Living Car Free - edward abbey industrial tourism

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View Full Version : edward abbey industrial tourism


AsanaCycles
12-04-09, 10:32 AM
http://www.solstice.us/abbey/industrial_tourism.html

(1) No more cars in national parks. Let the people walk. Or ride horses, bicycles, mules, wild pigs -- anything -- but keep the automobiles and the motorcycles and all their motorized relatives out. We have agreed not to drive our automobiles into cathedrals, concert halls, art museums, legislative assemblies, private bedrooms and the other sanctums of our culture; we should treat our national parks with the same deference, for they, too, are holy places. An increasingly pagan and hedonistic people (thank God!), we are learning finally that the forests and mountains and desert canyons are holier than our churches. Therefore let us behave accordingly.

Consider a concrete example and what could be done with it: Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park. At present a dusty milling confusion of motor vehicles and ponderous camping machinery, it could be returned to relative beauty and order by the simple expedient of requiring all visitors, at the park entrance, to lock up their automobiles and continue their tour on the seats of good workable bicycles supplied free of charge by the United States Government.

Let our people travel light and free on their bicycles -- nothing on the back but a shirt, nothing tied to the bike but a slicker, in case of rain. Their bedrolls, their backpacks, their tents, their food and cooking kits will be trucked in for them, free of charge, to the campground their choice in the Valley, by the Park Service. (Why not? The roads will still be there.) Once in the Valley they will find the concessioners waiting, ready to supply whatever needs might have been overlooked, or to furnish rooms and meals for those who don't want to camp out.


gerv
12-05-09, 03:27 PM
I guess all this tells me is that the dream was alive and well in 1968... although I kind of knew that.

I suppose it will benefit the young to know that all these modern ideas have been with use for a while... probably well before 1968 too.

Foofy
12-05-09, 05:44 PM
I found this article a bit depressing. I really like parks and nature, and I want everyone to be able to appreciate it. Yet the magic of experiencing and exploring beautiful wilderness is destroyed when you can hear traffic not too far away, or you find litter and vandalism as you're walking along.


AsanaCycles
12-05-09, 09:36 PM
another interesting book
Wilderness and The American Mind

http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/excerpts/nash_wilderness.pdf

"Wilderness was the basic ingredient of American culture. From the raw materials of the physical wilderness, American built a civilization. With the idea of wilderness they soght to give their civilization identity and meaning."

a buddy is working as the Klamath Campaign Coordinator
water... we've got big troubles
http://yournec.org/index.php?module=pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=1&pid=3

at any rate... there is a lot to read when it comes to ecology, etc...

Where Big Foot Walks, Crossing the Dark Divide is another good read.
http://www.amazon.com/Where-Bigfoot-Walks-Crossing-Divide/dp/0395857015

in so many ways, The Bicycle is more and more pertinent

go ride a bike!

Roody
12-09-09, 11:50 AM
I pretty much agree. But OTOH, getting people into beautiful natural areas--even by car--helps to spread the idea that preserving wilderness is important.

PlatyPius
12-09-09, 11:53 AM
Desert Solitaire was one of my favourite books ever...

Thor29
12-09-09, 08:31 PM
It's funny, but I don't think Abbey did much bike riding himself, at least, he never mentioned it in any of his essays. He usually drove out to the trailhead and then went on foot. I guess he figured that fat, lazy Americans couldn't walk too far and needed bikes if they wanted to see much of anything.

There are some serious philosophical problems with the idea of wilderness. The notion that we are separate from nature will prove to be our downfall. Can you imagine how the continental USA looked before Europeans messed it up? There were plenty of people but they had no need to lock up parts of the landscape to protect it from themselves.

PlatyPius
12-09-09, 08:48 PM
It's funny, but I don't think Abbey did much bike riding himself, at least, he never mentioned it in any of his essays. He usually drove out to the trailhead and then went on foot. I guess he figured that fat, lazy Americans couldn't walk too far and needed bikes if they wanted to see much of anything.

There are some serious philosophical problems with the idea of wilderness. The notion that we are separate from nature will prove to be our downfall. Can you imagine how the continental USA looked before Europeans messed it up? There were plenty of people but they had no need to lock up parts of the landscape to protect it from themselves.


That's because the various tribes that inhabited the US then didn't practice 'doosh'baggery to the extent that humans do now.

AsanaCycles
12-13-09, 12:42 AM
It's funny, but I don't think Abbey did much bike riding himself, at least, he never mentioned it in any of his essays. He usually drove out to the trailhead and then went on foot. I guess he figured that fat, lazy Americans couldn't walk too far and needed bikes if they wanted to see much of anything.

There are some serious philosophical problems with the idea of wilderness. The notion that we are separate from nature will prove to be our downfall. Can you imagine how the continental USA looked before Europeans messed it up? There were plenty of people but they had no need to lock up parts of the landscape to protect it from themselves.

the book "Wilderness and The American Mind" has a pretty complete break down.

well... at least that's what my mind can absorb.
its a huge topic

the psychology of owning a car
materialism
etc...

is not so complicated as compared to "Wilderness"