Critical Mass

So, I found an aspect of bike riding I don't like: Critical Mass. That is not true I think the idea of Critical Mass is awesome and important. I was proud to be a part of Critical Mass. My problem lies with Lawrence's Critical Mass.
I should rewind for a second and explain Critical Mass. Critical Mass is a movement in over 300 cities world wide to raise awareness of bicyclists. It was started in 1992 in San Francisco and is leaderless. The only plans given is to meet at a specific place at a specific time (6:00 p.m. Wescoe Beach for Lawrence, usually 5:30 p.m. in other cities) on the last Friday of every month and to travel around the city as a group. In cities like San Francisco they have at least 1,000 riders--so it really does raise awareness.
I believe the whole idea of Critical Mass is very important but there are a few aspects of it that I do not like:
For example in bigger cities (which I just learned about this and am sure if we had more people Lawrence would attempted it) "corking" is practiced. This is when cyclists who are not riding stand in the middle of intersections to block traffic so the cyclists can ride through red lights, though they do leave one side of the intersection alone. They either hold up their bicycles (known in Chicago as the Chicago Hold Up!) or lay down next to their bicycles (to represent the bicyclists that have been hit by cars) to block the traffic.
In Lawrence, none of us wore helmets. The only two bikes that had working brakes were my bike and my roommates bike, we were also the only two bikes to not be fixies. We did not stop at any stop signs and the boys would weave in out of both sides of the streets randomly. All of these signs seem to say "hey fuck you cars, we are more important than you"--when really the movement is about rasing awareness, not about being an asshole.
That being said we only had one guy yell at us to get on the sidewalk. We had countless people honking, waving, clapping, cheering and some guy (who I kid you not was drinking a budweiser at a stoplight) rolled his window down so we could jam out to his music. This was not necessary as Charlie, the guy who stayed behind everyone--which I thought was really cool of him, had a backpack with speakers and was blasting the MJ in honor of MJ.
That being said, I will probably do Critical Mass again (although the next time I will definitly be drinking way more water throughout the day before hand) because I have almost been hit numerous times for stopping at a stop sign, crossing an intersection or just biking down the street.