Cars, Buses and Self-Expression

I’m always thinking of ways to relate the relationship between agency and tribal intelligences - and relating the two intelligences to ‘buses’ and ‘cars’ occured to me - let me know what you think.

Buses

Some people ride in buses to get where they’re going. 

They ride with a bunch of other people, so they feel safe. They don’t have to pay very much to ride the bus. They don’t have to buy the bus, or fill it with gas. They don’t have to repair the bus when it breaks. They don’t have to know how to drive the bus either.

But, the bus doesn’t go when they want it to. The bus doesn’t go the direction or route they want specifically, because it has to take all the other people. It can’t take them to their specific location, they have to walk or catch another bus. 

In short, the bus is low cost, but very low freedom and independence.

Cars

A car, on the other hand, has tremendous freedom. You can drive whenever you want, regardless of what everyone else is doing. You can take whatever route you want. You can go really crazy and go offroad if you really want to. You can help your friends if they want to go somewhere. 

But you have to buy the car. You have to pay for the gas. You have to get the car repaired or repair it yourself. You have to know how to drive the car. 

In short - the car is very high freedom, but higher cost than the bus.

Narratives, Ideologies, and Freedom

A narrative, an ideology, family or culture is like a bus. The narrative gets you where you’re going, but you don’t have control over the principles the narrative sticks to. An ideology is the same - you sit with a bunch of other people when you subscribe to an ideology so you feel safe. Your family makes you feel safe, but you’re limited in what you can and cannot express compared to when you’re by yourself. 

Your own personal passion and opinion is like a car. You can use the car to animate whatever principles you like, and you don’t have to be a part of an ideology. You are 100% responsible for your destination, so the risk is higher. Doing things by yourself means that you have nobody else to blame, so it can be scary for a lot of people.

Your Own Personality

Within your own life, you have the bus mentality, and the car mentality.

You have a sense of autonomy and wanting to do ‘you’. You also have a need to belong to a community, and adhere to certain narratives and ideologies in order to feel safe and secure.

You like the bus more for some situations in your life, you like the car more for other situations. And, you also have a preferred way of living your life. Surrounded by a lot of other people in the city, or living independent of other people out in the sticks. 

Self-Expression.
If you want to speak on the bus, you’re going to be concerned about the desires and wants of the other people on the bus. You probably aren’t going to wail out to Brittney Spears at the top of your lungs sitting in the middle of a crowded bus; but you can do that in a car.

The Bus and Car Come Together. 

When we express ourselves, the ‘bus’ part of us, and the ‘car’ part of us come together.

We express our personal inner wants, desires and feelings (car) WITHIN the confines that the rules of our community dictate (bus). The closer and more intimate we are with a person, the more we drop the social customs and ‘bus’ behavior - and the more we’re able to be our “True” selves without the protocol (car behavior).  But the truth about us is, we’re not ever without a communal part of our self.

We have agreed upon sets of manners, language, customs, and yes - even politics - that we adhere to when it comes to expressing ourselves.

Sometimes, we’re so concerned with upsetting the other people on the bus - that we’re just more comfortable saying nothing. We might actually be so scared to let our true feelings and ideas out, that we even go along with and agree with things we know are lies - in order to feel safe within the confines of the bus.

The cost to getting kicked off the bus is driving a car - and we already know that can be scary, and expensive. Maybe we don’t have the resources (physically and emotionally) to 

be many different options on how to meet those needs.

Combining the two forms of communication allows us to speak as we want to, while forming relationships with our community in a way that is respectful and healthy to them.