In the age of hypermodernity, the very fabric of our daily existence is woven tightly by systems supposedly designed to eliminate uncertainty, variability and angst, whilst giving us a market of free choice (all through the lens of extracting as much money from us as possible). Transport, once a medium of potential and discovery, has become one of the biggest arena of oppressive extractive-captial control and regulation. The romanticism of spontaneous travel, a throwback of a not-so-long-ago era, is all but extinguished. Modern transport, be it train, plane or car, suffocates the spirit of adventure, particularly for the neurodiverse and the creatively inclined, annihilating the essence of exploration and the fluidity of creative flow.
Reflecting on a time when train travel offered a mode for impromptu adventure, one is struck by the contrast with today’s supposedly free but overly rigid systems and unreliability. There was an time when one could simply board a train, driven by the allure of an unfamiliar destination, a name on a train destination board, that resonated with some hidden part of the psyche, especially for us who like to derive (drift). This was not, as it has become, an act of financial recklessness but a pursuit that was economically viable, a gateway to the places, daydreams and experiences that shape the some of our most cherished memories and creative daydreams.
This spontaneity is now systematically eradicated. The contemporary travel infrastructure is a panopticon of surveillance and control. Tickets must be purchased in advance (even though there is no guarantee that the service will actually run), seats reserved, itineraries planned to the minute. The margin for error is nonexistent; missed trains or planes, or traffic jams and documents with the minutest of errors, result in punitive fines. For the creative or neurodiverse individual, this labyrinth of requirements and potential pitfalls exacerbates stress and anxiety. The dread of arriving at a station well ahead of time, the fixation on not missing the train, underscores a broader societal indifference to diverse cognitive needs.
This stifling control extends to air travel, where the illusion of freedom is perhaps most starkly contrasted with reality. Airports are fortresses of bureaucracy, where every move is dictated by captial extraction mechanisms and security protocols designed to break the individual (and ultimately spend more money). The once thrilling notion of flight as a gateway to the world now feels like an elaborate trap. The ‘add on' or ‘fast track’, being the most confusing and hellish of all, pay more and more to make this experience tolerable, and perhaps similar to what it once was before in a bygone era not so long ago. The pleasure of travel, a chance to visit a new city, family or country is drowned in a sea of logistical nightmares, which if not traversed in the correct sequence with no room for the smallest of human errors lead to severe financial penalties and potential loss of both money or the right to travel.
The relentless march of neoliberal capitalism has commodified every aspect of our existence, including our movement through space. Transport systems are optimised for efficiency and profit, not for human experience. The traveller, from the creative adventurer to the bereaved family member is left stranded, their impulses and desires at odds with a world that demands you are predictable (especially If you want attempt to move through space on a budget). The possibility of serendipitous discovery, of journeys undertaken for the pure joy of the unknown, is systematically dismantled. The ability to live in the moment, or react to unexpected (and sometimes unfortunate) events is removed, unless you are in an above average wage bracket. This does not necessary mean advocating for ‘cheaper’ (we know that travel is expensive), but a price should be the price, no dynamic ticketing, no pay and keep paying because you want to breathe the air.
We must question who benefits from this relentless push towards hyper-regulation. The answer, unsurprisingly, is the corporate and bureaucratic entities that thrive on their unregulated ability to charge or deny if you do not conform to their control and predictability, at one level is authoritarian control. The come back is always that in a free market, one can choose a competitor, who are ironically usually part of the same venture capital purchased business entity, usually due their hegemonic ‘recent take over’. In this schema, the traveler is not a participant in a grand narrative of travel, life, exploration but a mere money making asset in a machine, expected to adhere to strict schedules and regulations.
The erosion of spontaneity in transport is symptomatic of a broader cultural malaise. It reflects a society increasingly hostile to deviation from the norm, where the pursuit of efficiency and profit overrides the human need for discovery and wonder. The neurodiverse and the creatively inclined are collateral damage in this relentless drive towards homogenization.
In resisting this trend, we must reclaim the right to spontaneity. We must advocate for transport systems that accommodate the diverse needs of all individuals, that allow for the unexpected, and that foster rather than stifle the creative impulse. This is not merely a plea for more flexible schedules or less punitive fines but a call to reimagine the very nature of travel.
Transport should be a conduit for exploration, not a barrier to it. It should cater to the whim and wonder that drives human creativity. Only by dismantling the structures of control that define modern transport can we hope to restore the spirit of adventure that is so vital to the human experience. The path forward is one of resistance and reimagination, of challenging the status quo and envisioning a world where travel is once again a journey into the unknown.
Peace
Neil