racing on various fora over the past months and years. Life is not always Zero Sum. My liking Driver X does not mean that I dislike Driver Y. Or that one has to like or dislike anything.
Liking Nuvolari did (does) not mean disliking Varzi. It should only mean that perhaps you like Tazio a bit better than Achille, but they are both great drivers. I would extend this analogy into the current world of F1 since, hopefully, many of the fans on AtlasF1 will stick with racing for years to come.
There was not a veil over the eyes of many in the past to the strengths & weaknesses of many racing drivers. Giuseppe Farina could be a right mean sumbitch as could others (one of my favorites, Fearless John Surtees, could melt stainless steel at 50 meters with a mere glance when Annoyed). But this didn't mean that we didn't "like" or "dislike" them, it was only a matter of degree -- and we were very naive back then as well I reckon. We just looked at whole thing in term of just liking one driver a tad more than another and not disliking any of them.
Like it or not, each era -- however you define them -- has its strengths and weaknesses and they are simply different. Time and again we return to the frame of reference that shaped our view racing. For me, it is the mid-1950's onward, others the 60's and so on right up to today. Different should not equal bad. New should not equal good or better or bad or worse. Old should not equal good or better or bad or worse.
While I may not be overly enthralled with the current product of F1, Inc., believe or not I don't hate it. I am just disappointed since it is not living up to its potential. Then again, not much ever does, including the past. Things change whether we like the changes or not. Sometimes we adjust and move on, sometimes we just move on.
Different doesn't mean either better or worse, just different. There is an all too frequent tendancy to polarize things in life as alluded to earlier: Life as a Zero Sum game. In truth, Life is usually a Non-zero Sum game. There can be many Good Things just as there can be many Bad Things simultaneously.
Just because someone's frame of reference is limited doesn't mean that is a fault, it simply means that they have more opportunities to learn. Just because someone likes a certain type of racing doesn't mean that he or she should consider other forms as unworthy of consideration or respect. The F1 racing of Today is radically different from the Grand Prix racing of 1939 or 1959 or even 1979. Different, not better or worse, just different.
No one is asking that we like or dislike it, just that we, as SalutGilles said, realize that and judge thngs on their merits to the best of our ability.
And we will now pass the collection plate...
Sorry, didn't mean to preach, which always get me into hot water and into the dog house these days.
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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,
Don Capps
