The Mexican Bus Conundrum...

It's a beautiful, calm sunny day in the mountains of southern mexico - a perfect day for a walk but that's not what you're doing. You're on a bus. The bus is going through a particularly dangerous winding mountain pass. You've just at this moment noticed that the driver is on the verge of losing consciousness. It is no longer a question of whether, but a question of when. Do you...

A) Watch him closely and wait for him to lose consciousness then grab the wheel and ASSUME control of the bus.

B) Move him aside, grab the wheel and TAKE control of the bus.

No one else sees what is happening and you don't speak Spanish.

The bus is picking up speed.

There's a curve ahead.

The driver's head is leaning a bit more than usual now.

One of his hands has fallen from the wheel.

Once again, it's your move.

What do you do?

I would just go forward and then pop the air brake button which should bring us to a frightening halt. I don't have to assume control of the wheel or even touch it or communicate with anyone even though I do speak Spanish.

Everyone would be bouncing in their seats and No one would have time to think I was a bandit or terrorist and then try to be a hero by stopping me.

Hahah a trick question because Mexicans don't exist and therefore any civil rights denied to them are a win for Jesus!!!

Almost had me Jack

The ol' Kobayashi Maru.

Simple: 1) reprogram the simulation, and then 2) rendezvous with an Orion slave girl.

I think all religious fundamentalists should use conundrums!


(Oh, wait....That's something else. Sorry!)

I'd probably smack him awake and keep an eye on him after that. Maybe start a conversation? Even if he's sleepy, he's probably better at driving the bus than I am.

A few years ago you posted that you were having a conversation with a 2 year old neighbor and that your spanish was just barely good enough for that. I am not knocking you down but I wonder if the conversation would be stimulating enough to keep the driver awake.

I felt myself phase in and out of reality for a moment when I read Miguels post that Mexicans do not exist.

Thanks for the great responses. Richard, you made me spit on my screen. ;)

I had an ulterior motive for posting the conundrum. I wanted to extrapolate it to apply to matters of state -- as in say the bus is our country and the driver is our government and the cliff ahead represents the total collapse of our culture as we know it. Is it better to wait and ASSUME control after the collapse or TAKE it beforehand once you've established that a collapse is inevitable?

Now that I've thought more about it, the extrapolation doesn't really work since the scale differs so much. As a person on a bus, you are in a position where you can make an impact with a simple action. But when it comes to our government and our economy, we're more like fleas on a dog's back than passengers on a bus.

Still, a lot of your comments would still apply in spirit. Tez suggests there are ways to circumvent the driver without having to use force. I guess Richard's suggestion is a form of circumvention as well. Matt wisely points out that we may not necessarily be able to do a better job than the current driver. I will consider these further.

Thanks for your thoughts and good humor. ;)

Glad to learn you still have an ample reserve of those precious bodily fluids, Jack. :D

I suspected you had a point, but for the life of me I didn't see that one coming. Now that I know your angle, brace yourself for an instructive parable from my tender youth.

Growing up out in the sticks meant I had an hour-long bus ride twice a day. One of our bus drivers was old man Norvel.

Like the driver you described, Ol' Norvel didn't inspire confidence. Although none of us kids had the ability or opportunity to drive the bus, we did discover something that gave us enough control to actually stop the bus.

If you sit in the seats over the rear wheel wells and stomp your feet to simulate the sound of a tire losing its tread, taking care to increase and decrease your inter-stomp interval with the speed at which the bus is going, hilarity will ensue. I'm not saying you'll actually fool anyone. Especially not a high-mileage veteran bus driver like Ol' Norvel. But don't let that stop you--it's just one of those gags that never seems to get old, a real classic.

Even O'l Norvel couldn't pretend to ignore it. He'd actually swear at us when we did the blown-tire stomp. One day he finally had enough. He slammed on the brakes, whipped off his belt, stormed down the aisle between the seats, and commenced to demonstrate his commitment to corporal punishment.

So you see, even though you may not have the wherewithal to carpe steerum, you can stop the bus. You can snap the driver into an alert, energetic state of mind.

Power to the people, baby!