The Busdriver Who Wanted To Be God
The eponymous story from Etgar Keret's The Busdriver Who Wanted To Be God is a treatise on the morality of mankind and our willingness to consistently adhere to the personal morals we derive. The story analyzes the lives of two men, one a busdriver with abandoned hopes of becoming God, the other a lazy man who believes he has found his one chance at true love.
The Busdriver is a sort of enigmna; we are informed of his past desire to become God and of his settling to become a busdriver. In driving his bus, he has developed a sort of moral code wherein he will not stop for any stragglers who do not make it to the bus in time for the sake of preserving the time of the people on the bus. He figures, the person who missed the bus will be losing fie minutes while the people on the bus will be losing 20 seconds each, meaning a much higher net less. he has come to terms with society's scorn for his practice, believing it is the best choice available and as a result he is okay with other people's discomfort.
The man is perpetually lazy. he has become so ingrained in his routine that he is persistently late to all occasions, despite their omportance. he meets a woman, and believing her as his soul mate, arranges a date and prepares to actually keep it. because of his routine, however, he winds up late and rushes toward the bus stop.
Here we see a clashing; the moral standards of the busdriver versus the recognized fault of the man. The man, desperate to get to the bus, runs and almost clings onto its door as it is about to pull away. Contrary to his policy, the busdriver opens the door with the reasoning that he sees himself in the man, all of his hopes and aspirations relived.
So here comes the odd moral posturing of the whole thing: the busdriver is only willing to break his code in the situation where he sees himself. Able to live vicariously through this man, he inconveniences the many for this one man and cracks his whole moral structure. It's an interesting idea that, while kind, certainly imposes an odd view onto morality.
See, in a way, it's selfish what the busdriver does. There could have been more important people turned away over the years, but that doesn't seem to matter, only the man who could be a younger version of the busdriver does. The driver is even proud of himself for his actions, he has deemed this correct in his code and in his heart. The abandonment of a previously established code solely for self-pleasure seems incredibly heartless, the net amount that was so important in the past has been abandoned for self-fulfillment. While yes, self-actualization is an important part of any human life, here it seems an extra and one day occurence that will not be repeated in the future. The busdriver has not become kind-hearted, rather, he seeks to better himself vicariously.
Being a three page story and without the book on hand, i can't expand much more on the idea ta the moment. I will by tomorrow and expect another blog post as well.
The Busdriver is a sort of enigmna; we are informed of his past desire to become God and of his settling to become a busdriver. In driving his bus, he has developed a sort of moral code wherein he will not stop for any stragglers who do not make it to the bus in time for the sake of preserving the time of the people on the bus. He figures, the person who missed the bus will be losing fie minutes while the people on the bus will be losing 20 seconds each, meaning a much higher net less. he has come to terms with society's scorn for his practice, believing it is the best choice available and as a result he is okay with other people's discomfort.
The man is perpetually lazy. he has become so ingrained in his routine that he is persistently late to all occasions, despite their omportance. he meets a woman, and believing her as his soul mate, arranges a date and prepares to actually keep it. because of his routine, however, he winds up late and rushes toward the bus stop.
Here we see a clashing; the moral standards of the busdriver versus the recognized fault of the man. The man, desperate to get to the bus, runs and almost clings onto its door as it is about to pull away. Contrary to his policy, the busdriver opens the door with the reasoning that he sees himself in the man, all of his hopes and aspirations relived.
So here comes the odd moral posturing of the whole thing: the busdriver is only willing to break his code in the situation where he sees himself. Able to live vicariously through this man, he inconveniences the many for this one man and cracks his whole moral structure. It's an interesting idea that, while kind, certainly imposes an odd view onto morality.
See, in a way, it's selfish what the busdriver does. There could have been more important people turned away over the years, but that doesn't seem to matter, only the man who could be a younger version of the busdriver does. The driver is even proud of himself for his actions, he has deemed this correct in his code and in his heart. The abandonment of a previously established code solely for self-pleasure seems incredibly heartless, the net amount that was so important in the past has been abandoned for self-fulfillment. While yes, self-actualization is an important part of any human life, here it seems an extra and one day occurence that will not be repeated in the future. The busdriver has not become kind-hearted, rather, he seeks to better himself vicariously.
Being a three page story and without the book on hand, i can't expand much more on the idea ta the moment. I will by tomorrow and expect another blog post as well.