you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]StillLessons 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

I didn't watch this video, but I'm familiar with McCandless's story.

McCandless was the child of a control-freak alcoholic. Look into the accounts of his sister (still living, I believe). Many people are "inspired" by his story because there are countless numbers of very unhappy people in the world. When I was younger (and deeply unhappy), I too saw inspiration in his story. It's an expression of an honest rejection of our world. At least McCandless was consistent with the absolute nature of his rejection of our society.

I have since found happiness and meaning in life, and as such, I'm sorry McCandless didn't live long enough to discover more deeply the roots of his pain. He was a bright kid, but he got lost in that pain. This is a very common trait within addictive systems.

So rather than thinking of them as "idiots" (being at one time just such an idiot myself), I think of them as deeply unhappy souls. In truth, we are all idiots more than 90% of the time. I know I am still regularly, daily (every day) an idiot. Finding that 10% of beauty we have within us, though, can make all the difference in whether we think there is any hope at all with continuing this weird journey each of us passes through during our brief existence on this plane.

[–]Chipit[S] 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (2 children)

He went into the wilderness with no supplies and no plan of how he was going to live. He starved to death, and won a Darwin Award doing it. The locals in Alaska regard him (rightly) as a total idiot who could have ended no other way.

If you want to reject the world and live in the wilderness - fine! People do it. They just learn how to survive first, and then bring supplies and the tools needed. And they walk before they run. Alaska is a challenge even for experienced natives. McCandless did none of this and predictably died quickly.

The really stupid part is that people started trekking out to the bus where he died as some kind of macabre tourist attraction. Then these people started dying because they went out into the wilderness unprepared! The Alaska State Guard eventually helicoptered the bus away to stop them from killing themselves or requiring expensive rescues.

[–]StillLessons 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

What's your point?

Deeply unhappy people will throw their lives away in lots of ways. Is what these people have done greater idiocy than the people who die on the streets of the city with various chemicals in their systems?

I've been friends with a bunch of addicts, some active, some in recovery. Talk to the addicts in recovery and get their stories, and you will hear stories of idiocy that are beyond insane. Why did they survive while others died? They don't know. They're quite consistent on that. Some of those people go on to live truly remarkable and productive lives.

McCandless was one of the ones who died. That was his lot in life. But the fact that he died doing something no more stupid than things many people have done and inexplicably survived doesn't convince me of much except that we continue not to understand how or why this universe gives us the things it does, and to whom it decides to offer them.

I did remarkably stupid things when I was younger. Now I don't do them anymore. Which person am I? The person from then or the person today?

[–]Chipit[S] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

What's your point?

Darwin Award winners don't usually receive such a vociferous defense. Usually everyone has a good laugh at the moron and moves on.

Deeply unhappy people will throw their lives away in lots of ways.

And for some reason there were a lot of people who really really loved this man and his complete unpreparedness to go out into a hostile wilderness without any training or equipment. They made a movie about him, for chrissake.

The real hero in this story was the electrician, who tried to help by offering to drive him into town to buy supplies for him with his own money. Ended up giving him the boots off his feet instead when McCandless refused(!) Did he get a movie made about him? Hell no.