Getting on the bus

Excess Ecology is the first title I could think of gleaned from two major influences - Todd McGowan of the Why Theory  podcast and author of, among other things, Pure Excess; and Murray Bookchin, whose 'social ecology' or 'dialectical naturalism' or 'libertarian municipalism' I found out  about (through Audible) solely because Todd wrote an afterword to a new edition of Bookchin's The Philosophy of Social Ecology.  They are pretty different, Todd being as far as I can tell statist, and Bookchin anti-statist...but both share an appreciation for the political radicality of the kind of dialectic dramatised by Hegel.

McGowan mostly follows the Hegelian owl-of-minerva line - our job is to interpret the world, not to change it or make recommendations/prescriptions. But, aside from great film recommendations, one line of action is clear - favour the public, use public means where possible, engage with the public.

So, now that all my theatre involvement has ceased for a while - now I no longer need to subsume my entire life to driving to the neighbouring town every evening and keeping myself performance-fit by any means necessary - and now that my formal study has ended and work mostly dried up - I get the headspace to reorient my life around things like catching the bus. Very obviously the rational thing to do last week when it was free because I had a hospital appointment. And, now that I've got a little organised with the fare card, today was a good pointless trial run into town - hey, 1 NZD each way, I'd be crazy not to. I give myself brownie points for reading Bookchin on my e-reader in the beautiful downtown public garden park before heading into the cafe.

Benefits so far include the need to get just that much more organised; and the need to fill time waiting for the return bus - even if I spent some of it wandering into an electronics shop and being appalled that new computers have the gall to advertise AI integration as a feature. While waiting I also spotted hopping on her bike, but was too slow to yell out to, the old acquaintance now city councillor who I want to know if she's running again this year.

A fair amount of this gratuitous bussing is only possible because of my marginal existence of course. My plans to bus to work on Thursday were nearly scuppered when Mum asked if I could pick the nephew up after school. A favourite blogger PC from Living Together, Somehow has a new long-read up, giving another great new acronym (or is it an initialism?): OPDNC² - Ordinary People's (Parents') De Facto Non Choice.