are you all serious?

Here you can discuss anything related to Christopher McCandless.
grendle
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 2:31 pm

are you all serious?

Postby grendle » Mon May 16, 2011 2:46 pm

ya, i used to think the some way the 20 somethings here think. nonconformists. pssht. let me post what sherry simspon posted:

Sherry Simpson, writing in the Anchorage Press, described her trip to the bus with a friend, and their reaction upon reading the comments that tourists had left lauding McCandless as an insightful, Thoreau-like figure:

Astounded by page after page of such writings, we counted the number of people identified in the notebooks. More than 200 had trekked to the bus since McCandless’s death, and that didn’t account for those who passed by without comment. Think of that: More than 200 people, many as inexperienced as McCandless, had hiked or bicycled along the Stampede Trail to the bus — and every one of them had somehow managed to return safely... Among my friends and acquaintances, the story of Christopher McCandless makes great after-dinner conversation. Much of the time I agree with the "he had a death wish" camp because I don’t know how else to reconcile what we know of his ordeal. Now and then I venture into the "what a dumbshit" territory, tempered by brief alliances with the "he was just another romantic boy on an all-American quest" partisans. Mostly I’m puzzled by the way he’s emerged as a hero, a kind of privileged-yet-strangely-dissatisfied-with-his-existence hero.... For many Alaskans, the problem is not necessarily that Christopher McCandless attempted what he did – most of us came here in search of something, didn’t we? Haven’t we made our own embarrassing mistakes? But we can’t afford to take his story seriously because it doesn’t say much a careful person doesn’t already know about desire and survival. The lessons are so obvious as to be laughable: Look at a map. Take some food. Know where you are. Listen to people who are smarter than you. Be humble. Go on out there – but it won’t mean much unless you come back. This is what bothers me – that Christopher McCandless failed so badly, so harshly, and yet so famously that his death has come to symbolize something admirable, that his unwillingness to see Alaska for what it really is has somehow become the story so many people associate with this place, a story so hollow you can almost hear the wind blowing through it. His death was not a brilliant fuck-up. It was not even a terribly original fuck-up. It was just one of the more recent and pointless fuck-ups.[16]

im afraid i would have to agree with her. chris may have been trying to follow a dream, but people do that every day with reasonable success. the reason you dont hear about them is because they dont fuck up as bad as cm did. he wasnt very smart to say the least. he had a caliber weapon in the alaska wilderness which at best is used for killing game no bigger than a squirrel. 10 lbs of rice? how far did that go. i see an arrogant man here, who challenged god, and lost. period. some day, you will all grow up, and agree. or go live in the woods and have a solitary life, dont reproduce, dont be happy, and die there, just like this man did. forget the book and movie, learn the truth. they found a 67 pound corpse of what was once a human being. how is that being a role model? he couldnt even feed himself. pssht. i wish you all luck, but i doubt thats going to help you. god help the human race with moronic thoughts like those that are found on this board. he wasnt jesus, not even close, he WASNT EVEN A MAN. he committed suicide without even knowing it. if you have any integrity you'll leave this post up as a reflection of what many people believe, but dont reply to it, i wont be back here.

JesusIsLove777
Posts: 119
Joined: Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:35 pm

Re: are you all serious?

Postby JesusIsLove777 » Wed May 18, 2011 2:16 pm

well with all respect, i think people can relate to Chris' story because it is a story of a kid fed up wit his conformist, braindead parents who are obsessed with money and their jobs; the story of just leaving it all behind to truly experience the world in all its glory is something that resonates with people. we all love to take that big adventure, and Chris did it. yeah he died, but his few mistakes he made is not the issue, the greatness in him is that he LIVED OUT HIS DREAMS.

Very Few People live out their dreams; Chris truly leave. and no he is nothing like jesus, none of us are. but he is a hell of an inspiration to people, and has helped people (like me, and many others) to find out what truly matters while here on earth, money or your dreams?

Lao Tzu
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri May 20, 2011 8:20 am

Re: are you all serious?

Postby Lao Tzu » Fri May 20, 2011 9:21 am

Grendle obviously does not understand Life.

In life, there is no such thing as failure as long as the individual lives deliberately.

Chris did that.

He was not "an arrogant man, who challenged god, and lost."

He was a man who challenged himself, and won personal insight.

Can Grendle say the same?

Remember, the final destination for all of us is Death. To arrive there without having truly lived and facing ourselves head-on is the greatest sin.

GoNorth
Posts: 259
Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2010 3:47 pm

Re: are you all serious?

Postby GoNorth » Tue May 24, 2011 8:42 pm

@Grendle: Are you sure you're ok?

Of course this man's death was not admirable, but that was just bad luck and not at all the consequence of the life he chose after finishing college.

grendle wrote: he wasnt very smart to say the least. he had a caliber weapon in the alaska wilderness which at best is used for killing game no bigger than a squirrel. 10 lbs of rice? how far did that go.


The rice didn't go that far, indeed, but just see how far McCandless still went after that.

grendle wrote:some day, you will all grow up, and agree.


Grow up? To what age?

grendle wrote:or go live in the woods and have a solitary life, dont reproduce, dont be happy, and die there, just like this man did.


Ok, so these generalizations are really becoming more and more stupid. You think the only way to be happy is to reproduce? And stay away from the woods and never enjoy solitude?
Good luck for you, then. ;)

LoneWolf
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Mar 11, 2011 7:57 am
Location: (currently) The Netherlands

Re: are you all serious?

Postby LoneWolf » Wed May 25, 2011 8:36 am

Lao Tzu wrote:Grendle obviously does not understand Life.

In life, there is no such thing as failure as long as the individual lives deliberately.
Remember, the final destination for all of us is Death. To arrive there without having truly lived and facing ourselves head-on is the greatest sin.


You have definitely seen the world in a much clearer light than Grendle.

And, like GoNorth, I am very interested in some further explanation about your sayings, and the origin of those thoughts inside your mind.
Can you really look upon life and every soul this universal; and assume that reproducing will bring happiness to every soul? Who gave you this knowledge?
Isn't this the ignorance of every dull and idle-soul, in hope to receive happiness, with the result of an overcrowded earth and still worse phychological problems.

I find this behavior very questionable; if one is not happy, he should added more to his life in order to receive this missing happiness? Shouldn't he first find the reason why he's not happy, than to assume that more money, wife, childeren, friends, and the like, will help him find his foundation of happiness. Why can he not be a MAN, and find this for himself, instead of always listening to- and looking upon- his townsman and early-engraved school expierences.

You must have a real close-connection with Him, cause you seem much more certain about the inclinations of life than so many a wise soul did.
Last edited by LoneWolf on Wed May 25, 2011 12:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Nothing is harder to bear than a succession of fair days.

GoNorth
Posts: 259
Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2010 3:47 pm

Re: are you all serious?

Postby GoNorth » Wed May 25, 2011 11:12 am

LoneWolf wrote: if one is not happy, he should added more to his life in order to receive this missing happiness? Shouldn't he first find the reason why he's not happy, than to assume that more money, wife, childeren, friends, and the like, will help him find his foundation of happiness. Why can he not be a MAN, and find this for himself, instead of always listening to- and looking upon-


Right, and the same is true for women, by the way. ;)

LoneWolf
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Mar 11, 2011 7:57 am
Location: (currently) The Netherlands

Re: are you all serious?

Postby LoneWolf » Wed May 25, 2011 12:17 pm

GoNorth wrote:
LoneWolf wrote:Right, and the same is true for women, by the way. ;)


It surely is!

Be as independent, self-reliant, and thereby free, as you should have been in the first place!

"I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labor in. Who made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres, when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? They have got to live a man's life, pushing all these things before them, and get on as well as they can. How many a poor immortal soul have I met well-nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the road of life, pushing before it a barn seventy-five feet by forty, its Augean stables never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land, tillage, mowing, pasture, and woodlot! The portionless, who struggle with no such unnecessary inherited encumbrances, find it labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet of flesh."
Nothing is harder to bear than a succession of fair days.

LoneWolf
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Mar 11, 2011 7:57 am
Location: (currently) The Netherlands

Re: are you all serious?

Postby LoneWolf » Wed May 25, 2011 12:51 pm

The more I read those typical words of Grendle, the more I realize that the world has never been in any worse state than it is today; of course you cannot understand the quest CM toke, you're analysing character and romance with science. The Liberty CM has experienced is Freedom beyond our understandings.
Nothing is harder to bear than a succession of fair days.

vergeetmenietje
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2011 6:10 pm

Re: are you all serious?

Postby vergeetmenietje » Wed May 25, 2011 6:29 pm

I don't think any of us really think of Chris as a "role model".
We don't look up to him like some sort of God.
He was just a normal person who was fed up of people being so materialistic, greedy and obsessed with money. He wanted freedom, he wanted to prove he could live without all the things people want so badly: money and possessions. He wanted to prove he could do it to himself, not to God. As some have already said, he challenged himself, not God. And yes, he went to the extreme.
I believe we can learn a lot of things from Chris's story. That, for example, not everything about the way we live today is great. And we can of course also learn the obvious, which is to be prepared when you travel through nature.
Chris made some mistakes, which in the end led to his death. No, not everything he did was practical or smart. But that's not the important part.

The important part is WHY Chris decided to go of into nature and live without the means we have today.
Not that he misjudged the Alaskan wild in the end. The reason most of us are here is not because of his death. True, we wouldn't be here if Chris hadn't died, but still, that just isn't why we kind of look up to him. The point is that Chris did what he did because he hated people's obsession with money and things, and because he loved nature, and the simple way of living. Right?
And that he lived, for a while, in freedom I (and many others) have never experienced.

Sorry for rambling on like that (and repeating most of what has already been said, bad habit of mine). This is just how I feel about it. So tell me if I'm not making any sense, because that sometimes tends to happen when I feel strongly about something.

And I also ask myself: what, Grendle, was the point in posting if you're not even going to bother to read what other people think and feel about this? You're not gaining anything with this. The only way any of us will learn new things is by listening to what other people think. That's at least what I believe.

GoNorth
Posts: 259
Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2010 3:47 pm

Re: are you all serious?

Postby GoNorth » Thu May 26, 2011 7:51 am

Very well put, vergeetmenietje!


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