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America’s hiking culture is built on ego (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by to c/solarpunk@slrpnk.net
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Outdoor recreation often slips into what I call an achievement-based relationship with nature. I’ve been guilty of it myself. Whether it’s “bagging peaks”, racing to finish the AT, or stamping the land with machines and monuments, the focus shifts from ecology to ego.

Being obsessed with Peak Bagging is not Solarpunk.

Nature is not your personal obstacle to challenge yourself against, it is a shared place of discovery you trample when you only see it as a place to endlessly, exhaustingly conquer.

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[–] [S] -5 points 5 months ago* (5 children)

I do the things I do because going on epic, challenging missions is personally meaningful and memorable to me, requires me to challenge myself and see how I can overcome those challenges

Again you have explained your relationship with nature as almost entirely about you and your experience.

You can enjoy the sunshine in your local city park by sitting on a bench. Or you can play soccar with your friends. Neither way of interacting with nature is “wrong”

Both of those things are very different than participating in a culture of needing to conquer nature to prove yourself.

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  • [–] 11 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    Again you have explained your relationship with nature as almost entirely about you and your experience.

    And you are describing listening to crickets - which is all about you and your cricket-listening experience.

    Both of those things are very different than participating in a culture of needing to conquer nature to prove yourself.

    I could easily say that the people playing soccer are doing so to fulfill their ego goal of "conquoring" the other team and proving themselves. But if I did, the people who showed up to have fun playing soccer with their friends would look at me weird.

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  • [+] [S] -8 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    And you are describing listening to crickets - which is all about you and your cricket-listening experience.

    No it is about me and the crickets, it is about placing the value of witnessing over the value of conquering something with my body. The latter is inherently more selfish than the former.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    value of witnessing

    Witnessing is an experience. That's your experience. You are conquoring the desire to interact with nature, fulfilling your ego goal of passive acceptance.

    I joke - but really, go to a hiking trail sometime and tell all the people who show up to hike they are all selfish and egotistical for wanting to hike the whole trail instead of just stopping whenever the mood strikes them and going home. I feel like if you were to actually talk to people about these views, you would realize how weird you sound very quickly

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  • [–] [S] -4 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Witnessing is an experience. That's your experience. You are conquoring the desire to interact with nature, fulfilling your ego goal of passive acceptance.

    What a tortured twisting of my words, of course witnessing is an experience, it is an experience that brings you outside yourself unlike a physical battle with the limits of your body that draws you inward.

    I joke - but really, go to a hiking trail sometime and tell all the people who show up to hike they are all selfish and egotistical for wanting to hike the whole trail instead of just stopping whenever the mood strikes them and going home.

    Why would I do that?

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago

    Why would I do that?

    Because it would be an experience that brings you outside yourself, giving you the opportunity to directly witness the beauty of the human experience through others' point of view.

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