William Cronon's essay really makes one rethink the whole blissful and enlightening experience of the wilderness. Cronon makes many great points about how the wilderness, since the beginning of time, has been known as "barren", "desloate", and a "waste." He uses many persuasive arguments that support his thesis. He argues that even in the Bible, the wilderness was depicted as a place with the devil in it. Cronon uses examples such as Jesus being tempted by the devil for forty days and Moses' experience in the wilderness.
The critiques Cronon demonstrates makes me question if mankind truly has a place in wilderness. I feel that just about all of us human beings have become so dependent on each other, that it would be virtually impossible, and perhaps foolish to go back. I can guarantee that almost nobody in the civilized world has the abilities to be able to survive in solitude in the wilderness for a long periods of time. People nowadays can't make houses, can't create clothes, can't hunt for food, and don't know the difference between an edible plant and a poisonous one.. In a since, civilization is man, and man is civilization. We are a species that depends on each other.
Every passing year, people become more dependent and connected with each other. With the invention of the written language thousands of years ago, people figured out ways to communicate with each other and to exchange information. When the telephone was invented in the late 19th century, the world became even smaller and more connected. And with the internet, the world became flat and small, like a ball. Nowadays, people can have specialized factories create anything they want with the click of a mouse. People can go to college on the internet and speak to professors and learn how to communicate and specialize. People are becoming more independent and specialized as the world becomes smaller. If one wants to survive in this world, one should not run off in a forest and be a cave man, instead, one should should find his part in the civilized network, and play his part to make it work for him.
You say: "I can guarantee that almost nobody in the civilized world has the abilities to be able to survive in solitude in the wilderness for a long periods of time. People nowadays can't make houses, can't create clothes, can't hunt for food, and don't know the difference between an edible plant and a poisonous one."
ReplyDeleteI can see your argument, but can you really guarantee these things? To me, if someone is really forced/chooses to live in isolation, it seems that they would have to adapt or die if that was the situation. I agree that we do depend on one another at times, but I feel if that adaptation takes place where one is in the wilderness, that individual will make-do with what he/she has by learning about their environment and surroundings. That's just a thought.
You make an interesting point about the way globalization is affecting the world and the way people interact in it, but I disagree with the conclusion you came to. I think that rather than becoming more independent and specialized due to enhanced telecommunications and widespread internet availability, people are actually becoming more dependent on technology and are losing skills and experiencing decreased rather than increased specialization.
ReplyDeleteYou say that "civilization is man, and man is civilization", but what do you really mean?
In this individualistic capitalist economy it can be easy to say that people should just find their place in the system, and make it work for them, but that seems to me to be a very one-sided view because it does not take into account those billions of people who are not integrated into the world economy in a way that allows them to take part in that system.