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The problem is that you see only two types of people. That's pretty black and white, and there is a whole lot of in between that you aren't seeing.
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Originally Posted by bizcuit
Only these two types of people in the whole world (or even just the US), really? Generalize much?
It has to do with people's priorities. Either you work to live, or you live to work. Most people live to work, and they tend not to be happy when it's all done. Which results in a lot of hostility when they see other people who don't play that game, and are happier than they are.
Personally I admire people like that. It's better to die doing something you love then waste your life doing something you hate. I have found that there are two types of people.
Type 1. Those people go to school, get a good education, or learn a trade. They work 40, 50, 60 hour work weeks their whole life, at a job they hate. If they ever take a vacation, they just stay home and try to rest up before they go back to work. Eventually they retire either in old age or by disability, and spend their days complaining that they never had the chance to do all the things they wanted to do, and visit the places they wanted to visit, and now they are too old to do it. .
Type 2. Those people just don't care about working. They graduate, or they drop out of school, it doesn't matter. They get whatever quick job they can, earn just enough money, then quit and hit the road. When they run out of money, they go back to work, until they earn enough money to travel again.
The people who complain most about type 2 people, are mostly type 1 people who are bitter that they wasted their prime years away, and have very little to show for it. They see type 2 people doing and experiencing all the things they wished they could have done, when they were young.
There are a whole lot more than 2 types of people. You list two opposite ends of the spectrum and ignore all the middle ground. How about people who find a job that inspires them and which they enjoy? They work 40 hours a week, have a nice home and family, and take fun weekend trips and vacations. They have friends and hobbies and perform community service. If they manage their money they can retire early and really travel in style, live the retirement of their dreams, whatever those dreams might be, and die when they reach the end of a natural life span. You forgot about them.
Type 1. Those people go to school, get a good education, or learn a trade. They work 40, 50, 60 hour work weeks their whole life, at a job they hate. If they ever take a vacation, they just stay home and try to rest up before they go back to work. Eventually they retire either in old age or by disability, and spend their days complaining that they never had the chance to do all the things they wanted to do, and visit the places they wanted to visit, and now they are too old to do it. .
Type 2. Those people just don't care about working. They graduate, or they drop out of school, it doesn't matter. They get whatever quick job they can, earn just enough money, then quit and hit the road. When they run out of money, they go back to work, until they earn enough money to travel again.
Baloney. You either haven't lived long enough to see all the other types or refuse to see them. This is just resentful victim's thinking.
As for being inspired by a book, there was one about someone who supposedly did leave everything behind and struck out to live off the land. A young person's classic from 1959; My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. Technically it was fictional, but based on reality. It inspired me profoundly and is partly responsible for the path my feet walked on, but it didn't make me run straight off and die because of willful ignorance and thoughtlessness.
I don't consider lying, cheating, leaving others holding the bag, or stealing along the way self sufficiency either, I consider it self-involved convenient arrogance. He didn't even create his own shelter, he commandeered someone else's. Most people who live off the grid know you don't choose an uninsulated rotted metal anything to live in. There are many people who choose a self-sufficient off-grid lifestyle in AK and do it without taking unfair advantage of others. They educate themselves and gain experience by working with those who know first. There are many long established tried and true ways to live off the land, even in AK. Of course its cruel and unforgiving, so what?
OK, I do know more about some of this because I've spent time in the AK wilds, worked, camped, traveled, and lived off the grid before. Now I take some of that knowledge for granted. The point is, I am humble enough to recognize my own ignorance, my own limitations, and choose to listen and learn from others. There was no need for this fool to die like that. He chose not to bend to reality and paid the price for it. He may have wanted to live carefree but he didn't die carefree did he? He wasn't some martyr, he wasn't particularly heroic. He was a flawed incomplete rather unhappy person who wrote some nice prose. Nor was he some modern day Thoreau. Too self-involved for my taste, putting others through emotional suffering and leaving them to clean up his mess.
Crossing the Teklanika River to visit a "shrine" has little to do with McCandless. OK, maybe crossing a fast moving frigid river on foot gives the visitor some weird sense that they've became heroic; taking risks in the wild and surviving. It's actually a short cut, not even necessary, but it does provide more drama than walking the long way around to reach a bridge that already exists. You know what they say about short cuts.
Last edited by Parnassia; 07-28-2019 at 02:08 PM..
This is very sad. I generally oppose "child proofing" natural or historical landmarks, but wonder if the time has come for the bus to go. Its historical significance is questionable, and seems to attract the unprepared. I have fond childhood memories of playing on the gravel bars of the Teklanika - but even as a child, I knew better than to try crossing the main channels with a swift current.
Regarding Into the Wild: I don't wish to speak ill of the dead, however I also don't understand lionizing someone who was unwilling or unable to coexist with other people in civilized society. Even in Alaska, natural resources are finite, and not free for the taking with no respect for the law.
There are a whole lot more than 2 types of people. You list two opposite ends of the spectrum and ignore all the middle ground. How about people who find a job that inspires them and which they enjoy? They work 40 hours a week, have a nice home and family, and take fun weekend trips and vacations. They have friends and hobbies and perform community service. If they manage their money they can retire early and really travel in style, live the retirement of their dreams, whatever those dreams might be, and die when they reach the end of a natural life span. You forgot about them.
What does "really travel in style" mean? Maybe spend all that money they made on a cruise? Because their health is no longer good enough to do anything else?
I have known people who got sick, and died a year before they were to retire. I know people right now who are 75 or 80 years old, and still working, because they can't afford to retire. And I doubt they would know how to do anything else anyway. Work is all they have ever done.
Which is more tragic? A young person who gets out of school, travels around the world, and dies at age 25 doing something they love, or someone who works their entire life to pay off a student loan, car loan, home loan, only to die a year before their retirement? I say the person who died a year before their retirement. At least the young person got to experience the world, before they died. Not just spending their entire life working.
If you think these sentiments are harsh, share your loving thoughts on the Alaska boards where they've been trying for years to get the bus destroyed or removed.
Alaskans think Chris McCandless was an idiot who in his death, continues to endanger the lives of others. He was illl prepared for his journey and most who try and follow in his footsteps are also ill prepared.
Not only that, he endagers the lives of civil servants who have to go rescue these fools.
This is the best post on here. Kid made a mistake but the movie glamorized his mistake so others are now attempting to recreate his experience.
CRUSH THE BUS so others don't make the mistake and no one will have to rescue them.
If I hear "at least he lived on his terms" one more time I'm gonna retch. The obvious error in that analysis is he DIDN'T live -- he DIED on Nature's terms because he was too arrogant to recognize or respect the forces infinitely larger and more powerful than him that were not about to meet him on "his" terms. He COULD HAVE lived life largely on his terms if he'd been humble enough to learn what it would take to do it.
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Originally Posted by rstevens62
Look at this way, we are talking about this guy, but how likely is it that someone 30 yrs from when I die, that I will have internet forum threads dedicated to myself, or a movie made about my life?
If the price for internet fame is to die at 24 for no good reason.... count me out.
I made many stupid and dangerous decisions in my young life. it would be hypocritical of me to criticize this young woman's choice. I was lucky. I didn't die from my bad decisions. it is sad and unfortunate she did die because of her choice. Most of us did not die when we made bad, dangerous, youthful decisions....our good luck.
Last edited by texan2yankee; 07-28-2019 at 03:22 PM..
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