step forward

i come from a culture that holds the line in such reverence. there is the whole aspect of thiking linearly. that is, our logic and thought-patterns-within-the-realm-of-acceptibility include things thought of one after the other, as opposed to considering many things at a time; or, instead of seeing time as all taking place at once, we believe things happen after the last thing that happened.

this manifests itself in the way we wait for things. have you ever seen people "line up" for a bus in a place whose people do not believe so staunchly in linear thinking? we would term it 'chaos', though all who can do get on the bus. but there is usually a mob outside, you will be pushed, and nobody will respect your positioning.

in our society, on the other hand, there is not only the reverence held for linear thinking, and for the civilizing effects and implications of waiting on lines themselves, but there is also this horrible capitalist mindset so often misused by those in power, but also by those not in power. you know the type: they get a little money and then feel better than you. they invent new classes for themselves: upper-middle, etc. still they live check to check, but since that check is a bit bigger than yours, they no longer want to shop at certain places or talk a certain way. its happened too many times to have to get into here. point is, people have meshed linear thinking with capitalism and the effects have been to have a society of people who always want to be taking the next step, often times without a destination in sight.

when there is a destination in sight, people act terribly. for example, at the bank or post office or airport, or going to see david blane, or some other horrible place where you have to wait on line (i wont count a club here, though the same principle applies, but people are a little drunk and their sense of time a bit warped, and their willingness to mob instead of line a bit stronger - until the bouncer comes by to correct you), do you ever notice the idiotic tendency for people, once a person gets called to the teller, to shift up one spot? what is that about? and people always do it. even if they are at the airport and have a million bags, they will pick up all one million of those bags each and every time a person get s called to the teller, only to shift up 8 inches each time. ive always found that if you are on line and you do not participate in this asinine ritual, the people behind you feel as though you are relinquishing your spot on line and find it ok to try to move past you. now i love making myself big so no-one can move past me and then looking back to see the confusion and frustration on the faces of the people behind me, aghast that i have not shifted up 8 inches.

over the years i have developed a policy that i think you should adopt. now, it is no good to have a line that starts all the way 1,000 feet away just because one person did not want to move, but i dont think lines need to be constantly updated and pressed up to the front. however, i do believe that a person in line should never shift forward unless there is enough room between said person and the person in front of said person so that said person can walk up to the back of person in front of said person. not shift. this way, lines can be a more pleasant experience, devoid of the decadent optimism that comes with the 8 inch shift towards your goal. your position in line does not change because of your physical positioning. your position in line changes because of your numerical position (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.). this is not a mob, not a line, but a line with breaks. a line with time to read a book. not time is lost, but space is changed...