Milo Minderbinder For President
I think that was the guys name in Hellers Catch 22 (read 40 years ago) who was being paid by the enemy to bomb his own troops and by earning that profit felt he was justifiably defending The System. We have officially slipped into a fictional dream world and we are powerless (shocker!) to affect it or our collective fate. Would you die to defend this system? In a fictional, dreamlike death? This existential Rant Inspired By World Events.
On a somewhat lighter note, my wife was discussing her enlightening experience negotiating the urban bus systems of Portland and Vancouver. Ever wonder where the poor people, the working minorities, the disenfranchised are as you commute Americas highways and byways? They are riding the bus. A public transportation system which few of the middle class and none of my fishing clients have ever experienced or even considered. The bus takes much longer. So there is the temporal dimension to bussing. After a hard day at the factory or construction site or house cleaning it will also take a long time to get home.Then there is the diversity and the contact, often direct contact with strangers and people who don't speak much english and don't look like you. In our cars we don't have to make eye contact with strangers, we don't end up in conversations, we don't realize they exist. We don't have to get off at a corner where a large group of hispanic men stand with their lunch pails and thermoses. My daughter, who is very much of the world, and very worldly, rides the bus daily in Portland. I did also when I lived in europe for a few years, and as a vagabond in this country for a few years as well.I now realize what I miss. Strangers and the strange.
posted by troutsky @ 3:31 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Milo Minderbinder is indeed the unforgettable name of that unforgettable character from that unforgettable novel. I read it more recently that you, but still more than 20 years ago. It is going on my list of favorites to revisit.
The race and class dynamics of bus riding are very interesting. In New York, or at least in Manhattan, like in most European cities, more or less everyone rides the bus, just like more or less everyone (in all 4 boroughs served by the system) rides the subway.
By contrast, when I lived in Philadelphia, I used to take the bus to work when it was too hot, cold or rainy to walk. I definitely stood out, especially on those (rare, fortunately) times when I was wearing a business suit, among the predominantly African-American and immigrant, working class, riders.
Here in SF, things seem more like in NY, at least in my somewhat limited experience of Muni.
I'm told -- by a friend whose brother is a municipal bus driver in LA -- that folks there popularly refer to the bus as the "shame train".
Of course, long -distance busses are even more class segregated than municipal busses. Again, this is very different in other countries. In Mexico, we rode a very comfortable and clean bus from D.F. to Puebla, and the riders seemed to be fairly diverse. Though, if I recall correctly, there are different classes of bus, and we probably took the nicest one. Damned tourists.
There is an urban/rural divide when it comes to using public transportation.Discussing this last night, I wondered if this relates to rural zenophobia, to fear of the 'other"etc..and what it says about the "public realm" and We The People.People out here don't feel like citizens of the same country that includes New Yorkers or San Franciscans.
Have either of you guys read anything else from Heller? I read Catch 22 a couple of years ago, but I wasn't all that impressed.
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