Attitude and responsibility in the wilderness.

[asabat]

On another thread, Cynthia lamented: "there is a strange attitude among some people nowadays when they approach the wilderness--I call it "the Amusement Park attitude" in that it's like they think that the wilderness is just a large Disneyland with rocks, and has been designed by hidden safety engineers who would not possibly put anything harmful in it, so, no worries, right? "

So true, and so sad. There was a recent news article about this attitude among gym climbers who go to Yosemite thinking it's just another gym. The article is discussed at http://www.mt-whitney.info/viewtopic.php?t=2131 .

The part of the article that particularly bothered me:

"They should have signs and stuff and trash cans outside," "I don't think they even clean your rocks off for you out there."

My response: They also don't carry your pack for you, hold your hand when you get tired, and wipe your butt for you. Unfortunately, this attitude is what causes many areas to be closed because they are "unsafe" when the only things unsafe are the tourons who don't know or want to be responsible for themselves.

[Hikin_Jim]

My gosh! They don't clean the rocks off??! What kind of service is that?

Sad that there are people who think that way.

[HikeUp]

I wash my rocks daily.

[magikwalt]

The very same thing is occuring on local trails and boulder areas all around us. I would rather hike with them and point out the correct behavior than ignore them and let the poor ones continue.

I do believe a new biodegradeable water bottle container is needed. They can be found everywhere.

[Hikin_Jim]

Walt, that's a good point. Letting people know a little bit about wilderness etiquette could go a long way.

Jim's lesson #1: litter bad, clean good.

[cynthia23]

Yes, all the above posters are so sadly correct. A fascinating and deep subject. Without wanting to sound too oldfogeyish, I think it is part of the larger overall degeneration of society, in which people have lost a sense of themselves as members of a civic community, with attendant responsibilities. You see it in everything from road rage to not talking to your neighbors to casual littering of wilderness. It's not like people are bad per se, they just have withdrawn into themselves and see everything in a strictly limited "what's in it for me?" mode. There is a very intersting book/study, American Backlash by Michael Adams, a Canadian social scientist/pollster, in which he tracks the changes in American's overall civic attitudes. He said there is a move toward "social darwinism" (lack of sympathy toward the unfortunate and intense striving for high social status), survivalism (it only matters if it helps me), and, get this, interest in extreme sports and extreme forms of entertainment! Uh, gee, not that we see any of these attitudes showing up on the mountain!!! I am so fascinated by this study because it really suggests why there is such an increase in very foolish wilderness behavior--people have little interest in wilderness as such, and a lot of interest in proving how "intense" and studly and alpha they are (and some of these "alpha-studs" are women, too.) Lost in all this egotistical nonsense is an appreciation and reverence for wild nature. And that's a shame for all concerned ...

[AlanK]

While we all lament that the world has gone to hell in a handbasket, remember that those wonderfully responsible communities we pine for were often very effective at filtering out people who deviated from their norms (e.g., by being born with darker skin). For example, when I was in college 35 years ago, Glendale (the town in which I reside today) as famous for being the HQ of one of the branvches of the Nazi Party and more than a few African Americans reported that they were not welcome on the streets after dark. No extreme sports, though.

[cynthia23]

Yes, very true, AlanK, we don't want to fall into the trap of simple nostalgia. Small town life had a brutal and cruel shadow and I don't mean to romanticize it. However, while some kinds of racial prejudice are down, our country has overall turned into an oligarchy, witha huge increase in the gap between the wealthiest and the poor, with a vanishing middle. And there is a degeneration into purely consumerist/money-oriented values, with less and less interest in intangible values such as wilderness, spirituality, or even simple friendship. It doesn't matter so much what color your skin is--but your wallet better be green ...

A very troubling trend is the overall drop in visits to state parks and wildernesses--this might be a good topic for another thread ...

[AlanK]

OK, having made my comment about the imperfections of the good old days, it is true that there are many ominous signs out there, the hourglass economy (missing middle) among them.

I have seen threads on other boards about the drop in wilderness visits. I think we'd all favor an increase in wilderness visits generally, along with a drop in Skyline visits.

[Hikin_Jim]

I find it very interesting that there's a decline in wilderness visits. Cynthia, do you have a reference that you can point me to? I wonder if there's been any surveying as to why that might be. In today's high stress, stimuli bombarded world, I would think that wilderness visits would be highly prized. Shoot, half the time on my weekend backpacks, the route I do could be done as a day hike, but I'll do an overnight simply for the sake of spending the night in the wild.

Maybe people are caught up in materialism? the internet? it's just fallen out of vogue?